Clinton and the “Race Issue”

Clinton’s strategists—both white and black— were well aware of the need for any successful Democratic presidential candidate to win back a significant number of “Reagan Democrats” (upper working-class and new middle-class white ethnics). Helping Clinton to place the Reagan Democrats at the center of the campaign was the goal of Thomas and Mary Edsall’s curious book Chain Reaction. I call the book curious because, though penned by two ostensibly progressive intellectuals, Chain Reaction spooned up a lot of cynical formulations regarding the racial issue that almost amounted to advising Democratic candidates to “Willie Hortonize” their way back into the White House.

Two shrewd liberal southern...