I'm White so I must have worked really hard on this blog entry....

So hard-working White Americans voted for Clinton last night.

What I find increasingly repugnant about the entire Clinton enterprise is not so much that she is willing to practice racially divisive politics. This should be no surprise. After all, her husband, the so-called "first Black President," made an art of this. (A random attack on the rapper Sister Souljah, reactionary approaches to social justice programs, a racially inspired crime bill, etc.)

What is most salient to me is her willingness to drop any pretenses and just go for it outright. The Republicans have been "playing the race card" since emancipation; appealing to white voters by invoking terrifying spectacles of scary Negroes. But in recent decades this has been done primarily in code:

"Welfare mothers."
"Law and order."
"Tough on crime."
"Ending welfare as we know it."
"Three strikes laws."
"Willie Horton."
"Macaca."

Clinton, however, doesn't even seem to need to hide behind coded language anymore.
She came right out and said that she is appealing to "hard-working White Americans."
Now this could just be stupidity. Republicans would have known that it is enough to say "hard-working" in that context and their base will get it. But Clinton is obviously not a stupid person. You don't get all those degrees from elite universities if you are that dumb. Even if you did kill some brain cells swigging down beer with your Grandpa as he taught you how to shoot small animals like a real American.

It could have been fatigue. She might not have meant to make the connection so explicit. It might have just slipped out. Freud would have loved to analyze the things politicians say when they are exhausted. And, after all, sometimes a cigar really is a phallus.

But I think the real answer is that she just doesn't care anymore. I think she has fully embraced an old-school style of in-your-face racist politics. I wonder which state might respond to "segregation today, segregation tommorow, segregation forever"? If she thought it would get her a few more delegates she might be willing to dust it off. Hey, it worked in West Virginia.