Shelby Steele casts a cold eye on Miz Hillary’s plantation remark and tries to figure out why Bill pandered more effectively than Hill:
“The room of black faces that brings her husband alive, freezes her in overbearing rectitude. …
“Mrs. Clinton’s husband was a master of this alchemy, and his presidency also illustrated its greatest advantage. Once black grievance is morphed into liberal power, it need never be honored. President Clinton notoriously felt black pain, won the black vote, and then rewarded blacks with the cold shower of welfare reform. And here, now, is Mrs. Clinton sidling up to the trough of black grievance, eyes wide in expectation, but also a tad contemptuous. It is hard to fully respect one’s suckers.”
I would disagree that welfare reform was a cold shower, unless Steele is thinking of cold showers are bracing and stimulating. Welfare was the ultimate betrayal of black America-it was crippling and anything that can be done to end it in the long run benefits those who lived in its culture. But Steele has some interesting insights.