The New Racism

Bill Maher said last week on his HBO show that denying racism is the new racism.  I think Maher, with great clarity, has captured the sentiment and strategy of the Left heading into the 2012 presidential election.  If you are a Republican, you are a bigot.  If you are a conservative, you're an extremist.  If you oppose Barack Obama, you're a racist.  A rising chorus of liberal elected officials, media pundits, and celebrities have begun to circle around the president's reelection campaign to make that case.

This isn't entirely new.  The Left has been trying to characterize the right as bigots and religious nuts for years, but the brazenness and scope of these attacks has reached a new high (or low).  As Maher stated, the Left has now set up a scenario where conservatives are racists no matter what.  Consider a few examples from just the past few weeks:

The media jumped all over a story in the Washington Post, in which a rock near the entrance of a property in Texas that was partially leased thirty years ago by Governor Rick Perry's father allegedly had the word "N----rhead" written on it.  It was apparently painted over about the same time, but because Rick Perry occasionally used the property for hunting, the media wants to determine his racial tolerance quotient based on how long it took to paint over the racial epithet.

Morgan Freeman insisted on the Piers Morgan show that the fierce opposition to President Obama is motivated by race, going so far as to say the Tea Party represents the "weak, dark underside of America."

Sean Penn, also on Piers Morgan's show, expressed himself this way, "You have what I call the 'Get the ‘N’-word out of the White House party,' the Tea Party."  In case he wasn't clear enough, he continued "..at the end of the day, there's a big bubble coming out of their heads saying, you know, 'can we just lynch him?'”.

The media has long been fond of  pointing out the "whiteness" of the crowds at Tea Party rallys (while ignoring the overwhelmingly white make-up of the "Occupy Wall Street" protests).  The irony here is that Republicans elected more minorities to national office in 2010 than Democrats.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida

Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada (state's first hispanic gov.)

Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina (state's first female gov. & an Indian-American)

Gov. Susannah Martinez of New Mexico (state's first hispanic female gov.)

Rep. Allen West of Florida (state's first black congressman since 1870s)

Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina (state's 1st black congressman)

Rep. Bill Flores of Texas

Rep. Francisco Canseco of Texas.

One would assume this would put an end to the argument.  But according to the Left's new paradigm, it simply doesn't matter what Conservatives say or do.  They are racists. End of discussion.  So how do they explain Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain leading in several of the national polls and his enthusiastic support from the Tea Party?  Simple.  He's a racist too.

Cain recently suggested that black Americans have been brainwashed into voting for Democrats.  A controversial statement to be sure, but racist?  Yes, according to a number of liberal pundits, including Democratic strategist and CNN political analyst Cornell Belcher.

But it goes further.  Cain is also accused of being an Uncle Tom and not authentically black; a sellout, an accommodator who sat on the sidelines of the civil rights movement. I find this ironic too, given that Herman Cain lived a far more "black experience" in the segregated south than Obama did growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii, raised by his white grandparents.  I'm not sure why this "blackness" standard wasn't applied to then Senator Obama.  That irony is lost on some in the media, who will go as low as they have to in order to demonize Republicans.  In an interview with Cain on MSNBC, lily-white Lawrence O'Donnell questions his black credentials, as does Martin Bashir who was particularly nasty, essentially calling him a coward.

But liberals don't stop there.  Now, there are a growing number of topics, political arguments and discussions under scrutiny.  Melissa Harris-Perry, a professor at Tulane University and political commentator, declared over the weekend it is racist to point out the fact that 47% of Americans do not pay federal income tax.  This is not unlike Carlos Watson's assertion a couple years ago that conservatives' use of the term "socialist" is the new n-word. 

The simple truth is conservatives oppose President Obama because he is a big government liberal who is convinced we can tax and spend our way to prosperity.  But many on the left, it seems, just cannot fathom the idea that anyone would oppose President Obama on principal.  Some choose to see racism as the basis for all opposing viewpoints.  Still others simply see the use of racial politics as an effective and convenient political strategy.  Either way, it is likely these attacks will only grow in frequency and force as the election draws closer.  But racism won't be the only charge. Expect to see conservatives tarred as homophobic, anti-science religious extremists who want to set up a Christian theocracy in the White House.  And if Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee, how long will it be before 60 Minutes, CNN and Dateline NBC run feature stories on the Mormon faith, dissecting its history and "weird" beliefs and theology?  

It's a nasty business, but it changes the subject and distracts the American people from Barack Obama's dismal record as President.