Bob Herbert, and no pay wall:

The Ugly Side of the G.O.P.

Just too, too easy:

There's another side?

[rimshot, laughter]

Herbert's best find is an Atwater quote:

“You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger,’ ” said Atwater. “By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.”

True, but as the not-rich slowly sink toward universal slave wage status, the economic stuff will level out. Hence, I suppose, the importance of the culture wars. After all, "Gay, gay, gay" is at least as vicious as "nigger, nigger, nigger" even if, thank the God(ess)(e)(s) Of Your Choice, it's not working out so well for them.

But here's the bottom line, and it's good news, bad news:

Blacks have been remarkably quiet about this sustained mistreatment by the Republican Party, which says a great deal about the quality of black leadership in the U.S. It’s time for that passive, masochistic posture to end.

Yep. Sounds like the black elite is just as fucked as the rest of the elite. Because, if I understand Jena 6 aright, it was organized from ground up, and the elites didn't drive it at all.

So, while it's pleasant to know that all the courtiers in Versailles on the Potomac aren't pink, Herbert could have done his readers a real service by introducing them to the organizers who rallied for the Jena 6.

Eh?

UPDATE From the Department of Well, Er..., Big Media Matt on Atwater:

Now that said, Herbert's more recent examples of "sustained mistreatment by the Republican Party" of black people mostly involve efforts to prevent black people from voting, which I'm fairly sure they do for purely partisan reasons than out of racism as such.

Well, er....