If old white men feel maligned, they should take their own advice to minorities.

[Armstead]

227. These are 3D issues with no easy answers.

One of the things I most like about President Obama his recognition of that.

I know older white conservatives (and younger ones too) who are thoroughly decent people. They grew up in different times and different circumstances, and were shaped by that and/or they are uninformed or swallowed a bunch of crap from the right wing and corporate propaganda machine that unfortunately took hold. But they try to do what they think is right in their daily lives, and many believe that conservatism will "lift all boats."

Most people have a lot of internal contradictions. My late mother thought of herself as a staunch liberal and Democrat. She thought Obama was the greatest thing since sliced toast and unabashedly supported him during the 08 primaies and election. (Unfortunately she passed away before the inauguration.) ....But she was also a product of growing up in the south, and she had a blind spot about immigration, which she thought was eroding American society with foreign influences.

I also know a woman who was a staunch liberal and extremely progressive on women's issues. But as soon as her daughter didn't get into a certain school, she got pissed off about affirmative action because she though it was unfair that her daughter couldn't get into a school, while in her view less academically accomplished people of color did.

Nobody (at least hardly anybody) is all good or all bad. Most of us are a mix of conflicting motivations and views, and we're all shaped by individual circumstances and experiences.

Any effort to move (or nudge) society in a better direction has to start from a recognition of that fact.