What Would Derbyshire Say?

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Jim Geraghty at National Review cites a story by Politico:

“Despite the broad changes in President Obama’s overall job approval rating since he became president, certain subgroups of the population have consistently rated him better than others, and these patterns continued in March. Blacks, Hispanics, women, 18- to 29-year-olds, Easterners, postgraduates, Americans earning less than $24,000 per year, and those who don’t regularly attend a place of worship all show higher support for Obama than their counterparts …”

What the departed Derbyshire might have said about this story is not what Jim Geraghty says. But you know he secretly thought it.

A friend reminds me that, in 2006, Derbyshire panned Ramesh Ponnuru’s book, The Party of Death. On Friday, Ponnuru was one of the first National Review staffers to denounce Derbyshire, who had also made himself obnoxious by his rather outspoken atheism.

29 comments

  1. Derbyshire had the right to say what he said.  National Review had the right to fire him (or not).  Other persons (including other NR writers and editors) had the right to agree or disagree with what Derbyshire said.  But if you are going to denounce him, at least make the effort to argue why he was wrong.  

    I am sure like any organization, Derbyshire had his allies and enemies at NR.  

    The Politico story references a start of fraying of support for Obama from Hispanics.  Hmmm, what could have done that?  

  3. Reflecting on why Derbyshire wrote what he did, I have come to the conclusion that he must have been reading “The Other McCain” when his gaze accidentally slipped to the Arthur Koestler quote at the top of the page :>)

  4. Of course you could expand her arguments for a broader point:  

    And yet for years Derb [Jeremiah Wright] was happy to have these views, and the National Review was glad to employ him [the Obamas were happy to attend his church] for a very long time while he had those views.  That’s another uncomfortable conversation the right [left] doesn’t wish to engage in, why it took this long for Derb to get the axe [so long for Barack Obama to denounce him] and why they condoned his racist views up until now as the nation’s “premier” conservative publication of ideas. [the 2008 election].  So yes, the whole Derbtastrophe is [these events are] actually very illuminating as to why there’s not a larger conversation about race in America.  One that the right [the country] has been avoiding for a very, very long time.

  7. It seems to me in order to write ruthlessly one must keep the number of people who’s opinion you really care about to a small select few.

  8. Actually, that’s Zandar of Zandar vs. the Stupid — I guess he likes to argue with himself, eh?

  9. You are right on that article, Angry Black Lady is pissed off too, but her article was at least better written.  

    Hey, if I were Black Angus, I would be pretty damn angry too. But that does not mean we can’t over come those divisions and have a conversation on it.

  10. As a last ditch defense of the First Amendment, please invite Derbyshire to blog here.

    He likes to astound his readership, and the Taki article certainly indicates a lack of tact (no need to bring up the touchiest subject of all — intelligence) but in the spirit of “defend to the death your right, etc,” Derbyshire deserves a platform.

  12. This whole thing — from start to finish — is ultimately Rich Lowry’s fault.

    I would never accept the top editor’s job anywhere unless I were given authority to hire and fire at my own discretion. It seems evident that Lowry was willing to take the job without such authority, so that he needed some specific justification to fire Derb. This permitted the development of a situation where Derbyshire kept engaging in provocations to which Lowry did not have authority to respond with disciplinary action.

    If the top editor can’t fire people, anarchy inevitably results. Lowry was willing to take the job as “straw boss” for Buckley, but when Buckley died, that created a power vacuum: Lowry isn’t Buckley, but who does wield that authority? Apparently a committee of some sort, which is a recipe for disaster.

    Never take the top job, if it’s not really the top job, because you’ll always find yourself blamed for decisions made by unnamed people behind the scenes. “Personnel is policy,” as they say, and a boss who doesn’t have hire-and-fire authority is not really the boss.

  13. I thought Derbyshire was over the top when he recommended not stopping to help blacks in distress and giving extra scrutiny to black politicians, but the rest was just practical advice. 

    Look at the news.  Check YouTube.  These mob/gang incidents aren’t exactly rare, and yes, certain demographics tend to be players in them.

    Teaching your children it’s a great big wonderful world out there with beautiful people and that strangers are only friends you haven’t met yet could be putting them in danger.

  15.  Well, isn’t that nice, the dear lady admits that black parents have the exact same talk with their children, but hey, in their case that’s just fine. I’m so glad she explained that.

  16.  There was a reason so many people passed by the injured man in the parable of The Good Samaritan before the Samaritan came along to help him. Acting like you’re in distress and then robbing the first poor sucker that stops to help is one of the oldest tricks in the book. If I pass up somebody in distress, white or black, I’ll make sure he gets help, but that person needs to thank God for cell phones, not me.

  18. Actually, the person should still thank you. There are others who would use their cell phone to record the victim and post it to YouTube for sh*ts and giggles.

    We get deeper into the cesspool every day. This is not your grandparents’ America.

  21. As a loyal subject of Her Majesty E II R, I observe that noone seems to have picked up Derb’s raw anger over the 2 British tourists shot dead in Miami. It’s his last point and link. Seems to me it’s his ‘last straw’ – the thing which provoked this. 
    Note that the British families of the killed wrote to Obama, with no response. In South India when a madman attacked a tourist, the Premier came to the vicitm’s bedside. Tourist nations do this. 
    The whole world has heard over and over of the troubles of African Americans, yet go to parts of Asia, the Middle East, or Africa itself and you’ll find people suffering racist abuse often worse, much worse than anything ever in America’s worst history, right now, this minute, with no well-intentioned folk like Americans nearby, trying to help. No they just have to swallow it. 
    African Americans imagine the world owes them something. Wait till the Chinese dominate (Derb is fluent in Mandarin), AA’s’ will be begging for a foot in the door. 
    Go and see how blacks are treated at Hong Kong airport. That is the future. 

  24.  Great idea about having Derbyshire blog here. Maybe a guest post. What about it Stacy? Give the man an open forum to express his views, merely put a disclaimer at the beginning, then watch Charles Johnson go apeshit.

  26. Might be worth it just to see Charlie go off the deep end. On second thought, he already is. I’d say raving, but he does that regularly already.

    May not be much to gain on that front.

  27. Derb points out in the Gawker interview that he never was hired. They used his stuff, but he was an independent contractor, not an employee. Since he was not an employee they couldn’t fire him. They can simply quit using his stuff and nuke him from the NRO site.

    But, Lowry is a coward and a very callow youth in over his head. The only way Buckley could have hired the man was he had become a doddard.

  28. Derb was an independent contractor, not an employee, at NR and NRO, so he couldn’t be fired there either. They just won’t publish his stuff anymore.

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