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Today's Washington Post has an article about the racism that Obama workers experienced in central Pennsylvania and West Virginia. I grew up in Altoona, Pennsylvania, have continually returned to visit for thirty years, in fact visited there two weeks ago, and unscientifically will attest to the fact that a majority of white folk there are racist. Not as many of them use the "N" word as they did when I was growing up -- instead, they talk about how Obama is a Muslim, or how he is elitist (a code word for uppity). No one needs to write off Pennsylvania or West Virginia, but you can't pretend that there isn't serious ignorance and bigotry among the poorly educated, provincial, and yes, bitter and resentful working class white people of those states who have been left behind in the contemporary economy. The question is what to do about it. I wish Obama would have gone after Clinton for her race baiting, and challenged the voters of West Virginia to overcome their prejudice -- much as JFK did in 1960, except that that isn't exactly the parallel. But to claim that there is an elitism among Obama supporters, as Joan Walsh claims, because they are frustrated by this hate, is simply blaming the victims of bigotry. Of course people voted for Hillary for good reasons, but she herself encouraged people to vote for her for bad reasons too, which is shameful, and hopefully will keep her off of the Democratic ticket come the end of this.
