This is a war that, unfortunately, in the most enlightened nation ever is going to wind up being fought on racial and ethnic lines. No good American wants that, but it is inevitable. The Left lives for race-consciousness; they are obsessed with it. There are two Americas now: The Guilty and The Unguilty. And they are about to collide, bigtime. Those who live on and feed on guilt--the white liberal is the classic case; the media white liberal is the ultimate expression--are going to face off with the people who never owned slaves and never oppressed minorities and never wanted to. When Obama pushes ahead with amnesty, and he will, he will have told "White America" they are history. Behind the professorial demeanor lies a man for whom race isn't everything, it's the only thing. Health care reform is part of that, and nationalizing industries is nothing more than part of the Great Leveling that in the end is about eliminating what the sophists like to call "disparate impact." I would like to be optimistic about how this can all be resolved honorably and intelligently, but I admit it's hard to see a good outcome. America will be told they are racists if they reject an amnesty, and they will be told that by racists themselves. At some point whites will have a choice, embrace the term, with all that might imply, or surrender. Ugly choice. My wager is that the former happens, and an ultra-rightwing political party arises with a vengeance (same thing's happening in Europe now). This will be an unfortunate but inevitable part of the grim dialectic.
