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Demonized and Lionized, March 5-April 12, 2013

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Demonized                 Thought Crime

The Consumer Financial Protection Board “a Dodd-Frankenstein by-product of a fascist political economy”
Melissa Harris-Perry MSNBC spot arguing that  children do not “belong” to their parents but that child-raising is a collective act of civil society
Mitch McConnell surrendering on ObamaCare by supporting a continuing resolution
Sheryl Standberg championing women working outside the home—her “liberation” orthodoxy amounting to “an Age of Aquarius Society”
The AP Stylesheet ending the use of the term “illegal immigrants”
Paul Krugman calling Margaret Thatcher’s economic legacy into question
John Kasich embraced extending Medicaid coverage to those making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level; declared himself in favor of civil unions for gays, and then had his spokesman withdraw the statement; proposed a “frack tax” on oil and gas production and an extension of the sales tax to many services in order to pay for a 20 percent cut in the state’s income tax
Stockton, California refusing to defund public employees’ pension plans
David Stockman “The Republican Party is just a coalition of four gangs. The neocons are interested in pursuing an imperialistic, militaristic foreign policy that has served us poorly for many decades. The social-cons want the government involved in issues it has no business being remotely near — choice, gay marriage, all the rest. The tax-cons think they can make everything better by cutting taxes. Then there are the rank-and-file Republicans who talk about the virtues of free enterprise and the evils of big government but never vote that way. These gangs won’t solve any problems.”

Lionized                       Heroic Word or Deed

Bobby Jindal call to abolish income and corporate taxes
 Sarah Palin mocking Mayor Bloomberg’s soda pop ban, calling Obama a “liar”
Brad Paisley writing a C&W song defending his racial positions
 Margaret Thatcher single-handedly saving the British economy and defeating the Soviet Union
Paul Ryan proposing a country where “abortion isn’t even considered”

Glossary, April 5-12, 2013

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an anatomy of key memes, phrases and obsessions in Wall Street Journal editorials and other precincts of the GOP blogosphere, April 5-12, 2013

distortions: what happens when markets aren’t “unleashed”. Tax breaks & loopholes, heavily-lobbied regulatory loopholes, legal immunity and similar market-rigging measures are never considered distortions, but “adjustments”.

economic freedom, national self-respect and personal virtue: the triumvirate of virtues represented by Margaret Thatcher. sold them to a skeptical public and then demonstrated their efficacy.

gender equity: not measured by comparable wages or working conditions, but by deregulation, legal immunity and free markets.

giveaways.  Any federal subsidies of “green energy”.

housing bubble. Always created by the federal government’s loose money, over-reliance on ratings agencies, and reckless promotion of home ownership. Private sector malfeasance or deception never a factor.

entitlement programs: the subsidizing of one-third of the adult lives of all baby boomers.

Medicare; a failed program with bargain-basement reimbursement payments and bureaucratic regulations that lower the quality of overall care.

Obama budget: “a national economic suicide pact”.

productive citizens. Those who work and save.  The antithesis of Occupy activists. The makers, not the takers.

projecting weakness: in foreign affairs, any multilateral reaching out to build coalitions. See, for example, the US turning to China to help with North Korea. aka “decline”

risk premium: the all-purpose GOP defense of businesses’ refusing to hire and banks refusing to lend. As if they will never hire or lend if any risk is involved. Akin to “uncertainty” as an all-weather GOP explanation of slow economic growth. These terms are also very likely to appear in any analysis of ObamaCare.

Socialist England: like Obama’s America, any middle-left administration that emphasizes anything except self-reliance and free markets. In Socialist regimes, the working and middle class “award themselves lifestyles they aren’t willing to earn”.

spending cuts.  If projected by the Obama administration, then not actual cuts so long as any money is being spent anywhere on new programs. Most only be net, not gross.

unleash: what Thatcher & the GOP does to markets; rampant deregulation.

