What's Wrong With a Little Liberal Guilt?

Conservatives snigger about “liberal guilt" and deride white supporters of Barack Obama as “guilty liberals"—but what’s wrong with having a conscience after America's 4 centuries of racial injustice? There’s no shame in acknowledging it, Ron Rosenbaum writes in Slate: Let's not "delegitimize sincere excitement” that an Obama win would “represent a civil rights landmark."

“Guilt is good, people!” he writes. “The only people who don’t suffer guilt are sociopaths and serial killers.” But conservatives don't suffer it either, at least when it comes to racism in America. “Shouldn't conservatives feel guilty about slavery, or must they disdain such feelings, however moral, because they are associated with liberals?”