Published: September 20, 2009 09:59 pm      

False cries of racism inure citizens to real thing

In the wake of the tea party protests and the town hall meetings nationwide, it seems the demagoguery is being ratcheted up almost by the day — and now we have former presidents jumping into the fray, as Jimmy Carter did last week as he alleged much of the opposition to President Obama is largely fueled by racism.

Carter's far from the only one to make such an allegation, of course; however, it should be noted that the fact that many people make baseless allegations does nothing to increase the credibility of said allegations.

This is especially true as Obama's opposition cites plenty of other reasons to raise a hue and cry about issues from the bailouts to certain aspects of the health care bills before Congress. If Obama would sign off on a bill that, for example, requires citizens to buy health insurance or face federal fines — as is stipulated in one such proposal — then it's not at all clear how backlash to such a sweeping federal mandate is attributable to racism as many on the left would have citizens believe. To cite another example, what of all the Americans from all over the country — not just the South — who went to the gun stores in the weeks after the election and bought every spare semiautomatic rifle and box of ammunition on the shelves? Was that attributable to racism too? We would hazard a guess that the answer is no, considering something similar happened in the months leading up to the Clinton "assault weapons ban." Incidentally, on a related note, it's rather interesting that Carter didn't call Obama out on his own remark from April 2008 about rural Pennsylvanians "get(ting) bitter" or "cling(ing) to guns and religion...as a way to explain their frustrations." It seems that was a much more obvious example of a bigoted attitude toward a different group of people than is most of what the tea party and town hall protesters are saying.

Not only is this wanton attribution of racism to the opposition out of line, but it also inures Americans to real racism, as it's a "crying wolf" of sorts. If those on the left cry "racism" every time the president's policies are questioned or resisted, then sooner or later the word is going to lose all meaning. Sooner or later when real racism is displayed, the population is going to think that those who point it out are making a big deal out of nothing, as they had been tarring everyone who doesn't agree with them with the "racist" epithet even when it was undeserved.

It's also worth asking how much of this crying of "racism" is meant to stifle discussion. One would think those who tar the opposition as racists are almost afraid to have an honest discussion of the issues and how government's getting involved in said issues is going to affect our liberties — or how such involvement is justified or even permitted by the Constitution.

There's no doubt that racism exists, but to whatever extent it might exist — and even to whatever extent it might fuel opposition to President Obama and his proposed policies — it's still grossly unfair to paint said opposition with the "racist" brush. Intentional or not, it plants the seed in the mind of many that most if not all of said opposition is due that. America deserves a more honest look at the issues, and that's almost fatally undermined by such demagoguery.