> Having won the battle on race, the right
> now feels empowered to wage battles
> for religion and against workers.
This is an interesting take, and I think Brian has said in another way what I've been trying to say, which is that racism is the background assumption and all-important lynchpin of the "backlash." I argue it will be the most pernicious evil to extirpate IDEOLOGICALLY because it has the deepest MATERIAL roots among millions of "rank- and-file" whites. Once again, think of how many of the debates around housing and access to higher education (not to mention primary education!) are structured by white assumptions of entitlement.
It's not only a matter of people displaying "racist attitudes" "when pressed." It's that racism is the background assumption, and it runs so deep in "backlash" thinking that it isn't questioned at all, which is why it provokes the most strident reaction from right-wingers of any issue when it is brought up.
For example, anyone who says that "affirmative action is reverse discrimination" is a racist. It doesn't matter that they no longer justify their racism -- at least openly -- with reference to the idea that nonwhites are less than human. The idea that white supremacy has been overcome and that white men are now "persecuted" is a racist idea. And it has millions of adherents -- an overwhelming majority, if not unanimty, among rank- and-file "backlash" voters.
- - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs!