Dems Are Ignoring Their Own Racism

Republicans don't have a monopoly on racism, much as Democrats might like to believe it, writes Peter Beinart in the Daily Beast. Case in point: Former South Carolina Democratic Party chair Dick Harpootlian recently said the state's Indian-American governor, Nikki Haley, should be sent "back to wherever the hell she came from." Harpootlian was speaking at a party dinner ahead of a Joe Biden appearance. But Democrats aren't exactly falling over themselves to slam the comment—"and for now, at least, conservatives are just about the only ones asking them to."

"Unless offenses like Harpootlian’s are slapped down hard, Democratic Party bigotry is likely to get worse," Beinart writes. "The reason is simple: the Republican Party is getting more diverse," as its current Senate and gubernatorial rosters reveal. Indeed, "in politics, bigotry isn’t always connected to ideology; sometimes it simply stems from opportunism." Click for Beinart's full column. (More Democratic Party stories.)