Therefore, Barack Obama needs to be investigated, to reassure us that he is not a gangster, a corrupt mayor, or an Illinois Nazi.  Or so I take the logic behind this op-ed from Connecticut College history professor Catherine McNicol Stock, who admits that

There is no evidence that Palin was ever affiliated with white-supremacist groups during her years in Idaho or at home in Alaska

but thinks Palin should deny it anyway.

It has been years since groups such as the Montana Militia, the Posse Comitatus and the Sagebrush Rebels, and individuals such as Terry Nichols and Ted Kaczynski have made us wonder why so many “angry white men” populated our rural regions. Many of us have forgotten the threat once posed by domestic terrorists and instead have turned our attention to foreign terrorists. But we should never forget that in the late 20th century, ultra-Christian, antistatist and white-supremacist groups flourished in the states of the Pacific Northwest - called by many the “Great White Northwest” - the very region that Sarah Palin and her family call home.

Demographics most basically define this geographic region. In the six states that make up the Pacific Northwest - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska - only six counties are more than 5 percent African American. Not by coincidence, each of these counties is also near an important military installation with many African American men and women. Even so, barely more than 3,000 blacks lived in all of Idaho in 2000.

Leaving aside that Boise is closer to Chicago than it is to Wassilla, where Palin’s family moved during her infancy, according to the Census Bureau black people make up a mere 2.8 percent of the population of Hawaii, where Barack Obama was born.  Therefore, we should be concerned that Barack Obama is a racist.  More troubling, only 3,535 people of Native American and Inuit/Alaska Native ancestry live in Hawaii, while Sarah Palin is married to a man of Inuit/Alaska Native ancestry.  Therefore, Barack Obama needs to deny the role his white Hawaiian ancestors perhaps, no, probably played in the Trail of Tears.

Some simply hated the federal government, like Randy Weaver of Ruby Ridge, Idaho, a survivalist whose wife and child died when their compound was fired upon by FBI agents attempting to arrest him on gun charges. “Whether we live or whether we die,” Weaver said, “we will not obey this lawless government.”

Would that be the same Randy Weaver who was acquitted of all important charges and whose family received millions from this allegedly lawless government which allegedly ordered snipers to shoot allegedly unarmed women and children in the back?

Other groups, like the Aryan Nation, with headquarters in Hayden Lake, Idaho, actively planned to rid the United States of African Americans, Jews, and other “non-Aryan” peoples. A few carried out their plans, murdering Jewish radio host Alan Berg in Denver, the Goldmark family in Seattle, an African American state trooper in Arkansas, Fish and Wildlife officials and FBI agents in Wyoming, North Dakota and Montana, and more than 160 federal employees and their children in Oklahoma City.

Again with Idaho.

Perhaps somewhere on the record, Palin has publicly condemned the radical politics of her region. But it is hard to know where she stands on issues of race, equality and diversity. Thus it is high time to review the cultural ideals and models of the radical rurals from the Great White Northwest and find out for sure where Gov. Palin stands.

Or perhaps it is high time to review the standards by which tenure is granted at Connecticut College, where an idiot like Catherine McNicol Stock can rise to chair the department of history, disgracing her college by publishing illogical, guilt by association over vast distances, geographically and culturally illiterate claptrap that wouldn’t be accepted as a senior honor’s thesis at a real college.

Shameful.

Via Michelle Malkin

Last 5 posts by Patrick

• 20,000 Corpses Agree: Syria Is A Moderate Country, And Rick Warren Is A Great Religious Leader - December 29th, 2008
• There Is Nothing Wrong With Your Web Browser - December 20th, 2008
• What Sin Is Triangulation A Euphemism For Again? - December 17th, 2008
• I Dunno Mr. Mukasey, It Looks Like Punishment To Me - December 13th, 2008
• A Refreshingly Honest Thief - December 12th, 2008