The importance of race and gender in the current US presidential campaign has, of course, been a function of the salience of racism and sexism—which is to say, discrimination—in American society; a fact that was emphasized by post-primary stories like the New York Times’s ‘Age Becomes the New Race and Gender’.1 It is no doubt difficult to see ageism as a precise equivalent—after all, part of what is wrong with racism and sexism is that they supposedly perpetuate false stereotypes whereas, as someone who has just turned 60, I can attest that a certain number of the stereotypes that constitute ageism are true. But the very implausibility of the idea that the main problem with being old is the prejudice against your infirmities, rather than the infirmities themselves, suggests just how powerful discrimination has become as the model of injustice in America; and so how central overcoming it is to our model of justice.From this standpoint, the contest between Obama and Clinton was a triumph, displaying, as it did, both the great strides made toward the goal of overcoming racism and sexism, and the great distance still to go towards that goal. It made it possible, in other words, to conceive of America as a society headed in the right direction but with a long road to travel. The attraction of this vision—not only to Americans but around the world—is obvious. The problem is that it is false. -Walter Benn Micheals, Against Diversity
- Dean Baker on how we musn't be confusing the credit crunch with the recession. We have so many problems on so many fronts that even the Washington Post is wondering if "capitalism" is "dead."
- DLC Chair (la-di-da!) Harold Ford on McCain's full descent into Lee Atwater mode, and Ben Smith on the right-wing base's unwillingness to come back from the "mysterious" frame Palin et. al. have sought to set around BHO.
- Ezra Klein explaining why, despite all, I will miss being part of the vertically-integrated Kaiser Permanente "system."
- Good to see some actual sane people speaking up for ACORN, btw. If you're wondering what the Right's problem is, let me explain: ACORN have registered 1.3million poor people to vote. That's just not what the GOP is in to.
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