Cosby Conservatism

Anyone who liked my series of post on Black Conservatism will undoubtedly enjoy this article from The Atlantic situating Bill Cosby in the same tradition.

Matt Yglesias accurately says the long article is tough to summarize in excerpts, and also pulls out the reason conservatives have trouble recognizing their philosophical affinity with the movement:

The aspect of the tradition that says African-Americans will need to solve their own problems has enormous appeal to most moderate and conservative whites. But the tradition's analysis of why that's the case -- that America is a fundamentally racist society -- is viewed with horror by those some moderate and conservative whites.

And indeed, in the article it is pointed out that there are plenty of culturally conservative Blacks who vote Democratic "not out of any love for abortion rights or progressive taxation, but because he feels -- in fact, he knows -- that the modern-day GOP draws on the support of people who hate him."

Anyway, it's a good read, and well worth your time.