by Maisie Allison

Defending Rick Perry against an egregiously weak charge of racism, Reihan Salam makes a larger observation: 

One thing that is undeniably true is that American conservatives are overwhelmingly white in a country that is increasingly less so. As the number of Latinos and Asian-Americans has increased in coastal states like California, New York and New Jersey, many white Americans from these regions have moved inland or to the South...These white voters are looking for champions, for people who are unafraid to fight for the America they remember and love. It’s unfair to call this sentiment racist. But it does help explain at least some of our political divide. 

Yglesias pounces, recalling John Boehner's assertion last year that Obama and the 111th Congress were "snuffing out the America that I grew up in." Isaac Chotiner goes further: