The Old Conservatives and Republicans Are Racist Argument Again

It appears for some reason this tired argument makes an appearance every few months. Usually when things are going bad for the left. I am pretty much convinced throwing out charges of racism every 5 seconds has been one of the most destructive things to happen in this country the last two decades.

Today's offender is Matthew Yglesias who attacks Victor Hanson. Hanson responds here.

Of course it is one thing when hacks and pundits like Dowd and Yglesias do this but another when a United States Senators does it. Think just a few weeks ago and what the esteemed Senator of Rhode Island said in in the Senate Chambers.

On that note there is a good article on this also at the Weekly Standard. See Secondhand Hate. A pretty stinging indictment.

Here is just a part:
For years now, those on the left have conflated resistance to any item of their agenda--high taxes, extravagant spending, laxity on crime, what have you--with motives of a dark nature: racism, nativism, fear of "the other," and various species of "hate." Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, a reaction to overregulation, stagflation, and the foreign policy failures and weakness of one James Earl Carter, was described as the bigots' revenge for the civil rights era. The midterm elections of 1994, a reaction against Hillarycare and the Clintons' malfeasance, were seen as a Confederate renaissance. After Bill Clinton was impeached for lies under
oath (and terminal tackiness), his allies. floated the theory that some of the votes against him came from Southern conservatives, because he was friendly to blacks. (As the "first black president"--vide Toni Morrison--Clinton was fond of this sort of rhetorical legerdemain until 2008, when his wife ran against a real black for president, and these tactics were turned against him.)

But it was the appearance in 2009 of the real first black president that lifted this theme to a whole new level: The left, which invented first "hate speech" (opinions they didn't like) and then "hate crimes" (crimes judged less on the criminal's actions than on what he was presumed to be thinking), has now gone on to its epiphany, which is "hate" defined not by your words or deeds but by what other people have decided you really think. "Hate" is no longer what you do or say, but what a liberal says that you think and projects on to you. You are punished for what someone else claims you were thinking. It hardly makes sense, but it does serve a political purpose. You could call it Secondhand Hate....

Read the whole thing. It is a tough call to see what is done more b the left to try to shut down hearing opinions they don't like. That is the racism charge or yell separation of Church and State. Still it is destructive and makes finding and calling out the real racist much harder.