There is a great episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "The High Ground" (Season 3, Episode 12), in which the Enterprise is visiting the planet Rutia IV to deliver medical supplies to victims of a decades-long war of independence between the Rutians and Ansata separatists.  While Enterprise crewmembers are dining in a Rutian café, an Ansata bomb explodes, wounding two Rutian civilians.  Fortunately, the ever resourceful and beautiful Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) is present and runs to help.  While she is providing medical attention to the injured, an Ansata fighter appears out of thin air, grabs hold of Crusher, then teleports back to the Ansata hideout with her.

While being held captive, Dr. Crusher notices that several of the Ansata fighters are sick with an ailment unknown to her.  Something appears to be ripping their DNA apart.  She confronts the Ansata leader, Kyril Finn, who confesses to her that the sickness is caused by a device known as "the Inverter," which allows untraceable jumps between dimensions – the method of teleportation used to capture Crusher and attack the Rutians.  In the hands of the rebels, the Inverter is a powerful secret weapon, but it is slowly killing them.  Dr. Crusher is not just a random hostage – the Ansata desperately need a doctor.

I will leave the rest for anyone who wants to check it out.  The entire series is available on Netflix streaming.

As I went back and watched this episode again (it's still great, even with the 1980s special effects), I noticed how closely the Ansata predicament mirrors the dilemma of the modern-day left.  Leftists have been using racism charges for decades, with devastating effect.  It worked for them because, like dimensional shift, there is no counter.  An accusation like that is a conversation stopper, and one many normally reasonable people were all too quick to believe despite flimsy or nonexistent evidence.

But it isn't working anymore, and it's killing them politically. 

Reasonable people no longer believe the left.  Too many of them either have been the recipients of bogus accusations of racism or know someone who has.  If that other person being slandered happens to be one's child, the fury rises exponentially.  And these people vote.

Jim Goad, a favorite columnist of mine over at Taki's Magazine, covered this very topic back in December with a brilliant piece entitled "How the Left Strangled Itself with Identity Politics."  I encourage everyone to read it, as Goad's in-your-face writing style is both refreshing and funny.

Bottom line: The Democrats have a real problem, and it goes beyond the mere ineffectiveness of their favorite weapon.  Identity politics is offensive to the overwhelming majority of people, and the Democratic Party is inextricably tethered to the far left.  Replacing the leadership is not enough.  Democrats will have to put an end to the perpetual race-baiting.  How do they do that when there is a new crop of progressive brownshirts spilling out of the universities every year?

Part of me hopes they figure it out, but the greater part is enjoying their electoral failures and misery too much.

Marco Milaneci is an I.T. compliance program manager at a Fortune 500 company.  He can be reached at mmblog [at] austin.rr.com.