Posted 10:46 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Blogosphere Expands

In the past week, two commentators have starting blogging with very different results. Joe Conason started a blog for Salon. In the last week he has written some succinct posts about Harken that are sharply critical of Bush. Conason’s blog is a must-read for people who want to be in the know.

On the other hand, David Horowitz has started a blog for Frontpage Magazine. In today’s blog, Horowitz provides a pathetic apologia for white supremacist Jared Taylor of American Renaissance magazine:

There are many who would call Jared Taylor and his American Renaissance movement "racist." If the term is modified to "racialist," there is truth in the charge. But Taylor and his Renaissance movement are no more racist in this sense than Jesse Jackson and the NAACP. In my experience of Taylor's views, which is mainly literary (we have had occasion to exchange opinions in person only once), they do not represent a mean-spirited position. They are an attempt to be realistic about a fate that seems to have befallen us (which Taylor would maintain was inevitable given the natural order of things). But Jared Taylor is no more "racist" in this sense than any university Afro-centrist or virtually any black pundit of the left. He is not even racist in the sense that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are racist. He is -- as noted -- a racialist, which Frontpagemag.com is not.

Aside from the insult to Jesse Jackson and the NAACP, many would take issue with Horowitz’s view that Taylor’s views are not mean-spirited. Actually, the ADL has the goods on Taylor and American Renaissance. This is a virulently racist rag. A quick perusal of American Renaissance’s web site shows the usual racist suspects such as Samuel Francis of the Council of Conservative Citizens (the group that is the successor to the old White Citizens Councils). The views of Francis were even too marginal for the Washington Times who fired him in 1995. The articles in AR are dripping with racism. One example: in an article titled “The Decline of National Review: NR was once a voice for whites,” James P. Lubinskas writes, “But few would have thought that after 44 years of publication, a senior editor with an Indian surname [Ramesh Ponnuru] would condemn a popular white conservative [Pat Buchanan] for speaking up for whites.”

The problem is that Horowitz’s flirtation with Taylor is hardly an anomaly. With its Southern Strategy, The Party of Lincoln has done what it can to become the Party of Jefferson Davis. Trent Lott was a big fan of the Council of Conservative Citizens until his ties with the group were made public (Lott lamely claimed that he wasn’t familiar with the group’s racist ideology). When people accuse the right of cozying up to white supremacists, they aren’t whistling Dixie.

Note: If you want to read more about Horowitz on a regular basis, a new watchdog site, Horowitzwatch was just started by James Capozzola of The Rittenhouse Review.