Blow the Dog Whistle Slowly

Shot: Chaser: When I tweeted that Drudge cover earlier (Andrew Sullivan beat me to it), there was immediate, similar-sounding pushback from conservatives about how only a racist could think the photo choice was racist. To believe that, you have to ignore the facts that 1) black Americans are over-represented in government jobs and that 2) black Americans are disproportionately seen as the beneficiaries of government largesse. Both are problems for conservatives, most of whom genuinely believe that the Great Society has weakened black America by making it dependent on the government, and who have to rebut cries of “racism” whenever they try to reform this. Just as big a problem, for liberals, is that “more government spending” is easily seen as “your money going to people who aren’t like you, who are lazy.” I’m thinking of the viral 2008 videos in which dippy voters, all black, expected Barack Obama to take care of their lives.