Groupthink

Andrew Sullivan --

I have been and remain an optimist about the ability of Americans to vote for and elect a black politician to the presidency. But as David Brooks points out today, resistance is no longer understandable on old white-black lines. The smorgasbord of racial and identity politics comes into play. And so long-festering black-Hispanic tensions may put Nevada at risk; and the older black establishment prefers to play the old game with the white power-brokers they have learned to deal with than the new black leader they cannot control; and some Jewish-Americans, seeing a black man with real power emerging on the national scene, immediately panic that it's Farrakhan in disguise. All the Clintons need do is sit back and allow this game to proceed.

If you can keep in mind that dizzying jig-saw that forms Sully's own analysis of the Democratic primary, then here we have him a few posts later --

The more I think about it, the more disgraceful that [Richard Cohen] column was. Pure identity politics paranoia. A Jewish columnist sees a black man running for president and the first thing he asks himself is: where is this guy on Farrakhan?

So after offering an analysis that is entirely identity politics (as he did for Hillary's New Hampshire win), he then slams Cohen for using identity politics. An Anglo-American "blogger" sees a black man running for president and the first thing he asks himself is: how can I use this to pursue my hatred of Hillary Clinton?