Can we tear up "the race card" now?

I saw this mentioned on Wednesday in James Taranto's daily email, and was so stunned I didn't know how to respond. I started a post but couldn't complete it. A rarity; I'm not often at a loss for words, but this story has left me gape-mouthed. Taranto brought it up again today and I'm making another run at a post, determined to get it completed and posted before I dissolve into angry ranting. Wish me luck!

It seems that in Maryland, at least, the issue if race is not really all that important or sensitive any more. An African-American, Micheal Steele, is running for a Senate seat from of that state, which is not exceptional, especially considering that Mr Steele is the current Lt. Governor. Shockingly, at least to my naive ears, Lt. Governor Steele has been subjected to fierce racial attacks of the sort that disgraced American politics in an earlier era. Not the more subtle attacks hidden in innuendo and code words, or the softer racism of "low expectations." Rather, Steele has been subjected to good old-fashioned racial baiting and stereotyping. That is shocking and dismaying enough, I am literally stunned to find that this is not considered shameful behavior in Maryland. There is a catch, apparently. The people tossing racial barbs at Steele are fellow African-Americans, and they are Democrats. The other key factor is Steele himself. The Lt. Governor is a Republican.

State Sen. Lisa A. Gladden, a black Baltimore Democrat, said she does not expect her party to pull any punches, including racial jabs at Mr. Steele, in the race to replace retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes. "Party trumps race, especially on the national level," she said. "If you are bold enough to run, you have to take whatever the voters are going to give you. It's democracy, perhaps at its worse, but it is democracy."

Wrong Lisa, that's not democracy, even "at it's worst." That's racism; old-fashioned anti-black racism. If the situation was reversed and Republicans of any color tried these tactics against State Sen. Gladden, I cannot imagine that she would dismiss it as the price of democracy. Tactics like those were used against earlier generations of black candidates, and some explained that these "trouble making blacks" should have expected some trouble. Perhaps someone in Alabama turned to a reporter and said, "you have to take whatever the voters are going to give you."

As a child in the 60's I was inspired by the courage of M.L. King and the people, both black and white, who joined in those protests. In the church where I worship, a banner to Dr. King hangs overhead amongst other "saints of the church", and his "Letter from [a] Birmingham Jail" is studied in Christian Education classes. In the '70's I roomed with black students at school and learned their stories and lived in their world, if only for a bit, and developed a deep, visceral hatred for the smirking evil of racism and related ways of belittling and humiliating a fellow human. To this day I cannot fathom the calm and control of African-American friends who brush off discrimination and taunts and move on. 'Tis a good thing I was born a New England "wasp"; I'd have been in fights everyday with an ethnicity that attracted attack.

So despite the assurances of Maryland Democrats, that "politics trumps race", and that racial attack is no longer a really serious matter, I find I cannot contort my own emotional form to fit the new mold. I must go on hating racists, even those that are black.

This feeling has been long brewing in me. I have been getting strong whiffs of a festering racism amongst the left for some time. Michelle Malkin has been subjected to the most ugly racial attacks from the left for some time. These ugly rants have even provided her with material for a new book, which was released this week to a storm of highly racist outcry from the left. She has been covering the Steele affair and other examples of the left's increasingly open racism (and anti-semitism) on her blog. See this post for the latest on Steele and this earlier post as well (which includes the now infamous "Sambo" photo). Here's a quote:

This is how low the Left's political discourse has sunk: I'm a banana and a coconut and a whore and worse. Michael Steele is an Uncle Tom and a Sambo. ...So, defacing Steele's photo and assaulting him with Oreo cookies are peaceful exercises of free speech. Demonizing Condi is a harmless prank. Calling her a "House Nigga" is acceptable humor.

So even the previously radioactive "n-word" is now revealed to be only a harmless taunt to toss at a dark skinned member of the opposite party. I'm not buying it. What started as "racialism" slips quickly into simple racism with only a small nudge. I'm not going to fall into line and accept it. The Democrats of Maryland and elsewhere may celebrate their own perverse equality of hate, where an opponent can be despised for race, ethnicity, religion or even for shopping at WalMart. I can only react with revulsion, and a large measure of dismay. Can this ugliness never be killed?

One thing that has been killed, is any sense that the "race card" retains any meaning. The Black Caucus has killed it, by eagerly dipping into the white-racists' bag of tricks without shame. These black politicians have finally "gotten even" with the white-racists of old. They have descended to that subterranean level themselves, tossing aside what moral authority was left them, and will no longer find this American listening when they cry "racism."

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