The Race Card Is the Last Refuge for a Liberal Scoundrel
I ride to work with a young liberal co-worker. He’s pretty moderate. Today he put his radio on a liberal talk show. I don’t know who they were. There were three black commentators and they were making the argument President Carter made, people are giving Obama such a hard time because we can’t accept he is black. Joe Wilson called him a liar because he is a racist southerner and Obama is black. Bringing down Van Jones had nothing to do with him being an openly admitted communist, it was because he was black. It boiled my blood, but also steamed my liberal friend. He yelled back at the radio, “bull crap”!
We took the conversation to another co-worker, a black liberal. He also thinks everyone is a racist and Obama is being treated badly because he is black. He carries a grudge because his ancestors were slaves. I told him race relations will never progress if the black community can’t not get past this, and the race card argument is a cop-out argument people fall back on when they can’t put forward valid facts against their critics. He got pretty passionate, but later he came and admitted that I was right.
Mary Mitchell continues this ridiculous race card crap at the Sun Times. The AP sees the light at the end of the tunnel and realizes the train wreck is coming. They sound off a warning.
[I]f everybody’s racist, is anyone?
The word is being sprayed in all directions, creating a hall of mirrors that is draining the scarlet R of its meaning and its power, turning it into more of a spitball than a stigma.
“It gets to the point where we don’t have a word that we use to call people racist who actually are,” said John McWhorter, who studies race and language at the conservative Manhattan Institute…
[It's] an easy charge to make against the rare individual carrying an “Obamacare” sign depicting the president as an African witch doctor with a bone through his nose. But it’s almost impossible to prove — or refute — assertions that bias, and not raw politics, fuels opposition to Obama.
“You have to be very careful about going down that road. You’ve cried wolf,” said Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University professor who studies U.S. political and social history.
Allahpundit points out the numbers in which Democrats are painting racist aren’t lining up with the actual opinions of the majority according to recent polls.
Ric Locke explains very well the problem with the race card being thrown around too often and loosely.
The accusation “Racist!” has for a long time been the nuclear weapon of American political rhetoric. Using it — especially when it had some tenuous connection to reality, as happened more often than not — had a strong tendency to shut down the conversation in favor of the one hurling the epithet, and when it didn’t shut the target up it did prejudice the audience in favor of the one issuing it. Unfortunately too many people have noted that effect and attempted to take advantage of it, with the result that the connection between the real racism (that does, in fact, continue to exist) and the charge becomes more and more tenuous.
Now, of course, we are advised that any least contradiction of the programs, proposals, and policies of the Obama Administration is and can only be “Racist!” This is fatuous in the extreme. Denying that a racist component exists would be equally fatuous, but (for instance) a charge of “Racist!” against the “stimulus” falls flat, especially from someone who loudly criticized the Bush Administration for deficit-financing the Iraq Adventure. Dissent is either sedition or “the highest form of patriotism”; it cannot be both, and it is not and cannot be the one for one political ideology and the other for another, different ideal.
Repeated charges of “Racist!” when the racial component is trivial or nonexistent do not convert the target, they convert the charge, which becomes itself trivial or lacking in substantive meaning. The stage is thus set for “racist” to become the new “redneck”, adopted by people who may or may not be substantively racist, but disagree with Democratic Party proposals on grounds widely divergent from race. Real racists — who do exist; never doubt it or minimize the problem — will then use the defanged term as cover, and the people who suffer from unfair discrimination based on race — there are a lot of them; never doubt or minimize that, either — will lose a valuable weapon in the dispute.
Charles Krauthammer explains in similar tones the same basic argument.
I just grow so frustratingly tired of the race-baiting.
The false charge of racism won’t change that reality, but it may well, if pursued, turn legislative defeats into political catastrophes for a generation. How strange that with large majorities in the House and Senate, with a president who just months ago enjoyed 70 percent approval ratings, and with a compliant and influential press, the Democratic party cannot pass its own legislation and instead is detouring to label most middle-class voters of all beliefs “racists.” It is as if a group of political advisers got together and brainstormed how in theory to ruin the best liberal landscape in generations.
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Posted by Jay on September 17, 2009 8:15 pm
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, Barack Obama, Democrats, Liberal World, News, Politics As Usual, Racism, Video, race baiting
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19 Responses to “The Race Card Is the Last Refuge for a Liberal Scoundrel”
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I heard a rumor that Glenn Beck killed a women in 1990 but that he refuses to respond. Is this true?
I heard a rumor I started that you raped your dog, and are on heavy meds and when you deny the charges not to believe you.
I heard another rumor that you aren’t even talking about the correct topic in this thread.
A few other points. How did all these folks who voted for Obama and supported him at the beginning of his Presidency suddenly become racists? Was there a comet I missed? And those opposing Obama seem equally or more scornful of Pelosi, Reed, Gore, Kerry, and the rest of that pinkish batch trying to ram ObamaCare down our throat. In fact us have a far worse opinion of Pelosi than of Obama, if the polls are correct. If this were driven by racism, wouldn’t that finding be the opposite? And our negative feelings for Pelosi preceded Obama coming into the White House, so don’t try to spin some pseudo-academic nonsense about punishing white enablers of black pride — it doesn’t fit the facts or the time line.
Personally, as a conservative, I’m absolutely delighted we have a black President. I just wish he were Thomas Sowell, not Barrack Obama.
