Historical illiterates proclaim 9/12ers secretly racist

Nick Gillespie breaks it down here, in response to Michael Eric Dyson proclamation that those employing the phrase “taking back America” to be a racist codeword:

I raise this because the selective amnesia of virtually all participants in traditional right-left, liberal-conservative, Democratic-Republican politicking is not only frustrating as hell, but completely self-serving. It’s one of the reasons why people are turned off by politics (not such a bad thing, perhaps). You know you’re not going to have a serious discussion, but rather one that is completely relativistic and revisionist, typically designed to score points in the here and now at the expense of anything approaching history.

I have to say, I disagree with Nick a little bit here. I don’t think people intentionally ignore history to score political points in situations like this. Rather, they’re engaging in a bit of projection: “My America embodies the things I consider most important, thus I want to make a return to that America when my political opponent — who embodies things I consider contrary to what makes America America — is in power.” And, as we’ve seen from the supporters of Obama, vice versa.

This doesn’t make the historical illiteracy any more less damning, though I do think throwing around charges of racism makes it more vitriolic and nasty.