Tipsheet

AG Holder: America a "Nation of Cowards"

Attorney General Eric Holder had this to say in a speech to Justice Department employees:

Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.

Why?  Well, in Holder's view, "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race."

This is disappointing drivel, especially coming from the Attorney General, but it shouldn't be surprising.  It's emblematic of the left-wing views on everything from race to economics that infuse the Obama administration.

Of course, such commentary is a political mistake.  Back when Barack Obama was telling us -- in the wake of the Jeremiah Wright fiasco -- that race is “an issue this nation cannot afford to ignore right now,” I noted that such admonitions make normal people feel the way men stereotypically do when their wives or girlfriends tell them "we need to talk."

As a substantive matter, it's not clear what Holder (and Obama, for that matter) want us all to say.  Challenge the left-wing party line on any race-related issue from affirmative action on, and one is characterized as a racist.  That's hardly a recipe for honest and open dialogue.

Finally, it strikes me that there's more than a little irony in the nation's first black attorney general -- appointed by the nation's first black president -- excoriating Americans for their racial attitudes or race-related actions.  Really, General Holder, do you think things are just that bad right now, right here in the USA?