'Wah Wah Wah'! It's official: Slate's seriously spooked by Scott Walker

Sarah D. | 5:03 PM on January 29, 2015

Slate’s got a big ol’ bee in its bonnet — and Scott Walker put it there:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has a divisive message for winning the White House: http://t.co/FPtVpRMXIZ pic.twitter.com/G7sey36SjI

— Slate (@Slate) January 29, 2015

See, Walker seems to believe that sticking to conservative values with a conservative message is the key to gaining conservative support. And according to Slate’s Jamelle Bouie, that makes him really, really divisive:

Which brings us back to Scott Walker. Unlike Mitt Romney—who was merely adopted by the world of racially polarized politics—Walker was born in it and molded by it. As MacGillis notes, Walker’s home turf of metropolitan Milwaukee is home to “profound racial inequality, extreme political segregation, [and] a parallel-universe news media,” trends that predate Walker, “but have enabled his ascent.”

If any candidate could run a rigid campaign of polarization—aimed at winning as many white voters as possible—it’s Walker. His language is already there. In his Iowa speech, he touted voter-identification laws and portrayed disadvantage as a pure product of personal failure. “In America the opportunity is equal for each and every one of us but … the ultimate outcome is up to each and every one of us individually.”

Walker, in other words, represents the other path: The chance to win without broadening your base or changing your priorities. Victory, but at the price of greater racial polarization. It’s a seductive vision—and an inherently divisive one.

So believing in equal opportunity and personal responsibility is “racially polarizing”? “Inherently divisive”? What. Evs.