National Review dude Reihan Salam, who, I confess, often makes a good deal of sense, comes a cropper in his defense of Rowdy Rick Perry at “The Daily” here. Salam argues, loosely* but reasonably, that Perry’s record in Texas shows no hint of racism. Salam does concede that American conservatives tend to be awfully, well, “white,” a phenomenon that he explains as follows:
One thing that is undeniably true is that American conservatives are overwhelmingly white in a country that is increasingly less so. As the number of Latinos and Asian-Americans has increased in coastal states like California, New York and New Jersey, many white Americans from these regions have moved inland or to the South. For at least some whites, particularly those over the age of 50, there is a sense that the country they grew up in is fading away, and that Americans with ancestors from Mexico or, as in my case, Bangladesh don’t share their religious, cultural and economic values. These white voters are looking for champions, for people who are unafraid to fight for the America they remember and love. It’s unfair to call this sentiment racist. But it does help explain at least some of our political divide.
So Rick Perry appeals to those who want a champion to fight for the America they remember and love, Reihan? And what America was that? One without “foreigners,” that’s what you’re saying. One that was white. Well, Reihan, I hope you stay here. But, according to you, American conservatives wish you would leave. As a liberal Democrat, I struggle with a shitload of cognitive dissonance on a daily basis. But I suspect that you’ve got me beat.
*Salam says that “The Dallas and Houston metropolitan areas have seen a huge influx of black families from big cities in the north and west, due in part to the low cost of living and strong employment prospects,” but then goes on to note that blacks constitute 11.8 percent of the population of Texas, compared to 12.6 percent nationally. Since Texas was once one third black (before the vast Hispanic immigration began), one has to wonder just how “huge” the influx has been.
