New York Times columnist Ross Douthat has been accused of racism for his column published Wednesday explaining the nation's nostalgia for President George H.W. Bush on the day of his funeral.
Entitled "Why We Miss the WASPs," Douthat said that many yearn for Bush because "we miss the WASPs - because we feel, at some level, that their more meritocratic and diverse and secular successors rule us neither as wisely nor as well."
Douthat further explained that “the combination of pious obligation joined to cosmopolitanism gave the old establishment a distinctive competence and effectiveness in statesmanship - one that from the late-19th century through the middle of the 1960s was arguably unmatched among the various imperial elites with whom our establishment contended, and that certainly hasn’t been matched by our feckless leaders in the years since George H.W. Bush went down to political defeat.”
Among those criticizing Douthart on Twitter was Jared Yates Sexton.
“Ross Douthat's ‘Why We Miss The WASPs’ column is truly remarkable because it is both utter, racist garbage and is also probably the closest I've seen a conservative get to vocalizing their actual worldview while also explaining what's wrong with this country,” he wrote.
Another example of the negative reaction to the column came from Charlotte Clymer, who wrote in a tweet, “Consider me a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant who believes Ross Douthat is a massive, white supremacist tool who should not be offering his opinions for a living anywhere, let alone in the New York Times.”
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