People on the outs imagine--wrongly, in most cases--that people on the inside are prejudiced and corrupt. This makes it more likely, sadly, that when the outs get in, they feel entitled to behave the same way they imagine is customary. Much of the wrong done in the world occurs when leaders project their own negative attitudes onto others and then punish their foes--class enemies, racial rivals, or what have you-- preemptively.
Brother Howard Chapman applies a similar analysis (why should you be surprised?) to the conduct of the judiciary. What the Sotomayor nomination exalts is the daunting post-modern principle that law is based on the interests of the powerful, and that therefore it is all right for the minority, upon acquiring power, to exercise discrimination in favor of their own perceived group interests.
