Digby: The Legacy of Justice Thomas

Submitted by Digby on October 8, 2007 - 6:22am.

Seeing Clarence Thomas all over the television, once again using florid language drenched in civil rights era imagery to describe his victimization as a conservative black man really takes me back. The Thomas hearings were the first time I recall seeing the right wing directly appropriate liberal rhetoric and throw it back at them. (It may not have been the first time it was done, but it was the first time I noticed it --- and realized how powerful it could be.)

Thomas was an arch conservative who nonetheless used his experience as an oppressed minority to shut down debate about his ideology. It was quite brilliant in its way. It paved the way for the thousands of similar uses of liberal "politically correct" rhetoric to advance the most politically incorrect causes to come.