I have long had a background in survey research. When I can figure out a metric for measuring human attitudes, I am willing to make dramatic statements. Such dramatic statements can be tested with my metric if anyone wants to prove me wrong. (Otherwise I treat all other statements as 'Atlantis'... imaginary statements.)
When I figured out that intelligence in adulthood is correlated with political positions I stated that Republicans are smarter than Democrats. Such a metric could be determined by following a generation of schoolchildren whose IQs were tested in elementary school, into adulthood.
I now wish to make a statement that Pres. Barack H Obama was elected president because a significant part of the voting American population is filled with racial guilt.
I now believe such a measurement is possible in survey research.
In 1964, when Willie Brown, a black man was first running for the California Assembly in San Francisco, I conducted a survey to determine how much anti-black sentiment existed in the voting population. I was determined to estimate the amount of money it would take to defeat Willie.
I did this by measuring anti-black racism. Such anti-black racism turned out to be trivial in Browns’ Assembly district. No amount of mney could have defeated him. He won easily.
The same could be done to measure racial guilt. Many white people believe that they personally did not do enough to ameliorate the consequences of slavery in the United States. This is racial guilt. It may be justified in many cases. It may not be.
The metric consists of asking people a series of questions about their friends and associates. The questions would measure the level of guilt that these friends and associates feel about their own contributions to ameliorating the effects of slavery. A very simple set of questions about blacks, crime, black education and black work ethic would give a reliable answer.
I am now willing to make a statement about our first affirmative action president because my thesis can be tested. 'He won two elections because a significant part of the American voting public feels serious racial guilt.'