Jeff Jacoby

The vast right wing Department of Dubious Research churns out plenty of stuff about the glory of the free market, including in Jeff Jacoby's Boston Globe column. But our economy needs more regulation of free loaders like the Koch Brothers, not less.

The news that the number of abortions being performed has declined has ignited a debate about who deserves the political credit. Are abortions declining because of legal restrictions on the practice enacted in red states across the country, or are they down due to increasing use of contraceptives and sex education? Is this good political news for the pro-choicers or the pro-lifers? Enter Jeff Jacoby who, in his latest Boston Globe column, argues that young Americans are less inclined to get abortions thanks to the efforts of those who have pushed gruesome images of aborted fetuses and distorted the issue by pretending that all abortions, at any stage of pregnancy or for any reason, are morally and legally equivalent. The pretense of moral equivalence is juvenile. The pretense of legal equivalency is flat stupid.

Scott Walker isn’t the only politician whose religious beliefs have brought political problems. Abraham Lincoln had similar difficulties.

The Globe’s resident wingnut has written another Gem. This time he’s trying to help Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s damage-control efforts in the wake of his feigned ignorance of President Obama’s religion.  Jacoby thinks that, on the one hand, the 2016 Republican presidential prospect shouldn’t have to respond to questions about the president’s religion, and on the other hand, shouldn’t be expected to know that President Obama is a Christian. A tall order to be sure and Jacoby comes up well short.  For an example of an intelligent analysis of this issue from a conservative perspective, read this offering from New York Times columnist Ross Douthat.  The contrast should make the editors of the Boston Globe weep.

While the likes of Rudy and Rush try to scare white people into supporting conservative pols or policies, others go about their race baiting differently. Jeff Jacoby’s latest column is an excellent example of such a different approach. He isn’t scaring his target audience; he is justifying racial resentments by patting them on the back and assuring them that critical introspection on race in America is entirely unnecessary. Jacoby props up racism by declaring that racism (which he refers to tellingly as “white racism”) has disappeared as a potent political weapon.