Tom Hayden responds to Drew Westen

Perhaps some of you saw this before, but I just read it. Tom Hayden wrote a response to Drew Westen's nonsense about President Obama.

I believe the existence of deep racist currents in America explain much of Obama’s caution—and his success. This is the source of his political centrism and what Westen describes as his “risk-aversion.” We are at a demographic tipping-point in our inevitable evolution into a multi-racial, multicultural, multi-lingual society. If Obama survives eight years in office, he will preside over much of this troubled transition. Ironically, he will be the magnet of hatred for his opposition while being derided as too moderate by his support base. The parallels may be with Abraham Lincoln.

I once thought that racism was a declining vestige of an old order in a new America—that was in 1961, when I was a Freedom Rider and journalist in places like Georgia and Mississippi. Today I am no longer sure. I wish that Drew Westen had not ignored these questions for “space reasons.” I find it impossible to discuss “what happened to Obama” without their inclusion.

While Hayden doesn't express much by way of particulars about how racism has contributed to Obama's "caution - and his success," I think we can look to another Tom who recently spelled that out pretty clearly.

Oh, and by the way, please don't miss that Andrew Sullivan picked up and posted that comment by Tom. While Andrew didn't mention her specifically, all props to Miranda at W.E.E. See You for getting that one into the mainstream! Its a GREAT example of a pragmatic progressive blog affecting the narrative.