… Now nothing to do with race in America is politically normal. But the problem with suggesting that the G.O.P. shouldn’t aim for a white working class target because it would further racially polarize the country is twofold: First, it asks Republicans to basically play by rules that (victorious) Democratic strategists are writing, and (more importantly) it tells working class whites that they should pretty much get used to being ignored by both parties, because the country’s racial harmony depends on it.
I don’t particularly want to live in a country where the two political coalitions are thoroughly divided along racial-ethnic lines. But I also don’t want to live in a country where many of the voters most disillusioned with the political system, and most battered by the trends of the last five years and the last thirty alike, don’t have either party responding to their point of view and asking for their vote. [cont.]
Ross Douthat, New York Times