Racism and education

    Racism was the theme many columnists and pundits are exploring in the wake of Cheetolini's attacks on 4 women of color in Congress.   All of them approach the topic differently depending on their own racial identity and experience.  However, all of them start from the presumption that education can mitigate racism to a certain extent.
    Paul Krugman in the NYT takes the GOP to task for tolerating tRump's racism with virtually no pushback from prominent republicans.  He posits this is the endgame of the party's continuing efforts to make itself the party of white identity and supremacy.   Starting in the Nixon era the GOP realized that with the passage of Civil Rights bills by the democrats, racists, especially in the south suddenly without a party.  The republicans filled the gap and gradually expanded their share of the white vote while democrats became the defacto party of minorities and unionists.  Under the latest iteration of the GOP republicans have gone all in on the race issue.
     Jamelle Bouie in the same paper has a different take, reflecting his own heritage.   He sees tRump's call out of  AOC, Ilan Omar, Rashida Talib and Ayana Pressley as the naked racism it is.  He worries the GOP will become even more heavy handed as its numbers continue to shrink and the US becomes a truly multi-racial democracy.
     Finally, Kevin Drum at Mother Jones can hardly believe republicans have staked their existence on drumming up racial division.   He, Krugman and Bouie all assume most of the white working class  is racist and in thrall to republicans while college educated whites are more tolerant.  I hope in this case they are all wrong, but unfortunately, my own experience with many people in the North Country tends to verify their thesis.   Drum comes to the conclusion that people of good will must come together and crush the party of racism and expunge a dark moment in our history.