The Party of Racism

"I guess we'll probably have folks putting on white hoods and white uniforms again and riding through the countryside, intimidating people. That's the logical conclusion if this kind of attitude is not rebuked."

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA)

So, according to the Honorable Hank Johnson, the logical conclusion of Joe Wilson shouting, “You lie!” to a man in the act of lying is that, if the House didn’t pass a Resolution of Disapproval, the Klan would, once again, ride out into the night terrorizing and killing. The logical conclusion . . . Really?!? And I suppose if Mr. Wilson doesn’t say, “Excuse me,” after he belches, we’ll have genocide?

Of all the incredibly stupid political utterances throughout the years, and there are many, this has to rank near the top in both idiocy and offensiveness. To compare someone who says, “You lie,” to a night rider of the Ku Klux Klan is breath-takingly inane. And does Rep. Johnson really believe that President Obama, the recipient of said insult, compares to those victims of terrorism, beatings and even lynchings carried out by the Klan? It is an insult to those people who were really victims of this evil organization.

Of course while Johnson’s statement was maybe the most hyperbolic of the last couple of weeks, his wasn’t the only comment about the alleged racism of President Obama’s opponents. The ever-vacuous Maureen Dowd of the New York Times wasn’t content to write an article based on the incident, she actually based her article on something she made up out of thin air. Dowd, whose continued employment at the Gray Lady is somewhat of a mystery in that, while dependably a far-left liberal, she isn’t a very good writer, wrote, “Fair or not,” [hint: When a writer writes ‘fair or not’ you can pretty much take it for granted that it’s not], “what I heard was an unspoken word in the air, ‘You lie, boy!’”

In other words, Wilson didn’t say that, but Maureen Dowd heard it in her head. This apparent schizophrenia, come to think of it, explains a lot about Maureen Dowd. She’d better hope that Obamacare has good psychiatric coverage – that is if the racists allow it to pass.

Then, of course, the execrable Jimmy Carter, not content to be merely one of the worst Presidents in our country’s history, is continuing to solidify his claim on the worst ex-President in history by stating that, "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American." Carter claimed that the attacks on Obama are “unprecedented”. Excuse me, but where was Carter the last eight years? I mean besides conducted unprecedented attacks by an ex-President on a sitting President.

But if anyone should know racism, it is Carter. According to A Voting Rights Odyssey by Laughlin McDonald, director of the ACLU's Voting Project, when Carter was a member of the Sumter County (GA) school board, he asked the state school board to stop construction on a “Negro Elementary School” in 1956 because white parents complained that the school was “too close” to the white elementary school and, "the children, both colored and white, would have to travel the same streets and roads in order to reach their respective schools."

These were only three of the most egregious examples of the charges of racism on the left in the last week. Also chiming in were Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Virginia Governor, Democrat Tim Kaine, Newsweek’s columnist, Joe Kleine, Rep. Charles “Tax Evasion” Rangel (D-NY), and the always entertaining Rev. Jeremiah Wright, among a number of lesser luminaries.

Of course, these charges were expected at some point and we’d already seen a smattering of it. Witness the comedienne, Jeneane Garofolo, who always acts like she has chronic constipation, nattering on about tea-partiers. The sheer volume of these charges over the last two weeks, however, leave no doubt that the liberals are now pulling out the big guns and going for the nuclear option, to mix a metaphor.

Over the last 8 years, we were reminded that, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism,” an insipid phrase to begin with. Now, I guess that, to quote a Mark Steyn reader, “Dissent is the lowest form of racism.”

The charges of racism are particularly risible. They are meant to stop all debate. After all, if the underlying motive of the dissent is racism, then that makes the argument automatically invalid. Racism, in the absence of overtly racist actions or words cannot be proven, it can only be supposed a la Maureen Dowd.

By stating that opposition is based on race, policy and ideological differences are deligitimized. We are expected to believe that opposition to President Bush was based on differences in political philosophy, but that same consideration is not given to critics of the current administration. That is one reason that these charges have suddenly exploded on the scene – the liberals know that they are losing the battle over Health Care Reform and, bereft of cogent arguments, they are unable to defend their own position and, instead, intend to deligitimize the opposition’s arguments.

But not only that, the charges of racism has a deeper, more pernicious purpose. By charging racism, the liberal tries to divide society into good vs. evil. Racists are evil, therefore the things they believe are evil, as well. Liberals are anti-racists and, therefore, good. The things they believe and the policies they support are, therefore, also good. Q.E.D.

It is the liberal who throws out the charge of racism in the absence of any evidence who intends to divide society. By pressing these charges, they cynically aim to continue to keep the African-American community in their constituency while continuing to propagate those policies that keep the African-American community dependant upon them. The charges of racism continue to unnecessarily fuel racial tension and create resentment of both races.

As the last eight years under the Bush administration demonstrates, there need not be a racial component to criticize or oppose an administration. Until the criticism of Obama reaches the level of vitriol that was aimed at President Bush, the charges of racism ring hollow.

It is time that the liberals, in general, and the Democrats, in particular, stop the exploitation of African-Americans to further their own political purposes. It is time they start trying to look not at the “ . . . color of their skin, but [at] the content of their character.” It is time that they stop the vile name-calling, accusations, and underhanded political chicanery.

Or is it too racist of me to ask that?