 

Parallel GOP Universes: Hyperbolic and Counter-Intuitive Myths, Claims and Canards, April 5-12, 2013

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The perpetual Obama campaigning, the endless “pay your fair share” boilerplate, the courting of the 1 percent fundraising elites, the appointment of insider grandees such as Jack Lew, and the presidential aristocratic lifestyle in hard times have made the reformist, egalitarian sermons of 2008 a cruel joke. Utopian dreams of U.N. intervention in arms sales, radical reform of the way food aid is purchased and dispensed, and opposition to Keystone and new federal oil and gas leases have bewildered a lot of Democratic Senate and House members. All of the above takes place in an economy that officially got out of recession almost four years ago, but is in a permanent rut of chronic high employment, continual massive deficits, ballooning debt, radical spikes in entitlement costs, and near-zero percent interest rates. Dystopic America: A Paranoid Overview“Two Views of the State of the Nation,” Victor Davis Hanson, National Review 
The most effective tool in spurring growth is private investment. Obama may not like it, but major investors tend to be well off. They have money to invest. Rather than encourage them to invest in growth and jobs, Obama does the opposite. By raising their taxes and leaving a strong impression he’d like to raise them even more, he discourages investment.In the fiscal cliff deal, Obama not only hiked the top rate on individual income, he increased the tax rates on two incentives to invest, capital gains and dividends. In addition, in Obamacare, he imposed a new tax specifically on investment income. In effect, Obama is waging a war on investment. Obama hates investment????“Obama’s War on Growth,” Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard
the President who promised to rid the world of nuclear weapons is setting the stage for their greatest proliferation since the dawn of the atomic age. Nuclear disarmament=nuclear proliferation???“The Coming Nuclear Breakout,” WSJ
Has the great American work ethic suddenly vanished? Doubtful. A more likely explanation for the shrinking workforce is a failing education system that doesn’t give young adults the skills they need to compete in the information economy.Another probable culprit is the rapid expansion of government payments—jobless insurance, food stamps, Medicaid, disability and various tax credits—that provide millions with an alternative income to getting a job. Obama’s war on work?????“Making Work Not Pay,” WSJ
Back before the clever new notion of “proportional” response became the vogue, our response to Pearl Harbor was ultimately Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And Japan has not attacked or even threatened anybody since then. Nor has any war broken out anywhere that is at all comparable with World War II.Which policy is better? There was a time when we followed the ancient adage “By their fruits ye shall know them.” The track record of massive retaliation easily beats that of the more sophisticated-sounding proportional response.Back in ancient times, when Carthage attacked Rome, the Romans did not respond “proportionally.” They wiped Carthage off the face of the earth. That may have had something to do with the centuries of what was called the Pax Romana — the Roman peace. Nuke ‘em all!“Proportional’ Response,” Thomas Sowell, National Review
several studies have shown that as industries face increased competition through deregulation or international trade, the gender pay gap shrinks. And the pay gap is larger in monopoly markets without competition and smaller in start-ups and small businesses that must be productive in order to survive. So women need more markets, more enterprise, and more opportunity, not more regulation and litigation. Gender gap, what gender gap? Let the market end the gender gap?“77 Cents on the dollar: An unequivocally bogus statistic,”  Andrew Biggs, American Enterprise Institute

Parallel Republican Universes: Hyperbolic and Counter-Intuitive Claims, Myths and Canards, 3/14–4/4

