Patterico's Pontifications

3/20/2006

Volokh on Nonsencial L.A. Times Op-Ed on Claude Allen and Race

Filed under: Dog Trainer,Race — Patterico @ 7:36 pm



I’m losing my touch, folks — but it’s due to weariness. I saw Erin Aubry Kaplan’s nonsensical op-ed arguing that Claude Allen may have committed his penny-ante crimes because of the pressure he felt, you know, from being a sellout Uncle Tom house Negro rationalizer of racism — i.e. a black conservative.

Yes, I read the piece — and didn’t post on it. I just sighed, rolled my eyes, and moved on.

Luckily, Eugene Volokh has some choice things to say about it.

13 Responses to “Volokh on Nonsencial L.A. Times Op-Ed on Claude Allen and Race”

  1. You were right to pass on it the first time, Patterico. I read two or three paragraphs (of Kaplan’s article trash) and had to stop. It’s mental pollution.

    nk (77d95e)

  2. Kaplan is a very strong candidate to win the Robert Scheer Award as the most ridiculous columnist in the Times. Sure, she has stiff competition from Michael Hiltzik, Tim Rutten, Bill Plaschke, Jonathan Chait, and the always unreadable Rosa Brooks, but Kaplan is off to a nice start this year.

    JVW (1274d0)

  3. Kaplan’s just guessing and it isn’t too bad as psychobabble goes. He’s basically saying that Allen supposed himself so powerful that he was above the law. That’s not too far fetched, is it? As for his subconscious goading him to commit theft, I’m not so sure about that one.

    I still don’t see how a black person can be conservative. James L. Hart, an openly racist republican, recently ran for congress in Tennessee and received 59,000 votes! http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=EUGENICS-GOP-03-07-06&cat=PP

    Psyberian (9eb2a7)

  4. That’s like saying one doesn’t see how wealthy people can be democrats because democrats want higher taxes, or like how women can’t be Republicans because the GOP is anti-abortion.

    Also note that the party, according to that article, were intent on kicking him out of it, and off the ballot. Meanwhile, Lyndon LaRouche continues to sport the (D) every four years in his quixotic runs for the presidency.

    I fail to see what any of these things prove.

    Angry Clam (a7c6b1)

  5. I can’t find the WSJ editorial that came out at the time, but it basically expressed (mostly preemptive) indignation at the snickering Allen’s arrest would cause – not so much for racial reasons as due to his reliance on strict moralism as the basis for policy. They were pretty intent on not seeing a moral about moralism as public policy, or even any hint of irony, in Allen’s demise. Their line was simply that it was a “tragedy”, end of story.

    But it’s not actually a tragedy, and the WSJ’s characterization of it that way is based on the precise racial angle it pretends contains no lessons whatsoever – especially given the rhetoric of accountability prevalent on the right. It’s bad behavior, not King Lear.

    What part of Kaplan’s statement here is really in dispute? (I am not signing on to his whole spiel though):
    Fast-track people such as Allen are praised by conservatives for being shining examples of their race, and, at the same time, they are used in one way or another for public relations purposes and damage control during racially charged moments.

    While his overt argument is that blacks are compromising themselves to be republicans, isn’t there a hint too that republicans have taken some risks in bending over backwards to promote blacks within their ranks in their quest for a patina of inclusiveness?

    biwah (f5ca22)

  6. Actually, I guess it was the charge, not the arrest, that happened a few weeks ago and set off the media attention.

    biwah (f5ca22)

  7. While his overt argument is that blacks are compromising themselves to be republicans, isn’t there a hint too that republicans have taken some risks in bending over backwards to promote blacks within their ranks in their quest for a patina of inclusiveness?

    Biwah, attitudes like yours are part of the reason that Republicans and conservatives can never get a fair shake in this regard. When republicans put blacks in high-profile positions liberals assume it is to create “a patina of inclusiveness,” and when they don’t appoint blacks to these types of positions liberals say it is indicitative of their racism. It’s a neat trick you guys pull, having it both ways like that. It must gall the Erin Aubrey Kaplans of the world that the Bush Administration has placed more qualified African-Americans in positions of power than any Democratic Adminstration ever did.

    Then again, maybe the pressure of being an unqualified woman minority columnist quota hire is causing Ms. Kaplan (and check the website, folks, Kaplan is a her) to write such drek.

    JVW (1274d0)

  8. She’s just being used by the liberals.

    Patterico (de0616)

  9. Clam, LaRouche will never become the President. He’s not a contender. Most people don’t even know who he is. But Hart received 25% of the vote. David Duke was also worryingly popular. Except for possibly the eccentric LaRouche, history shows in the last 30 years that racists almost invariably run on the republican ticket.

    Psyberian (dd13d6)

  10. “…racists almost invariably run on the republican ticket.”

    Hogwash. Robert KKK Byrd is a Democrat Senator and has been for quite some time. Democrats opposed the 1964 Civil Rights act. If it wasn’t for Republicans the legislation would not have become law.

    Trying to pin the “racist” label on Republicans is inaccurate, wrong, disingenuous, and contemptible.

    Black Jack (d8da01)

  11. Trying to pin the “racist” label on Republicans is inaccurate, wrong, disingenuous, and contemptible.

    Both “inaccurate” AND “wrong,” then, is it?

    Of course we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today if we’d elected ol’ Strom Thurmond back in ’48.

    Who oversaw the racist 2000 South Carolina smear campaign against Sen. John McCain, which alluded to McCain’s “black child,” who actually is an adopted daughter from Bangladesh?

    White racists used to be mostly Democrats, who hated Lincoln-style Republicans forcing Reconstruction on them after the Civil War. But most of those have left the Democratic Party for the friendlier confines of the Republican fold where they don’t have to rub elbows at multi-cultural Democratic functions that contrast with Republican events like black and white keys on a piano.

    steve (56739f)

  12. Southern racists may poll ok in some Republican districts, but nothing is more lamentable than the fact that a pimp like Al Sharpton was taken seriously as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2004. It got so bad that John Kerry had to pretend that Sharpton would be worthy of consideration as a potential Vice-President nominee. The race hustler industry has a much tighter grip on the Democrats than the bigots will ever have on the Republicans.

    JVW (1274d0)

  13. The highest ranking African American in Clinton’s Administration was his secretary, and he pimped her to sneak Monica into the White House.

    Democrats only cozy up to African Americans at election time, but then treat them like house servants once the votes have been counted.

    Oh, Democrat politicians pretend to care about African Americans, they talk the talk, but Democrats come up short when it comes to having one move in and function in an important position in government. The record speaks for itself.

    Black Jack (d8da01)


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