Pat Buchanan and 'white America'

There's a reason for "the alienation and radicalization of white America," said Pat Buchanan in WorldNetDaily, and it has nothing to do with the election of Barack Obama, our first black president. In their lifetimes, traditional, middle-class whites "have seen their Christian faith purged from schools their taxes paid for," they've been mocked in movies and on TV, and now they're watching Wall Street banks bailed out as they "sweat their next paycheck." No wonder they distrust the government.

Who is Pat Buchanan to say "who America really belongs to"? said Adam Serwer in The American Prospect. "Black Americans have shed blood in every American war since the Revolution," and "are as American as it gets." Buchanan says this has nothing to do with President Obama's election, but as long as people like Buchanan and Rush Limbaugh "are making the explicit case that white Americans lose something precious with the election of a black president, I think that conclusion is not entirely credible."

This country has never belonged to just white America, said Matthew Yglesias in Think Progress. This has always been a racially diverse society, and Barack Obama's election shows how much progress we've made toward honoring that fact. But Pat Buchanan is right about one thing: "It’s probably true that white America has 'lost' 'its' country, but that’s a good thing. It’s everyone’s country!"

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