Democratic Racism & Why Republicans Should Embrace Identity Politics

If a Republican secretary somewhere sends out a racist email or somebody makes a racist comment on a Republican’s Facebook page, the Democratic grievance machine cranks up to full speed and the left declares that every Republican in America is a racist.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of these minor racial slights that occur on the Left as well, but they just get ignored, buried, or treated much less seriously than they would have if Republicans were involved.

Let me give you a couple of quick examples, both of which you would have heard about in nauseating detail had a Republican been involved,

Barbara Boxer, the far left U.S. Senator from California, was given a stern face-to-face reprimand by the president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Harry Alford, for trying to pit one black group against another instead of addressing issues on their merits. It’s about time.

Mr. Alford, it should be noted, does not have much use for left wing ideologues. He believes in free enterprise — something that seems to elude Boxer. “It is all right for black folks to begin building wealth in this country,” Alford once said. “It is not against the law, and it certainly is more enjoyable than poverty.”

In this case, instead of dealing substantively with Mr. Alford’s criticisms of the current Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade energy bill, Ms. Boxer tried to discredit Alford by pointing out how black groups such as the NAACP and “100 Black Men of Atlanta” were allegedly supporting the bill.

It should be noted that Boxer actually got her facts wrong: the NAACP is in favor of protecting the environment but is not necessarily committed to cap-and-trade or other job-killing programs. More importantly, Mr. Alford scolded her for her divisive, racially charged tactics:

“That’s condescending and I don’t like it; it’s racial. I don’t like it. I take offense to it. As an African American and a veteran of this country [i.e., the military], I take offense to that…. You are being racial here, and I think you’re getting to a path here that’s going to explode.”

Now, here’s another one,

The Rev. Al Sharpton wasted no time in teeing off on Rep. Carolyn Maloney for using a racial slur during an interview with City Hall News, saying her alleged employment of “the ‘N’ word” is “alarming and disturbing at best.”

“No public official even in quoting someone else should loosely use such an offensive term and should certainly challenge someone using the term to him or her,” Sharpton said in a press release.

“If in fact this quote is accurate, Congresswoman Maloney should issue a public apology for allowing that kind of dialogue to go un-challenged by her and for repeating it. Congresswoman Maloney should reveal the person that she was talking about so we know that in fact this conversation did occur and the way in which it occurred.”

Maloney has already issued an apology of sorts, telling Azi (via a statement e-mailed by her campaign spokesman, Paul Blank):
“I apologize for having repeated a word I find disgusting. It’s no excuse but I was so caught up in relaying the story exactly as it was told to me that, in doing so, I repeated a word that should never be repeated.”

Just so we’re clear, Sharpton is not merely an outraged innocent bystander in this case.

He formally endorsed Maloney’s likely 2010 primary target, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, last month, praising her “ability to bring people together, listen to their challenges and forge solutions to the problems they face.”

My favorite line: “Just so we’re clear, Sharpton is not merely an outraged innocent bystander in this case.” When is Sharpton ever an “outraged innocent bystander?” This is a guy who makes his living running around the country shouting “racism” until someone pays him money to go away or to “keep up the good work.”

We’ve gotten to a point in our country where white and Hispanic firefighters can be denied promotions based solely on the color of their skin and liberal Democrats all across the country give a thumbs up to that. Meanwhile, if some Republican councilman in pissant, Nebraska sends out an insensitive email, the very same liberals will try to tar the entire Republican Party as racist.

I could sit here and tell you it’s not fair, but you already know that. I could tell you it makes no logical sense, but you already know that, too. Here’s the solution: It’s time for the Republican Party to embrace identity politics.

We need our own Jesse Jacksons, our own Al Sharptons, our own NAACP because if you’re black, conservative, or a Republican, you’re never going to get a fair shake from any of them — and they have been ceded the right, based on the color of their skin, to decide which racial issues matter and what subjects can be discussed. It should be obvious in 2009 that the only people who believe in judging people “not…by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” are conservatives. Once we accept that and start taking political account of it, we can start to move forward.

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