(1) At this point, I wish I believed in God so I could say: God save me from the conservative mindset that defines socialism as “everything I don’t like.”

(2) I’m going to assume you’re a young man, but in any event if you’re going to be a politics writer you have to look at history. If you can figure out how racism hurt Clinton more than Obama then you’ve made a good start. Hint: go back to Bill Clinton (“the first black president”) as governor of Arkansas and track how his wife was perceived by the right from then on.

The roots of 21st century politics started well before the year 2000.