PrintSeptember 16, 2009
Democrats Jumping the Race-Card Shark
Welcome to the post-racial presidency of Barack Obama, in which it has suddenly become a racial issue when American citizens dare to criticize the president. Now, this is so silly, so asinine that it boggles the mind of any rational person. If there is one thing even more American than apple pie, it is the rhetorical slicing and dicing of our presidents. This stems from the egalitarian nature of our Constitution and our forceful, revolutionary rebuke of royalty. Rhetorically eviscerating presidents as the servants of the people they are constitutionally mandated to be is as much an American pastime as baseball.
Yet, over the past week we've seen a veritable parade of racist accusations from liberal pundits, liberal TV folks, Democratic congressmen and now a former president.
Of course, the former president is none other than the hopelessly doddering Jimmy Carter, whose book on Israeli Apartheid (Puh-lease.) just made Osama Bin Laden's must-read book list, so perhaps we can just throw that one out.
Still, something's very much afoot. It's as though a plug had been pulled on the swamp somewhere and all the gators are jamming to get out on the airwaves with their vicious bites aiming for any white dissenter that can be found.
Maureen Dowd penned a bitter screed over the weekend aimed at Joe Wilson. Ms. Dowd seemed to hear Mr. Wilson say the word, "Boy" at the end of his "You lie" sentiment. Odd that no one else, not even the recording equipment heard it.
The TV celebs were taking silly pot shots with crass innuendo. Bill Stupid-is-as-stupid-does Maher, in an attempt to parody Drudge's "racism," came up with some fake headlines that mimicked the first lady "hoe'n in the garden," and similar lovelies. How do these degenerates stay on TV?
Politico reported that many Democratic congressmen and women could see the blatant racism rearing its ugly head in dissent from the president's policies.
Tuesday, a Congressman from my home state of Georgia, Rep. Hank Johnson said that if the House didn't censure Joe Wilson, then folks would "put on the white hoods and roam the countryside." Congressman Johnson seems to have forgotten that most of the KKK men, to whom he is referring, were Democrats, the architects and masters of real Southern Apartheid, Jim Crow. Heck, Senator Byrd is still there and he was one.
A rather inconvenient fact, however, is that the only reported act of racial violence so far happened on Tuesday on a public school bus in St. Louis and the offenders were black, the victim white. An apparently unprovoked attack on a high school student took place over - get this - a seat on the bus. The irony is downright nerve-wrenching. A black student beat the white student to the cheers of his black classmates and the bus driver supposedly did nothing to intervene. KKK in reverse? That's a lot more violence than Rosa Parks got over her seat on the bus. In fact, Rosa Parks wasn't on the receiving end of anything more than arrogant stares. Police suspect race was the motivating factor in the St. Louis school-bus attack.
Now, it's pretty darned hard to polarize the entire white-conservative citizenry in pure Alinsky fashion. Evidently, though, this is going to be the line of attack. What's obvious, however, is that this is the most desperate move yet to shore up the failing grades of a president in over his head. And it certainly does appear orchestrated. DNC, anyone?
This jumping the shark with the race card may be an act of grave desperation, similar to the over-the-top media blitz that the president has scheduled this weekend, but the possible ramifications indeed would seem dire. How many racially motivated attacks are we about to see in response to this intentional baiting by a shamelessly irresponsible media's fomenting this unjust race war of words?
How easy did these people think it was going to be when they decided to elect a man whose resume fits nicely on a postage stamp to the highest office in the land?
Racism? No. Incompetence with a capital "I." Yes, we can object.
Add a glaring, growing lack of credibility in those eloquently-read-from-the-teleprompter speeches, and it's no puzzle why Democrats feel the urgent need to jump the shark in a desperate attempt to save their president. What's truly amazing, though, is that this may prove to be a two-fer. Pulling the race card with such ubiquitous concentration will not a floundering presidency save. And in the end, this ludicrous use of the race card may prove the race-card's last stand, too. Jumping the shark for the president and jumping the race-card shark all at the same time. If I weren't seeing it, I wouldn't be believing it.
Kyle-Anne Shiver is a frequent contributor to American Thinker and a syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate.
