Harry Reid, "Racist"

JW,

I love talking (anonymously) about race, particularly when it's a Democrat who's put the issue back on the front page. This time the culprit is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who, according to a just-released account of the 2008 election, predicted early in Barack Obama's candidacy that Obama could win because he is "light-skinned," has "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one," and "isn't afraid of dogs and swimming pools." Okay, I made that last one up, but the rest is real. Reid, already the target of a serious re-election challenge, now finds himself in that most precarious of political positions: convincing Americans that he didn't mean the truth he uttered.

Happily, Reid faces a cooperative press and a "Negro" political establishment that can't wait to let bygones be bygones. Leading the charge, as always, is Al Sharpton, who told the New York Times on Saturday that "while Mr. Reid 'did not select the best word choice in this instance,' the comments should not distract Congress or the White House." Also forgiving is Obama himself, who "accepted Harry’s apology without question because I’ve known him for years. I’ve seen the passionate leadership he’s shown on issues of social justice, and I know what’s in his heart." Because Reid is a Democrat, Sharpton and Obama tell us, he literally cannot commit a racist act or think a racist thought--his liberalism has rendered it an impossibility. Conversely, Republicans cannot help but be racist--George Allen, remember, was forced out of politics because he might have meant "macaca" as a racial slur.

What makes Sharpton's and Obama's comments so odious is their underlining of the absolute fact that race and its accompanying hysteria are weapons used by Democrats against Republicans. Period. While the black man or woman on the street may experience racism as a scourge, elite Democrats of color see only an opportunity--for their own advancement as well as that of their party. Similarly ridiculous has been the Times' focus-shifting, a masterpiece of partisanship that spent the weekend transforming the story from Reid's gaffe to GOP Chairman Michael Steele's insistence that he resign. (What's next? "Michael Steele: Another Black Guy Who Can't Take a Joke"?) As the story develops, look for Sharpton, Obama, and other black "leaders" to stick by Reid. . . as long as doing so doesn't jeopardize the health care bill. The minute it does, they'll denounce him from the very rooftops of Washington.

The only question is whether or not they'll have their Negro dialects in the "on" position.

-GM

GM,

How many racially inspired posts does this make for us? Four? Five?

My biggest curiosity is whether or not Reid would have been under any fire if he hadn't used the word "Negro." I suspect so. I assume there still would have been outrage if he had said, "Obama can win because his skin is light for a black man and because he doesn't speak like some uneducated black people tend to speak." Other than his use of the diet N-word, there is practically no difference between that comment and the one he actually made. And that comment is unadulterated truth. In most elections--2000 and 2004 excluded--we like our presidential candidates to sound like they went to college. Yet it's hard to imagine that, in a society where being "progressive" means accepting racial differences without daring to acknowledge them, such a remark would go over well...

...which leads us to your complaint. Reid somehow managed to escape most of the wrath that would have been coming to him if he hadn't been a Democrat. Secretly, though, the Donkeys must be fuming! "Look, Harry, we can't claim the social moral high ground if you don't abide by our ever-evolving rules of racism. Thank God we have the media!"

Of course you're right that the race card is a political weapon, and Republicans have no answer for it so far. This is why I fear for the future of the GOP. While immigration continues to bring us closer to the point that whites are just another minority, the Left has redefined racism to include any political disagreement with a non-white. And considering that most non-whites in America vote Democrat, we'll either continue to see a shift in what constitutes conservatism, or we won't see a Republican in the White House for a while. We may have an occasional laugh at Mormons and Catholics for having so many children, but they're certainly doing their part to keep the red states red.

-JW