Ya Think?

Yesterday, Crooks and Liars linked to Stephen Lemons’ wonderfully documented expose in the Phoenix New Times of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s ties to Neo Nazi and other White supremacist organizations. It’s detailed, hard hitting and – almost – uncompromising.

The compromising part includes the following passage:

For instance, take Arpaio's now-infamous statement on a November 2007 episode of Lou Dobbs' CNN show that it was an "honor" to be called a KKK member. The clip has long since gone viral, giving ammunition to those who believe Arpaio to be an unrepentant bigot.

And those who don’t see this as indication of being an “unrepentant bigot” believe….?

A rather weak answer is offered near the end of the piece. Lemons cites a 2005 incident when Arpaio’s deputies “arrested Iraq war veteran Patrick Haab for holding seven Mexicans at gunpoint at a Valley rest stop,” and quotes Arpaio as saying, "Being illegal is not a serious crime. You can't go to jail for being an illegal alien . . . You can only be deported."

Ergo, the article concludes (with an almost audible sigh of relief,) Arpaio is an opportunist rather than a bonafide racist, and “As long as Arpaio senses a chance to score TV time, he'll continue to double-down on racially profiling Hispanics, anti-immigrant sweeps, and even photo-ops with National Socialists.”

It’s interesting to observe how hard some people will work to convince themselves and the rest of us that influential honest-to-God racists and haters are so rare as to be almost nonexistent. This seems to be related to an obsession with that most common and threadbare of virtues, sincerity.

Frequently in articles about people like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, etc., the question, “but is he/she sincere?” is asked, and since you can invariably find some presumably nonracist/hateful word or deed in even the most hardened bigots’ past – Goebbels, after all, is said to have once written a piece denouncing anti-Semitism, and someone can probably dig up instances of David Duke being nice to a black person – the conclusion is frequently:

“No, he/she’s not sincere! She/He’s not really a bigot/hater/borderline fascist. She/He’s an opportunist!”

Which is fast becoming a faux-thoughtful middlebrow cliche along with “pornography bores me,” “Al Franken is just like Rush Limbaugh,” and “If we all just ignore violent extremists, they’ll go away.”