Race-Baiting By Durbin

I missed this Sept. 2 op/ed by Dick "Gulag" Durbin. In it, he uses the Commerce Clause as a way to imply that John Roberts will single-handedly take the US back to the days of Jim Crow, burning rivers and other horrors.

Consider this overwrought hand-wringer:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that tourism accounts for 35 to 50 percent of the total revenue for a number of Southern states. If some states were allowed to ignore civil rights laws, then blacks who wished to visit the South couldn't be sure they'd be able to find a hotel, or a place to eat, or even to travel safely in certain areas. Black families would not travel to Southern states. They would not spend money there, and that affects interstate commerce.

Sure, Durbin can call this a simple commerce clause argument, but really! Does Durbin really think people believe that all the beneficial social progress the US has made in race relations can be wiped away by one Supreme Court justice?

It's exactly this kind of doom-and-blame language that is alienating droves from the Dems. Most people are too smart to fall for this slime-peddling, and they resent politicians who think they're not.