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Now that America has withdrawn, Iraq is once again a magnet for WMDs and Al Qaeda “Defense Is Not Optional,” Jim Talent, National Review.
The gun-grabbers are going for broke, doing everything they can to “cash in” on the recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. They’re targeting EVERYTHING — rifles, shotguns and even handguns — and every gun owner and gun purchase is to be cataloged and tracked by the federal government. Rand Paul newsletter
Marriage equality will make it illegal to unite kids with their parents..Row vs. Wade leads to fatherless homes…marriage equality laws would require teaching children that families without parents are a role model. “only a man can be a father and only a woman can be a mother” “Wedded to Marriage,” Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review
Yet, beyond the Court, liberal appeals to “fairness” are always the easiest to make. Because, for too much of its history, this country was disfigured by halfwit rules about who can sit where on public transportation and at lunch counters, the default position of most Americans today is that everyone should have the right to sit anywhere: If a man self-identifies as a woman and wants to sit on the ladies’ toilet, where’s the harm? If a woman wants to be a soldier and sit in a foxhole in the Hindu Kush, sure, let her. If a mediocre high-school student wants to sit in a college class, that’s only fair. American “rights” have taken on the same vapid character as grade-school sports: Everyone must be allowed to participate, and everyone is entitled to the same participation ribbon.Underneath all this apparent “fairness” is a lot of unfairness. Entire new categories of crime have arisen in the wake of familial collapse, like the legions of adolescent daughters abused by Mom’s latest live-in boyfriend. Millions of children are now raised in transient households that make not just economic opportunity but even elementary character-formation all but impossible. In the absence of an agreed moral language to address this brave new world, Americans retreat to comforting euphemisms like “blended families,” notwithstanding that the familial Cuisinart seems to atomize at least as often as it blends… all of this from the  Bill Ayres playbook of hollowing out core cultural values “The Death of the Family”, Mark Steyn, National Review
Extinguishing some of the oldest nations on earth, Muslims are “the successor population” to civilization, a “Big Gvt. Welfare Society” debauching human capital “The Death of the Family,” Mark Steyn, National Review
Gay marriage is the end of religious freedom because ministers will have to gay marry, as in Denmark… The goal is to turn Christians into pariahs, as if they were racists. Leading to a totally secular state. “Religious Freedom’s Drip-By-Drip Death,” American Spectator
Guns save lives…..Innocent people will always be killed by guns…. You’ll need a gun when a pitbull is chasing your children… More children die from bathtub accidents than gunshot wounds…. Gun control=Prohibition=self-righteous know-it-alls, shared zealotry “Guns Save Lives,” Thomas Sowell, American Spectator
Limiting magazine size in guns will lead to legalizing bestiality… And the problem is once you draw that limit ; it’s kind of like marriage when you say it’s not a man and a woman any more, then why not have three men and one woman, or four women and one man, or why not somebody has a love for an animal? There is no clear place to draw the line once you eliminate the traditional marriage and it’s the same once you start putting limits on what guns can be used, then it’s just really easy to have laws that make them all illegal. Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert.
Planned Parenthood encourages infanticide “Media Covers up Democrat-Backed Planned Parenthood’s Support for Infanticide,” Rance Priebus, Red State

Glossary, March 16-April 4, 2013

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an anatomy of key memes, phrases and obsessions in Wall Street Journal editorials and other precincts of the GOP blogosphere, March 16-April 4, 2013

accumulated social capital: everything the “dependency, decadence” and “demographic decline” will undo.

background checks: the camel’s nose under the tent for the intrusion of the government into every aspect of life

built environment: federal government plans to force development away from the suburbs and into the cities (see also, “smart policies”)

continuing resolution: perhaps the only way to stop ObamaCare

economic growth: once you get when you remove “fairness” and “rights” as guiding principles

infanticide: Planned Parenthood

juggernaut: always modified “gay marriage”

grandiose: ObamaCare and taking credit for the Arab Spring

greedy: the inevitable modifier of “bosses” and “unions”. Also, the “goons” responsible for Stockton’s bankruptcy.

inflexible: Congressional Democrats (aka, “Obamabots”)

marriage culture=traditional culture

panic: what the climate change folks are all about

Predator In Chief

punitive political correctness—a totally secular state

the sacred procreative essence of marriage. Without it, all we get is human rubble

Scandinavians: shorthand for godless believers in procreation without marriage or marriage without procreation

self-insulating elite

smart policies:The Obama administration wants to force so-called smart growth policies on the country: get out of your car, stay out of the suburbs, move into small, tightly-packed urban apartment complexes, and walk or take public transportation instead of driving. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/343242/obamas-plans-suburbs-and-how-stop-them-stanley-kurtz

ultimate security guarantor: what the US is and always will be. This is not in any way to be interpreted as a “burden”.

US military: Obama’s cultural laboratory where social change can be fast-tracked without the messiness of dealing with Congress

Demonized and Lionized, March 4-15, 2013

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Demonized                 Thought Crime

