Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Bill Kristol Denies Racism Problem In America

Can this guy get more wrong about the pulse of America (not to mention getting his facts straight in general)? Bill Kristol is one of the premier mouthpieces of the neo-con establishment and he personifies them with the utmost perfection. Their ideas about how to make our country go backward prosper are so out of whack that I swear Donald Duck would do a better job. Recently he tried to say that there is no problem when it comes to racism and America. Well Mr. Kristol, like you views on most things, you are completely and utterly wrong.

From The Nation:

Preeminent neocon and newly-minted New York Times columnist Bill Kristol embarrassed himself last week by incorrectly stating that Barack Obama was present for one of Jeremiah Wright's fiery sermons and for neglecting to mention that his information came from the notoriously untrustworthy right-wing tabloid, Newsmax.com.

Now Kristol has embarrassed himself again this week by stating, in the wake of Obama's speech on race, that racism is not really a problem in America. "The last thing we need now is a heated national conversation about race," Kristol writes. "Racial progress has in fact continued in America. A new national conversation about race isn't necessary to end what Obama calls the 'racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years' -- because we're not stuck in such a stalemate."

Kristol provides no empirical evidence to back up such an ignorant claim. He fails to mention, for instance, that 50 percent of African-American men in New York City were unemployed as of 2004; or that 1 in 10 black men in their 20s are behind bars; or that more than half of all black men in inner cities do not finish high school; or that the subprime lending crisis is considered to be "the greatest loss of wealth for people of color in modern US history," according to United for a Fair Economy.


See, Kristol doesn't care about those problems. That apathy goes to heart of the problem I (along with many others) have with the neo-conservatives. For them, the only thing that matters is what looks back at them in the mirror. They can not see that helping their fellow Americans is what helps all of us, and consequently the heartless neo-con as well. We can point out all the facts about racism and the effects it has produced over the last three and a half centuries in America, but it will not faze people like Kristol. To Billy boy, Wolfowitz, etc all that counts is themselves. I'd love for someone to get through to them, but for now I'm thankful they are losing their power in American politics and will soon be relegated to fringe status as they were before Ronald Reagan started winning elections back in the 1960s.