Crack in the Walls

Jeff Goldstein makes an excellent point while talking about Londonistan:

... the US has largely been able to withstand the pressures of cultural relativism—though any legal victory that gives identity groups special status under the law is always necessarily paving the way for potential challenges by other groups for equivalent special dispensations. This is why hate crime laws or “race"-based affirmative action are each so problematic—not for their intent, but for their practical legal impact: they establish precedents under which group-based grievance politics can both thrive and become institutionalized.

That's good for politicians, bad for the country.