Rand Paul Kristol: “fear-mongering kookiness” in drone filibuster
Detroit first major US city brought down by welfare queens and union bosses; an “incorrigible, deadbeat” government
Eric Holder Race-baiting demagogue masquerading as a “pseudo constitutionalist”
Big banks the ultimate recipients of crony capitalism
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) stalking horse for feminazis
Paul Krugman Consistently arguing for deficits & stimulus bills, not austerity
 Gina McCarthy (EPA nominee) WSJ: Over the last four years running the EPA’s air office, Ms. McCarthy has been a notably willful regulator, even for this Administration. Her promotion is another way of saying that Mr. Obama has given up getting Congress to agree to his anticarbon agenda, especially given the number of Senate Democrats from coal or oil states. The real climate fight now is over the shape of forthcoming rules that could be released as early as this summer, and a brutal under-the-table lobbying campaign is now underway.….Ms. McCarthy has been integral in abusing laws that were written decades ago in order to achieve climate goals that Congress has rejected, all with little or no political debate. Someone should ask her about her antidemocratic politics at her confirmation hearings.
 R.I Senator Paul Whitehouse  Carbon tax
Paul Ryan Proposing a budget that envisions any tax increases, even in the form of clsing loopholes

Lionized                                                      Heroic Word or Deed

Rand Paul His anti-drone filibuster is a) The greatest blow for liberty since Paul Revere’s ride, a veritable “political earthquake” b) the resurgence of the Tea Party, c) the day someone finally stood up to Obama and exposed his two-faced foreign policy. Elevated to status as one of Three Horsemen of the GOP’s new branding, along with Senators Lee and Cruz.
John Mattis (US Marine General) publicly dismissing US sanctions against Iran as ineffectual
Jeff Sessions Coming out strongly against food stamps and other nutritional programs
 Natural law  the anti-Sheryl Sandberg meme: the liberal elite’s war on “the natural law of the maternal instinct”
Paul Ryan Proposing a plan that would balance the budget within ten years

Glossary, March 4-15, 2013

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an anatomy of key memes, phrases and obsessions in Wall Street Journal editorials and other precincts of the GOP blogosphere, March 4-15, 2013

anti-carbon agenda Obama administration’s energy policy. aka, “Walden Pond”. See also: “manufactured hysteria”
balanced budget, budget gimmicks “balanced budget” is what the GOP uses as a smokescreen to avoid talking about the details of the latest Ryan budget; every Dem budget proposal is a “gimmick”.
campaign mode Whenever the administration asserts itself. Always contrasted to “governing,” which is what the GOP House does when it asserts itself
comprehensive cost-sharing in Medicare Means-testing
confidence What the business sector lacks; can only be supplied by trickle-down economics and tax cuts
crony government Dems’ web of Wall Street/Green Sector/Hollywood connections
faith in the people The heart of the new GOP with a human face; always contrasted to the Dems’ “faith in government”
inflexible Obama on the budget: no matter what spending cuts he proposes, GOP claims he is “inflexible” and offers no cuts
manufactured hysteria Climate change; The Church of Global Warming
overreach All-purpose word for gun control, carbon tax, affirmative action, Obamacare
risk premium Cart blanche for insurers to charge whatever they want due to Obamacare’s mandate of universal coverage
The One Continuing meme of Obama The Supreme; aka, the Obamaborg, Caesaropapism; The Prince of Pennsylvania Avenue, a “distilled Alynskyite”, a “utilitarianism that would make Machiavelli shudder”

Parallel Republican Universes: Hyperbolic and Counter-Intuitive Claims, Myths and Canards 3/1/13—3/13/13

