See, you know, when Republicans play the race card, I expect that from them. When Democrats do it, it’s just execrable - but, as Will Bunch notes, maybe in states like this one it’s to be expected:

A sculptor brought in to mold a Hillary Clinton voter would have crafted Geraldine Ferraro from scratch. She’s 72 years old now. White. Female. Ethnic. Catholic. Emotionally vested in the idea that a woman should become president in her lifetime. Hailing from the community that was once the face of white middle-class America. Got where she was with the enthusiastic backing of New York big labor. Has views on the role of race in American politics that aren’t exactly ready for prime time, but well, hey, once they get out there you can’t really put the genie back in the bottle, now can you?

Pennsylvania is chock full of voters like this, many of them Democrats. You can — and should — argue whether “Archie Bunker” is a valid stereotype of Pennsylvania voters in 2008. …

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[but] exactly how many blue-collar whites in Pennsylvania still hold views on race and politics that are similar to a fictional TV character from the 1970s? Certainly not all of them, and hopefully not most of them, but most likely some of them — and in the end that’s not exactly what matters anyway.

What matters is that the Clinton campaign is convinced that Archie Bunker is voting in Pennsylvania in April 22, and they clearly will not struggle hard to repudiate any idea — no matter how loathesome — that can squeeze out a few extra voters in that regard.

Nice. I mean, look, I lived in Pittsburgh, Archie Bunker does live there. I saw more overt racism there than I think I’ve ever encountered in Lancaster. I always tell the story, there was this bar below where my brother lived for a while, with this nice framed photo of George Wallace, circa 1960. A real, nice, indirect way of saying: Stay out.

But the Democratic Party on the whole, instead of “acknowledging this reality,” ought to be saying: Look, we realize there are animosities out there. But the deal with this party (as opposed to that other party) is that we think the things that bind us together are more important than those differences. And until we stop being divided along those lines, the things that really matter will never get addressed.

Hillary’s calculations are coarser. Animosity? How terrible. But sure, I’ll use that. Whatever it takes. And once again, this is how Hillary is just too much like what we’ve suffered through these past seven-plus years. Whatever it takes.