THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

NORTH KOREA, IRAQ AND CIVIL RIGHTS | 2002-10-26

I wish I had a nickel for every older Yankee who has said to me, "Well, I supported civil rights at first, but it's gone too far." That is the fundamental principle of neoconservatives, which is the only group allowed to speak for conservatives on race-related issues.

We evil reactionary extremists told those dumbasses in the 1950s that you can't have basic civil rights legislation because it simply cannot stop there. This is, like most political truths, unacceptable, evil, naziswhowanttokillsixmillionjews, lacking in compassion and just plain unShrewd.

But it's true.

We Evil Reactionaries said in the 1950's that if you withdrew the old racist national origins requirements from our immigration law, we would be swamped by third world immigration.

True Intellectuals laughed out loud at us.

Reactionary predictions the last two generations were almost always perfectly accurate. The Shrewd conservative predictions are never right any more than are the predictions of the liberals respectable conservatives appeal to.

I wish I had a nickel for every conservative who told me that third world immigration was great because those colored people were pouring in to take advantage of the American Way. They would, insisted every single such Shrewd conservative, vote Republican.

No, I am not joking. Every conservative used to look me straight in the eye and say third world immigrants would vote conservative. Did you miss Bush's Mexican Convention in 2000?

Nobody will take conservatives seriously as long as they are Shrewd. It fools them but to everybody else it looks as silly as it is.