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“Indeed, the Obama modus operandi is based on a familiar constant over his time in the public eye: His “nontraditional,” post-racial persona, his youth, his teleprompted eloquence, and his spell over the media have convinced him that he can talk, pout, and tantrum his way to out-pointing others in lieu of concrete achievement. The thrill is found not so much in successful compromise as in perpetual acrimony and division. Think up a fantasy us/them wedge issue — millions of assault weapons slaughtering the nation’s youth, Latinos being deported while buying ice cream, the seas soon to lap over our cities, gay couples hounded by homophobic reactionaries, a nation of African-American victims like Trayvon Martin and Professor Gates in need of editorial support, the parents of tens of millions of children without sufficient food stamps or unemployment and disability insurance, planes falling out of the sky for want of federal air-traffic controllers — and then demonize the opposition, hit the campaign trail, and finally, exhausted, end up relaxing and golfing with the nation’s plutocrats and celebrities — until the next round of us/them theatrics..” Victor David Hanson, National Review, 3/13/13
Obama picked the weakest possible candidates—Hegel, Brennan, Lew—“in order to force Republicans to oppose them and thus earn the wages of ‘obstructionism’”. National Review, 3/13/13
A carbon tax would actually increase emissions by exporting jobs to China Red State, 3/13/13
“The tax increases are everywhere on the Democrat agenda. Never you mind that they have no intention of even trying to balance revenues against expenditures. They intend to grab the revenues. They intend to grab the power over your life that the revenues will give them. The Democrats are after your wallet by any methodology they can use to horn in on its contents… [you will lose] your ability to make volitional decisions that will impact your own life”. Red State, 3/13/13
“the dangers of the homosexual movement and why some of its members seem prone to violence, terror and “treason” Proposed Accuracy In Media panel at CPAC
If Obama succeeds in maneuvering the Republicans into positions that cause them to lose control of the House of Representatives in the 2014 elections, then as a president who never has to face the voters again, he would be in an ideal position to create a big spending liberals’ heaven.But it will be far from heaven for the economy, with Obama-appointed bureaucrats burying businesses in red tape and job-killing costs, while expanding the size and arbitrary powers of government. We could become the world’s largest banana republic. Thomas Sowell, Real Clear Politics, 3/5/13
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) increases the death rates from domestic abuse by making women less reluctant to call the police. “The best way to protect women..from domestic violence would be to encourage more women to marry” Mona Charen, Real Clear Politics, 3/5/13
VAWA, free contraceptives, suspended deportation, agitation against Voter ID laws—all part of Obama’s “permanent campaign” Mona Charen, Real Clear Politics, 3/5/13
“taxes are a drag on everything, a killer of the spirit of guts and endeavor..muscle, efficiency…confidence…Obamacare is why people are being laid off…Obama plans “little spring shots of doom” Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 3/8/13

Frank Rich’s “Dictionary of New Republican Usage”

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Hat’s off to Frank Rich’s seminal unmasking of GOP revival rhetoric, “Lipstick on an Elephant,” in the March 3 issue of  New York magazine. Rich’s accompanying “Dictionary of New Republican Usage” is worth citing in its entirety:

American path. The right way for America to proceed. Antonym: Government path.

1. “We can either go down the government path or the American path. The left is trying to turn the government path into the American path.”
—Bobby Jindal, 1/24/13

Axis of enlightenment. Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, George P. Bush.

1. “[They] create what I call that axis of enlightenment when it comes to immigration. I mean, [Rubio]’s got the policy. He’s in touch with, I think, the lives of ordinary people. And he’s a very accessible guy. He talks about being a working dad and juggling his own priorities.”
—Nicolle Wallace, 2/10/13

Children, the. The way to talk about immigration.

1. “I think that a good place to start is with children … We’ve got families who are here that have become part of the fabric of our country, right? And we want to make sure that we’re compassionate and sensitive to their plight. I mean, these kids know no ­other place as home.”
—Eric Cantor, 2/10/13

Controlling spending. Replaces “capping spending.”

1. “What angers Americans more than how much politicians spend today is how much more they know Washington will waste tomorrow. A ‘cap’ can be lifted, but ‘controls’ are constant.”
—Frank Luntz, 1/11/13

Fantastic four, the. Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal, and Eric Cantor.

1. “While calling them the ‘fantastic four’ might seem hyperbolic—and unfair to a few other politicians left out of the mix—[they] are a pretty good counter-argument to those who think the Republican Party is doomed. Excellent politicians all, three out of four are minorities: a Hispanic, an Indian-American, and a Jew—which sounds like they should be walking into a bar for a joke.”
—Jonah Goldberg, 2/11/13

Great Opportunity Party. Replaces “Grand Old Party.”

1. “From this day forward, the GOP will be known as the Great Opportunity Party.”
—Marsha Blackburn, 8/28/12

Variants: Growth and Opportunity Party; Government of the People Party.

2. “We’re the growth-and-opportunity party. We are the government-of-the-people party. And that needs to be the point of view and the perspective that we come from and that we carry our message forth.”
—Blackburn, 1/27/13

Judeo-Christian approach. The other way to talk about “illegal immigration.”

