This Chapter has enough information to create a week long discussion without the rest of the book.  It’s hard not to read this chapter and draw parallel’s between the now debunked global warming movement and the previously debunked eugenic movement.  Both movements were sacred cows of the liberals, and both involved letting the State control the daily lives of people.  With eugenics movement, the State would decide who was and who wasn’t fit to have children.  In the global warming movement, the State would decide how you live your life.

But this chapter also debunked the myth that only conservatives can be racists.  Considering the point of the Book Notes project, I think that is the more important point to discuss.  Conservatives are often accused of being racists because conservatives typically don’t make special allowances for race.  Conservatives believe people can solve problems if the government will stay out of the way.  However, if the government gets involved setting race quotas, it can’t stay out of the way.  The Liberal tells us that the government needs to do this in the name of fairness.   But what the liberal is really saying is that they believe minorities can’t complete on a level playing field.

Mr. Goldberg looks at a number of liberal policies and points out the racism in these “feel good” policies.  The one that struck me the most was his section on abortion.  There  were three points that I think every conservative should know and have ready for any abortion debate.  First,  Jonah Goldberg states,”African-Americans constitute little more than 12 percent of the population but have more than a third (37 percent) of abortions.”  This is an incredible fact.  Whether you feel abortion and eugenics started as rasicst movements are not is irrelevant.  It’s hard to ignore the devastating effects of abortion on African-Americans.

Next, Mr. Goldberg states, “…roughly 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s abortion centers are in or near minority communities.”  This statement, taken with the first one, starts to paint a  much uglier picture.   This starts to look like a revival of the eugenics movement.  We also know that Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger started the “Negro Project” with hopes of limiting the number of black children born in the United States.  If this had been a conservative project, we would still be hearing about it periodically in the press.

The third fact that conservatives should remember is that Jesse Jackson looked at this same evidence and came to the same conclusion.  According to Mr. Goldberg, he viewed abortion as a “genocide against the black race.”  For once in my life, I have to agree with Jesse Jackson.  It’s intersting that he only changed his position to run for President as a Democrat.