The Race Card (again and again...)

 

 

 

 

"If you can't win the argument with facts, you can always revert to name calling..."

Well, I heard it again this morning. I turned on the seldom watched "Morning Joe" to find out what the "other side" thinks of the latest and greatest events concerning the health care debate. As usual, I was looking for some good intellectual conversation so I could get a glimpse of the thinking (or lack of it) that goes on in the Left. Just when I thought we were getting somewhere in the discussion, our dear friend (and daughter of Hale and Lindy Boggs), came up with this whopper. "Well, say what you want, but some in the Tea Party do not like Obamacare because the President is black". I almost fell out of bed.

Now I will admit I have heard the President's race mentioned many times - always by the Left. The only mention of the President's skin I have heard from the Right is not the color, but the thickness. Yes, I am one of them. I have accused him of being "thin skinned" more than once. I also did say something once about his race after he was nominated and the radical nature of his politics became known. My comment was simply this - "I think this country is more than ready for a black president. However, if you cannot criticize his policies without being called racist, than maybe I am wrong". I said it five years ago, and still believe it today. If you can't criticize the President on ANYTHING without some idiot saying "I head the dog whistle of racism in that", we have a big, big problem.

The most interesting thing about this morning's comment by Cookie was this - if the issue being debated was an improvement to our Civil Rights law or something like that, then maybe, just maybe, there could have been a modicum of truth (although I still doubt it) in her statement. But heath care? Please, give me a break.

I am old enough to remember the life, the times and the assignation of Dr. Martin Luther King. He was a good and decent man - not perfect, but very good. Many of us, on the Right and Left, really held on to the part of his famous speech when he said:

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Dr. King was right back then and he is right now. We are judging President Obama by the content of his policies, not the color of his skin. If I hear one more pundit from MSNBC use the term "dog whistle" or "racial code speak" when someone mentions "Chicago", I am going to puke. Lets get on with the nation's business and not get wrapped up in destructive name calling. We all deserve better.