1. “I think the word ‘illegal immigration’ is a false name. You are talking about two separate issues. One is sovereignty … The media trying to make America feel guilty because we want borders—that, to me, is complete bullshit. Immigration is a separate issue … We should all defend sovereignty, then take a Judeo-Christian approach to immigration.”
—Roger Ailes, 2/11/13

More efficient and effective. Replaces “smaller” in discussions of government.

1. “Instead of smaller government, [Republicans] should talk about more efficient and effective government. The former is ideological language of the eighties; the latter is practical language of today.”
—Luntz, 1/11/13

Prudence. What is required for a Republican rebirth.

1. “Prudence is good judgment in the art of governing. Abraham Lincoln called it ‘one of the cardinal virtues’ … The prudent man is like a captain at sea. He doesn’t curse the wind. He uses it—to reach his destination … If we take the prudent course, we’ll be in good company. Our founders were men of prudence … Our country is worth the fight. With your help—and with a touch of prudence—we will win it.”
—Paul Ryan, 1/26/13

Simpler, flatter, and fairer tax code. Replaces “tax reform.”

1. “ ‘Tax reform’ is about the process, what they’re looking for is the result.”
—Luntz, 1/14/13

Variants: Lower, flatter, simpler tax code; Fairer, simpler tax code.

2. “When it comes to the tax code, we as the Republican Party have to make it very clear: We are for a lower, flatter, simpler tax code.”
—Jindal, 11/18/12

3. “Everyone agrees a fairer, simpler tax code would give all of us more time.”
—Cantor, 2/5/13

Welcoming in. A new kind of Republican tent-building. Replaces “reaching out.”

1. “Republicans want to be a party for every American in every neighborhood in every state … That’s why we must stop talking about ‘reaching out’ and start working on ‘welcoming in.’ ”
—Reince Priebus and Ashley Bell, 2/6/13

Inside the GOP’s Parallel Universes, Feb. 28-March 3

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“The only thing the federal government can do to protect women is to pass a universal right-to-carry law. Everything else is just big government demagoguery.” Red State, 2/28/13, on the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act Annie Oakley’s America?
Obamacare is forcing insurance companies to charge more. These rate increases are coming about “the same reason Ghengis Kahn impregnated women all over Asia. Thanks to Obamacare, the insurance companies now can.”  Red State, 2/28 and 3/1 “Risk premiums” are the latest excuse for hospitals and insurance companies to charge as much as they want to. Is this what happens when the “free market” is really unfettered?
Let’s keep the federal campgrounds open by leasing shale gas acreage in the Rockies Karl Rove, WSJ, 2/28 Let’s whitewater raft the fracking runoff!
“Mr. Obama and his circle divide the economy into separate parts. In the Obamaian universe, the units of the private economy—companies large and small—are satellites orbiting the great fixed planet of public spending. All material and economic life in the Obamaian model radiates out from a central source of public spending.” Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 2/27 Is this a call for the “maximum elimination of the public sphere, as prophesied by George Lakoff this week?
“For each F-22 Raptor not built, about another 20,000 families could receive food stamps for a month.” Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2/28 Politiscript irony alert: this sentence can be used by both the Left and the Right. Hanson of course is acidly riffing on Obama’s “redistributionism” and his reckless dismantling of the US defense system.
“A shortage of solar panels and windmills, not impending cuts in the US military….is Kerry’s idea of existential dangers on the global horizon.” Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2/28 They get another four years to belittle Kerry—here turning him into a Kerry/Gore amalgam
In 1982, Section 2 of the act was amended to say that the measure is violated whenever nomination and election processes “are not equally open to participation” by minority voters. And equality of participation is said to be denied whenever minority voters “have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to . . . elect representatives of their choice.” And representatives “of their choice” has been construed to mean representatives who are members of the same minority. This expresses two tenets of progressivism’s racialism. One is identity politics: Your race is your political identity. The other is categorical representation: Members of a race can be understood and represented only by members of this race. By this reasoning the Voting Rights Act has become an instrument for what Roberts has hitherto called “a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”  George Will, Washington Post, 3/1/13 “progressivism’s racialism”: a new wedge argument for perpetuating racial discrimination. It’s twisted logic seems to be that  the mere act of  trying to mitigate disparate racial outcomes is itself a form of racism. It’s like when Stephen Colbert  archly says that he “doesn’t see race”, and thus is free to use any racial stereotype he wishes.