Meet the New Discrete and Insular Minority

Last week, in reference to columns by Ross Douthat and Senator Jim Webb, I wondered why poor whites are now at the center of our collective concerns (as maybe they should be).  I think that it came to me while staring at a beautiful rock, running away from a bear, or maybe going up a fourteener.  This is a story about Grover Norquist, our derision for paying taxes, and the Roberts Court.

Be warned: the air was quite thin.

Jim Webb on Race, Preferences, and -- Surprise, Surprise -- Poor Whites

This is a good week to be a poor white.  Elites are coming to their defense in the pages not only of the New York Times, but the Wall Street Journal as well. The latest salvo came from Senator Jim Webb, who argues that racial preferences might be appropriate for blacks and their descendants, but not all persons of color, many of whom have not suffered through the same history of discrimination.  He argues that this is particularly unfair when you consider that these advantages exact a cost on whites, who are not a "fungible monolith.".  In essence, and parroting Ross Douthat's earlier column in the Times, Senator Webb argues that poor whites are the ones who end up shouldering the costs of granting special preferences for undeserving non-whites.

A picture speaks a thousand words:

This makes me very curious.  None of the things the Senator writes about are new.  Not one.  Why then, does he felt compelled to have a staffer -- after reading the piece, I can only hope it was a staffer who wrote it, and not a sitting U.S. Senator -- write such a piece?  Was it the Shirley Sherrod debacle, coupled with the Skip Gates's controversy and the recent accusations of racism by the NAACP against the Tea Party?  Was it Matt Bai's contention in the Times that race is "still too hot to touch"? I don't have an answer.

I only have more questions.