Many people were taken by surprise by the rather harsh treatment of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) dished out by The New Republic in its cover story this week. (See featured image.)
John Hinderaker hits the nail on the head: Walker is being smeared as a potential 2016 GOP nominee in the worst way possible by The New Republic. The Left is now using the mere fact of someone being “white” or “conservative” as analogous to racism.
What we see here is one more attempt to convince voters that it is “racist” to be a conservative. Governor Walker has turned a state deficit into a surplus, lowered taxes, reformed education, and returned power to the people rather than corrupt, coercive public sector unions. What on Earth is “racist” about that? Nothing, of course. People of all races benefit from clean, efficient government and lower taxes.I often hear it said that people are intimidated because they are afraid of being called “racists.” Can this possibly be true? One wouldn’t think so. At least 99% of the time, the Democrats’ charges of “racism” relate to matters that have nothing whatever to do with race. That being the case, the Democrats’ claims should be met with scorn, derision, contempt, laughter. Their huffing and puffing about race is obviously a symptom of a party that is intellectually bankrupt and morally depraved. It is time to punch back twice as hard.
Despite the headline, the topics of racial strife or Walker’s “whiteness” are barely mentioned throughout the TNR piece. The piece collection of interviews with Wisconsin political players who have either a strong like or dislike of Gov. Walker. It is “guilt-by-association and anecdote” of the worst order.
TNR’s Alec MacGillis discusses the same type of urban flight of the middle class from urban Milwaukee as has happened in every single large city across the United States since the 1970s. The red/blue map of Milwaukee versus its outlying counties is not much different than Atlanta, Philadelphia or Austin. This has nothing to do with Walker being “white.” It is a national trend that has always been in an ebb and flow.
Furthermore, a landmark Pew survey came out just last week illustrating that all of America has become much more polarized since the end of the 1990s.
Viewed broadly, the results of the Pew survey suggest that the two political parties are increasingly becoming two entirely different nations — and warring nations at that. Politics has become personal, and vice versa. Common ground in either of those spheres looks like a quaint relic of the past.
Walker’s “whiteness” has nothing to do with his electoral win any more than Ted Cruz’s “Hispanicness” vaulted him into the Senate.
Touching the electrifying rail of racial politics and imposing it on Scott Walker seems nothing more than a stunt by TNR’s new leadership. TNR has always been left-of-center, but its new publisher — Chris Hughes — has much more invested in Democratic politics than his predecessors. Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook, is now bankrolling his husband’s campaign to capture a Congressional district in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Ironically, Hughes claimed he wanted TNR to get back to basics when he took the helm last year.
The journalism in these pages will strive to be free of party ideology or partisan bias, although it will showcase passionate writing and will continue to wrestle with the primary questions about our society. Our purpose is not simply to tell interesting stories, but to always ask why these stories matter and tie their reporting back to our readers. We hope to discern the hidden patterns, to connect the disparate facts, and to find the deeper meaning, a layer of understanding beyond the daily headlines.
Yet the Walker hit piece is personal, hyperbolic, mean-spirited and misleading.
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