Letter: Finally, in plain English

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Under stress, people sometimes let slip what they really think.

On election night Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly said the following as part of his analysis: “The white establishment is now the minority.” After four years of dog-whistle racism, it finally comes out in plain English.  The most privileged class on the planet, white American males of a certain socioeconomic position, feel threatened by a president who speaks to an emerging majority coalition.

It’s not just O’Reilly.  It’s Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Pat Buchanan, Glen Beck, Donald Trump and a host of other entrepreneurs of outrage who see their and, more important, their sponsors’ power and influence in decline.

Over the next weeks and months they will point fingers and assess blame. Watch and listen carefully.  Everybody and everything from Gov. Chris Christie to Hurricane Sandy, from the “liberal” mainstream media to Mitt Romney’s un-likeability will be a target.  In all the universe only the purity of their message and their own clean hands and hearts will escape scrutiny.

The 2012 election brought two facts into focus:  The undisclosed mainly conservative donors who sent the cost of the election into the stratosphere got very poor value for money, and the message of fear, selfishness and exclusion bleated by their media spokespeople, however successful in the marketplace of advertising, no longer rules in the marketplace of ideas.  Dare I say it gives one hope?

WILLIAM POLITT

Weare