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Politico: “The salience of hitting Democrats on the subject of race was discussed privately by GOP strategists on the sidelines of a Republican National Committee dinner in California last week, and again at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association last week in Aspen, Colo., according to multiple people who attended those events.”
Said GOP strategist Curt Anderson: “This is not a close call. This is ‘Defund the Police’ 2.0.”
Associated Press: “It was 11:30 a.m. on March 19, 2015, and the klansmen were celebrating what they thought was a successful murder in Florida. But the FBI had gotten wind of the murder plot. A confidential informant had infiltrated the group, and his recordings provide a rare, detailed look at the inner workings of a modern klan cell and a domestic terrorism probe.”
“That investigation would unearth another secret: An unknown number of klansmen were working inside the Florida Department of Corrections, with significant power over inmates, Black and white.”
Wall Street Journal: “Some voters interviewed in Virginia, including suburban white women who were important to Democrats’ improved performance here and in other states that President Biden carried, said they felt national conversations about race and equity were divisive and often cast all white people in a negative light. Others were concerned that their children would come home from school believing that their parents are racist.”
“Other Virginia voters said Glenn Youngkin’s focus on excoriating critical race theory is impeding changes that need to be made by schools and businesses to address racial inequality… GOP strategists acknowledge that it is unclear whether opposition to critical race theory appeals to voters they need to win back.”
Amid public backlash and calls for his resignation, Delaware state Rep. Gerald Brady (D) said that he would not seek reelection after his current term expires, the Associated Press reports.
Brady accidentally copied an advocate of decriminalzing prostitution on an email: “Is the dude basically saying, if we provide free Blowjobs for Uncle Pervie there will be few rapes and few chink broads will be shipped in CONEX containers to the Port of Wilmington??”
Nicholas Lemann: “It’s distinctly possible that the Supreme Court, as early as next year, could signal that it considers efforts aimed explicitly at helping Black people to be unconstitutional. In June, the Court asked the Biden Administration to give its views on the Harvard case. If the Court decides to take it, that would be seen as good news by the plaintiffs and bad news by Harvard, which has won in the lower courts…”
“It’s by no means clear that the Supreme Court has shared in the resurgence of passion for racial-justice issues that has swept through many other leading American institutions. This could be one of those Court decisions which set off not just private legal readjustments but public demonstrations, and years of political organizing… It will be fitting if the Court takes the Harvard case. The long-running battles over affirmative action involve a clash between two opposing principles, both arguably invented at Harvard: meritocracy and diversity.”
Donald Trump said Cleveland’s baseball team should never have changed its racist name.
Said Trump: “If I were an Indian, I’d sue! Sue them, Indians! What could be better, especially if you have a good team? It’s one of the greatest names, one of the most incredible logos, people loved it. They are going absolutely crazy in Ohio over the name change.”
He added: “Cleveland Guardians? What’s that all about? The insanity of the Left knows no bounds, and both Indians and baseball fans should be greatly insulted.”
An Alaska assistant attorney general — who has represented the state in a string of civil-rights cases — was identified by The Guardian as “a supporter of the Mormon-derived extremist group the Deseret nationalists who has posted a series of racist, antisemitic and homophobic messages on social media.”
“A Missouri legislative committee on Monday held a hearing on how educators teach K-12 students about race and racism without hearing from any Black Missourians,” the Associated Press reports.
“No Black parents, teachers, or scholars testified to the Joint Committee on Education during the invite-only hearing.”
A new Gallup Poll finds just 42% of Americans believe race relations are currently “very” or “somewhat” good.
In 2013, 70% of Americans surveyed said that.
“A new congressional bill seeks to create a board to help rename more than 1,000 towns, lakes, streams, creeks and mountain peaks across the U.S. still named with racist slurs,” Axios reports.
New York Times: “Officials in a little-known security unit within the Commerce Department conducted unauthorized surveillance and investigations into the agency’s employees that targeted people of Chinese and Middle Eastern descent, Senate investigators said in a new report.”
“It found that the work of the office — consumed by concerns about rampant Chinese espionage in the United States — sometimes veered into racial profiling, and that its leaders used extreme tactics, such as sending masked agents to break into offices to search for incriminating evidence.”
Popular Information: “Critical Race Theory, once a little-known academic concept, is now at the center of the national political discussion. CRT is discussed incessantly on Fox News. It is featured in campaign advertisements. And legislation banning it is advancing in statehouses around the country.”
“This didn’t happen on its own. Rather, there is a constellation of non-profit groups and media outlets that are systematically injecting CRT into our politics… An investigation reveals that many of the entities behind the CRT panic share a common funding source: The Thomas W. Smith Foundation.”
The Grio: “Biden is said to be ‘frustrated’ over what some call the collapse of the current police reform negotiations and a stall on voting rights legislation on Capitol Hill. Sources inside the Biden-Harris administration, however, say the White House is closely watching the movement and anticipating positive outcomes in present negotiations in hopes that the legislative packages will be passed.”
“Sources also note that Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, given the evenly divided Senate, holds the keys as to whether voting rights and police reform will succeed or fail in the upper chamber.”
“A group of white supremacists marched in front of Philadelphia City Hall Saturday night, drawing jeers from onlookers, as well as small scuffles,” NBC Philadelphia reports.
“The group of dozens of men wore white face coverings, kakis, blue shirts and tan hats and waved flags with insignias appearing to belong to the Patriot Front organization.”
Nearly half of college Republicans support public schools teaching about institutional racism — and six in 10 don’t think state legislatures should be able to stop it, according to a new Generation Lab/Axios poll.
Jeffrey Sachs: “As the bills’ defenders are quick to point out, state governments have always had broad discretion to set curricular standards, require or prohibit certain texts, and restrict faculty speech. And besides, according to anti-CRT activist Chris Rufo, these bills ‘simply prohibit teachers from compelling students to believe that one race is inherently superior to another.’”
“The problem is that Rufo is lying. He and his supporters are counting on people to not read the legislative texts, and instead take anti-CRT activists at their word. This is a mistake. Most of these bills, including many of the ones that have become law, go much further than simply banning compelled speech. If allowed to stand, a pall of orthodoxy will settle over classrooms in a way unseen in years.”
New York Times: “No part of Mr. Biden’s agenda has been as ambitious as his attempt to embrace racial considerations when making decisions. It pushes against limits set by the Supreme Court, which say programs based on race must be ‘narrowly tailored’ to accomplish a ‘compelling governmental interest.’ And it ignites passions at a time when Democrats hold the narrowest majority in Congress and the country is already seething with disagreements about race, power and fairness.”
“The challenges to Mr. Biden’s proposals have so far halted only a small fraction of his broader equity agenda, which has already ensured that billions of dollars in government spending have reached African Americans and poor women… Administration officials say the court rulings and political opposition are merely speed bumps that will do little to block progress. And they say Mr. Biden will continue to fight for parts of his legislative agenda that are not in a compromise bill.”
“How do we save this country before we become Rwanda?”
— Tucker Carlson, in a diatribe on Fox News, with a graphic proclaiming “Anti-White Mania.”
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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