Racism and totalitarianism

The marquee quote is Jesse Jackson declaring that “the Tea Party is the resurrection of the Confederacy,” but the entire surreal Politico article that tries to make ugly racialists obsessives and political hacks sound like reasonable mainstream commentators is a wonder to behold:

“For Obama, economics is a safe way to talk about race,” said Taylor
Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a three-volume history of the
King era widely regarded as the definitive chronicle of the civil rights
movement.

“Even though he’s the first black president, he’s in a tiptoe stance
on race — that’s a phrase I borrowed from King’s ‘Letter from a
Birmingham Jail.’ It makes him nervous. He can’t even ask the most basic
question which he’s begging to ask: To what degree is the partisan
gridlock that is frustrating his attempts to govern racially driven?”
says Branch.

“I’m not blaming him … The slightest mention of race could alienate the
millions of white Americans who voted for him,” he added.

No, this is not satire – at least, I don’t think it’s meant to be.  Obama dares not speak about race, so he’s unfairly intimidated out of asking the question boiling from the lips of every single MSNBC host, 24 hours a day: how much of the unreasonable resistance to his majestic agenda is driven by Republican racism? 

Is Taylor Branch truly so out-of-touch that he doesn’t know the entire Left has been screaming that opposition to Obama is nothing but racism?  Does he really not remember that Obama himself is not at all above insinuating it, as with his infamous observations that the rules are unfairly different and harsh for a President who looks like him, or has a name like him?  I doubt it.  This is lying propaganda, not blind stupidity.  It’s a cute way to reinforce the “dissent from Obama is illegal” narrative, a lesson learned harshly by certain Missouri rodeo clowns.  We can only sit quietly and wonder if all resistance to Dear Leader flows from the Klansman lurking in every Republican heart, because we dare not ask such questions out loud.

Get load of this excuse for why Obama won’t visit the glittering crown jewel of one-party Democrat rule, where all of his policy preferences have been implemented without effective political resistance for five decades and counting:

Team Obama is not a deeply sentimental group, nor is it inclined to make
big, dramatic gestures without a clear political upside. That’s why the
West Wing has thus far brushed off suggestions Obama make a symbolic
trip to the predominantly black, bankrupt city of Detroit — because
one Obama hand.

What happened to “Yes, we can?”

But I digress.  On to Jesse Jackson and his ruminations about the true nature of the Tea Party:

Jesse Jackson, who more than anyone occupies the no man’s land
between his mentor King and Obama, the man who won the political office
he prized, told POLITICO he “absolutely” thinks congressional
Republicans are motivated by race in opposing the president’s policies.

“The tea party is the resurrection of the Confederacy, it’s the Fort Sumter tea party,” Jackson said.

 Not much “tip-toeing” going on there.  Would someone like to run this filthy garbage from Jackson past our post-racial healer President and ask him to denounce it?  I don’t recommend holding your breath while you’re waiting.

Anyone who voted for Obama thinking they were ushering in a new era of reconciliation and harmony must feel awfully cheated by now.  It’s only gotten worse, as dead-end Obama supporters pull an endless stream of race cards from their sleeves to explain away his failures.  The totalitarian impulse to de-legitimize opposition can always use a volunteer battalion of racist thoughtcrime vigilantes.

This is one of the reasons why it’s not just “tit-for-tat” score settling to point out how the media and political class treats some racially-tinged stories very differently from others.  (Another reason, as I’ve argued several times now, is that it diverts public energy away from dealing with real problems.)  This whole atmosphere of presumed-guilty racism is unfair, incendiary, and highly corrosive of honest political and cultural discourse.  You can’t honestly speak your mind if you’re first obliged to convince a highly skeptical tribunal of self-appointed thoughtcrime judges that you’re not motivated by racism.  Good ideas will not be able to flow up the side of a hill so profoundly slanted against them.  Who thinks conservatives or Republicans can ever make progress “reaching out” to a community that has internalized the attitudes of “leaders” like Jesse Jackson? 

We’re reaching the point where Americans can’t talk to each other at all… and then we have to put up with people like Attorney General Eric Holder calling us “cowards” because his party and its media auxiliaries have successfully intimidated us into silence.  I challenge anyone “mentored” by Martin Luther King Jr. to argue that’s what Dr. King wanted.

Update: A timely list of “15 Moronic Things Liberals Call Racism Since Obama Was Elected,” from John Hawkins, can be found here.  Number One on the list: criticizing the IRS.  But by all means, let’s have some more navel-gazing from liberals about how they aren’t talking about racism enough.