Liberal historian blames Democratic election repudiation on racism

By Tom Quiner

The New Republic magazine is the liberal counterpoint to the National Review.

I happened upon an article they published yesterday titled, “Beyond Hope” where they assessed Barack Obama’s legacy.

The article interviewed five historians to get their views. Here was their set up:

Let’s start with the seismic political reversal that just took place. It’s hard to imagine a bigger shift for America than going from Barack Obama to Donald Trump. The two of them are polar opposites in almost every regard. But now, instead of seeing his legacy cemented, Obama faces the prospect of having his major accomplishments undone. How much responsibility do you think that he himself bears for creating the conditions that allowed Trump to get elected? In retrospect, are there things he could or should have done to protect and institutionalize his agenda more?

Here is how the first historian, Nell Irvin Painter, responded:

Nell Irvin Painter

“I don’t think it has anything to do with him personally, except that he’s a black man. The election of Trump was a gut-level response to what many Americans interpreted as an insult eight years ago, and have been seething against ever since. The only way you can see Trump as somehow Obama’s fault is Obama’s very being. It’s ontological.”

So despite the fact that Mr. Obama exceeded the percentage of the white vote that Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, and George McGovern received, and despite the fact that he received the same percentage of the white vote as Bill Clinton, Ms. Painter suggests the recent election is a reflection of racism.

She goes further, suggesting with her Phd word, ontological, that a racist philosophy is the root cause of the country’s revulsion towards the Democrats.

It never dawns on liberal elites like Ms. Painter, that things like economic stagnation, government corruption under the Obama watch, and one foreign policy failure after another has something with to do with Democrats’ fourth straight shellacking at the polls dating back to 2010.

For the record, since Obama’s election in 2008, Democrats have lost some 10% of Senate seats; lost 19% of House seats; lost 20% of state legislatures; and lost 35% of governorships … despite the fact that Obama remains personally popular.

May I make an outlandish suggestion? Perhaps policy failure has something to do with it?

Just a thought, m’am, and please don’t call me a racist for suggesting it.