New York Times columnist Ross Douthat jumped the not-so-great white shark Wednesday when he published a column explicitly arguing that White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) are just better leaders than their “more meritocratic, diverse and secular successors,” and reaped blistering criticism in the process.

The column, pegged to nostalgia at the passing of former President George H.W. Bush, is entitled “Why We Miss the WASPs” and sub-headlined “Their more meritocratic, diverse and secular successors rule us neither as wisely nor as well.”

The 1800 words which follow are exactly the painful exercise in white-supremacy-convincing-itself-it’s-classism that you would expect it to be. But in one particularly audacious passage, Douthat even gives the white elite credit for the success of Jews, and for Barack Obama:

The establishment had always been somewhat permeable to arrivistes, Jews and Catholics imitated WASP habits in the 1940s and 1950s, and in our era their admirable influence is still felt in figures as different as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

Douthat reaped blistering criticism on Twitter for the column. Salon’s Jared Yates Sexton called the pice “utter, racist garbage”:

Ross Douthat’s “Why We Miss The WASPs” column is truly remarkable because it is both utter, racist garbage and is also probably the closest I’ve seen a conservative get to vocalizing their actual worldview while also explaining what’s wrong with this country. 1/ — Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) December 5, 2018

Refinery 29’s Lily Herman accused Douthat of “yearn(ing) for white supremacy:

Unsurprisingly, Ross Douthat yearns for more white supremacy. pic.twitter.com/lkcEGafbaL — Lily Herman (@lkherman) December 5, 2018



Others were a little less diplomatic:

Ross Douthat is a fucking racist and he showed his hand today, and the NYTIMES will still keep him employed. This is why white supremacy does not abate, because people in power have a LOT of tolerance for racism and white supremacy. — Monjula Ray (@queerBengali) December 5, 2018



But TV comedy writer Mike Drucker might have produced the most mercilessly funny takedown of Douthat, parodying the sub-hed in, shall we say, stinging fashion:

I don’t always agree with Ross Douthat, but you have to agree he makes a very important point here. pic.twitter.com/2hdSlXtdJ9 — Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) December 5, 2018

As many observers pointed out, there have been 3 WASP presidents since George H.W. Bush (four if you count Obama, who owes it all to the whites, according to Douthat) including Donald Trump, orange tint notwithstanding. What Douthat really seems nostalgic for is the time when the white ruling class could more easily have their way, without all those “diverse” people mucking it up.

Douthat is apparently aware of the criticism, acknowledging it in a tweet that said “I’ll let you folks argue about the WASPs; I want to say something more serious” about an essay on Hanukkah. What could go wrong?

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