Nothing angers many of us than the false accusations hurled by the race baiting crowd, so let ‘em fire away and discredit themselves.
And let’s find a better word for racial prejudice — for those who want to judge others based on the color of their skin. I’ve got it, how about “affirmative actioners”? Oh wait, that’s two words.
I’m really surprised that so many people are surprised by this tactic!
Charging your opposion with’racism’ worked well during the campaign; Obama was always part or even the instigator in this charge, sometimes through his surrogates.
Obama himself would love nothing more right now for the ‘racist charge’ to stick, a game changer if you so will.
Remember every morning, Rahm, and the old fringe media meet to discuss the topics for the day. Besides dem’libs’progressives ae the true racists, remember their history.
Just at what point will “the boy who cried ‘wolf!’” get eaten?!
Hey libs you don’t have anything good to say about America, then STFU.
I am glad the race card is already being used on anyone against Obama’s policys. You see, I have been a racist my whole life. I did not choose to be but being from the south and white, anyone I met in my travels north and west, made me a racist just for being born in a southern state. Now that the race card is used for 30% to 50% of U.S. people, I can see the term “racist” losing it power.
Democrats always overplay their hand, and this time, they’re overplaying the race card. We’ll eventually get desensitized to the accusation, and nobody will care anymore about being called racist. What then, liberals?
I am so sick of right wing prejudice, against helping the middle class, the poor, the blue collar workers, those that can still work, You voted, you lost, get over it and work with all of us for the good of all. It was a year ago we bailed out the banks. The weathy benefited. They also got the tax breaks. Now a lot of us are unemployed, without health insurance and housing and the right wingers yell about everything but——
Racist? no, demonic yes….these conservatives are predictable. I guess if Obama created a war and murdered innocent people including their own children, they would like pigs eating sht. True freedom lovers and American Patriots don’t even listen to these idiots. No, glen beck and limbaugh are not racist, they can’t see, or hear, thy are only figure heads for something much more diabolical and in the grand scheme of things, they and their followers don’t even count.
Some of you are racists but I don’t really give a crap how many.
More important, you don’t want to live in a democracy, and that makes you dangerous to our country.
The basic message is that no one who differs from you has the right to an opinion, a vote,
or a voice.
That does make you similar to the Klan I grew up around. We fought them, and we’ll fight you too.
So don’t try to kid a kidder–or an old cracker like me.
When a man stands outside my house with a gun showing, he is threatening me.
When a man stands up and shouts “Liar” at the President, he is trying to intimidate the Commander in Chief of the U.S.
So who’s a traitor now? Intimidation is the only card the Right has, once character asassination fails. Keep it in check, or you will pay the price.
Over and over, I say again. Who are we prejudiced against Obama the black man or Obama the white man? He is at least as much if not more white than black. He was raised by white Grand parents and therefore probably has more white cultural tendencies. He downplays his blackness except when appealing to black voters. Jimmy Carter is just trying to stir up racism as a tool in fighting for the liberal agenda. Or should I say Alinsky agenda? B.S., we question Obama the grey man, the one who shrouds his past personal resume in secrecy, with no college transcripts available for us to evaluate his true intelligence separate from his speaking ability. Being able to talk doesn’t necessarily equate to an ability to decipher facts. Who are the racists? Van Jones, Kenye West, and others like Jeremiah Jones have unabashedly voiced their disdain for whites. Who are the racists, Oh maybe Henry Gates Al Sharpton, those with color on their minds are the ones who see color. The ones who cry racism are only reflecting their own bigotry. White America, quit being cowed by the racists conspiracy. Michael Steele, Star Parker, and Michelle Malkin criticize Obama. I guess their voicesd are just wrapped in hatred for people of color.
wow i wish i could write with the same great reasoning ability of native son. couldn’t agree with him more.
I wrote post with much is sentiment, you’re invited to read it.
The race card is dead. When Libs resort to it, it means they have no good arguments. You Libs might as well give it up. When you realize it’s not having the effect you want, what will you use next?
I am not a racist. But I’m beginning to wonder WHY I’m not. I mean, if I was born that way, and there’s nothing I can do to change it, maybe I should just go with the flow and embrace the hate I didn’t know I had?
Being critical of a president’s ideas does not make you racist, being critical of congress and bills within congress does not make you racist. We have to be critical of people in power, as a way to keep their power in check. You can disagree with the president without being racist, however, liberals will call you racist. When you say that Obama shouldn’t be president because he’s black, he’s Muslim, he’s not from America, or some other [expletive deleted], that makes you racist.
So, as soon as Obama comes up with a real birth certificate I won’t be a racist… wow.
No one cares what color he is, or what nationality, it’s his sicko politics and the company he keeps that is causing the problem.
As far as his being Muslim? Well, Taquiya.
I think that if one is accused of being a racist enough it will finally sink in and that person will then become a racist. So as I continue to disagree with president Obama by election time in 2012 I will absolutely not vote for any black man for any reason because I have been forcibly transformed into a RACIST! So I guess any way the liberal left wants it they eventually lose until they convert illegals into votes!!
SHUT UP!
That’s what this tactic is all about. Shouting “Racist!” doesn’t debate, question or explore an issue. It merely dismisses the opposition as unworthy of participation- and that makes it very dangerous to the health of the Republic.