Let Us Now Listen To Old White Men (or not)

.@jackmirkinson describes perfectly what the "Joe Biden needs a Sister Souljah moment" voices really want but can't quite directly say. https://t.co/yNw3l8XYHN pic.twitter.com/JvO75fEsx0

— Perry Bacon Jr. (@perrybaconjr) September 1, 2020

Considering the voices calling for it (George Will, Andrew Sullivan,* Bret Stephens) and the general mood of the country (yes, BLM is not quite as popular as it was a month or two ago, but MLK was much more popular after his death than before it.  He stopped being a troublemaker and soon became a saint precisely because he could no longer be a troublemaker.  JFK became a "great" President after Dallas, too.), I think Biden can safely ignore advice like theirs.

I mean, I think George Will and Andrew Sullivan would answer this question pretty much the same way Trump did:

Q: Do you believe systemic racism is a problem in this country?

TRUMP: "We should talk about the kind of violence we've seen in Portland and here and other places... you have anarchists, and you have the looters, and you have the rioters... that's what you should be focused on." pic.twitter.com/vZEaXflAub

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 1, 2020

Albeit more eloquently and coherently.  Their beef with Trump is that he's a doofus, and as President, a toddler with a shotgun.  Otherwise, he's not so bad at all.

We can say their quiet part out loud.  We need to hear it:

At their core, the protests—whether “peaceful” or not—are responding to the need for Black liberation, and in America, that is a dangerous thing to ask for. Black people must be brought to heel for the benefit of white comfort. It is more important to keep Black people in line than, say, ask the police to stop killing them. Black death is expected; white fear is a red line.

I know it still is, but whites are becoming the minority in this country, and we might as well start to acknowledge the legitimacy of the non-whites; that is, unless the Democrats want to be the Republican-lite party, in more ways than one.  And really, truly, I don't think they do.

*You can read the article to see that Sullivan is sympathetic to the Rittenhouse "defense."  Don't know if he signs on to the shooter's attorney's argument that Rittenhouse is part of a "well regulated militia," or how that mitigates shooting people, since the right to keep and bear arms doesn't include, explicitly or implicitly, the right to use them as you wish against whom you wish.  But I discard Sullivan because he's never disavowed The Bell Curve, and clearly still thinks it of some value.