In a Washington Post Op-Ed purporting to be about economics, Harold Meyerson displays what I think is a near-total misunderstanding of identity politics:

...the GOP's last best hope remains identity politics. In a year when the Democrats have an African American presidential nominee, the Republicans now more than ever are the white folks' party, the party that delays the advent of our multicultural future, the party of the American past. Republican conventions have long been bastions of de facto Caucasian exclusivity, but coming right after the diversity of Denver, this year's GOP convention is almost shockingly -- un-Americanly -- white. Long term, this whiteness is a huge problem. This year, however, whiteness is the only way Republicans cling to power. If the election is about the economy, they're cooked -- and their silence this week on nearly all things economic means that they know it.

OK, I'll admit my ignorance here. I have not been doing head counts or skin color counts, and I lack access to official convention statistics, so I really don't know what percentage of the GOP convention delegates are white. Obviously, Mr. Meyerson is very upset about whiteness, which is his right. But what does he mean by "shockingly -- un-Americanly -- white"? How many whites are required in order to constitute a "shocking" degree of whiteness. Assuming that whites are over-represented at the convention, how is that "un-American"? Would he say that if a mostly black or mostly Asian crowd showed up at a political gathering?

If his argument is that more members of minority groups should show up at Republican conventions, he should say so. But I don't think that's what he wants. I think he wants a white-only Republican Party so he can castigate them as "un-American (and bigoted).

FWIW, I would like to see more minorities at these conventions, and I doubt I'm alone in that. But identity politics? In the context of whiteness? The idea that the people at that Convention believe in white identity politics is outrageous on its face, and a genuine smear.

Meyerson, though, probably doesn't think it's a smear at all. He's lived so long in the leftie echo chambers and heard so much of their hateful propaganda that for all I know, he actually believes that most Republicans align themselves with Christian Identity or something.

If he were talking about anyone other than Republicans, Meyerson's attitude would be called bigotry, because it is.

But such bigotry is so commonplace that it barely raises an eyebrow.

(I almost didn't think it was interesting enough for a blog post...)