From The "If a Conservative Said It" Files

In today's New York Times (no link for the primary propaganda arm of the DNC) Ross Douthat makes one of the most hideously racist/bigoted screeds against Mitt Romney I've seen in a while.  That even the NYT would publish this filth is disgusting.

That's a high bar to set, so let me go about proving it.

Imagine a Republican saying the following line- maybe Trent Lott:

"Michelle Obama was not born into Muslim/Indonesian Culture, but she's a quasi-Muslim by birth and breeding, and her marriage to Barack Obama clearly united like with like. ("I was into Black Liberation Theology, he was reared a Muslim," she said Tuesday night, straining to make an affinity sound like an impediment.)"

Outrageous, yes?  We'd be hearing cries of racism for weeks.  Well, here's the actual quote.

"Ann Romney was not born into Mormon culture, but she's a quasi-WASP by birth and breeding, and her marriage to Mitt Romney clearly united like with like. ("I was Episcopalian, he was a Mormon," she said Tuesday night, straining to make an affinity sound like an impediment.)"

Now, first, this shows a profound misunderstanding of the strains that can be put on a relationship between couples of different Christian denominations.  While we have much more in common with each other than we have in conflict, those areas of conflict can be, and often are, highly divisive.  When you look at the difference between Mormonism and the Episcopal Church, that only gets worse.

More importantly, I find it odd that Mr. Douthat finds it so necessary to remind us that the Romneys are WASPs (that would be "White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant" for the uninitiated).  He mentions the word WASP in some form at least three times.  He also gets in a gratuitous nod to Mormonism's history of polygamy.

I can't help but ask what his reaction would be if someone mentioned either the Islamic heritage under which Barack Obama was reared, or his embrace of Black Liberation Theology under Reverend Wright so gratuitously in a column.  I can't help but wonder what his reaction would be to someone pointing out that Mr. Obama's own father was a polygamist.

And, of course, the point is exactly what Liberals accused Conservatives of in 2008, attempting to paint Mitt Romney as "the other," and "not like us."  Even the title of the piece "The Case for Noblesse Oblige" is supposed to evoke imagery of an aristocracy ruling over "the little people," not a representative government which serves them. 

As we often point out at the Ace of Spades HQ (link in sidebar), anything of which a Liberal accuses a Conservative is usually projection, and this is no different.  It is Liberals who believe in Neo-Feudalism, with little fiefs ruled by an unaccountable bureaucracy (I won't say "aristocracy").  It is Liberals who believe we are subjects to be ruled over, and not citizens to be governed.  And it is Liberals who believe race, or gender, or religion define a person, and not the choices they make and principles they hold.