Res Publica 2005

Ever since it was announced (and even perhaps before) Condi Rice was announced for Secretary of State, a dark trend was becoming clear. It was perfectly all right to use old racist stereotypes against people who were not on the liberal bandwagon. Images that would have been howled at for their racism if they were about other people were brought forth and jokes were made that would have ended the careers of the perpertrators had they been about, say Jesse Jackson or other black democrats were seen as fitting illustrations of Ms. Rice.

The new ploy is becoming obvious. Racism isn't racism if it's done by the liberal press or commentators. Notice what Harry Reid said about one of the supreme court justices.

Armstrong Williams noticed and reports:

Has white liberal Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., no sense of decency?

His defamatory comments about Associate Justice Clarence Thomas as a prospective chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court support a corrupt racial universe, in which the best and brightest black thinkers are blacklisted by the white liberal elite because they threaten the power base of the liberal black establishment.

The evidence is voluminous. Without a dissenting peep from the high priests of blackness, white pundits indulge in racist calumnies against black conservative stars. Pat Oliphant and Garry Trudeau deride superstar secretary-of-State designate Condoleezza Rice as a parrot or as "brown sugar." Harry Belafonte maligns the gifted, courageous and accomplished Colin Powell as an "Uncle Tom." And now Reid, minority leader of the U.S. Senate, has sneered at Thomas' qualifications for chief justice because his conservative thinking does not follow the dogmas of the anachronistic black power structure or patronizing doctrines of its white liberal counterpart.

Reid was crystal clear in his interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press last Sunday. He said Thomas "has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court. I think that his opinions are poorly written. I just don't think he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice." In contrast, Reid praised conservative white Justice Antonin Scalia as eminently qualified for chief justice, although Scalia and Thomas sport similar judicial philosophies. The difference in Reid's calculation: Scalia as chief would strengthen the power of the white elite and set back the conservative black movement; Thomas as chief would do the opposite.

The United States now confronts a modern edition of Jim Crow. If you are born white, you may aspire to achieve greatness as a liberal, conservative, moderate, independent or otherwise. There are no intellectual no-go zones. But if you are born black, your ambitions will be crushed unless you ape black power brokers.

It can't be both ways. Freedom means freedom to be liberal or conservative. Intolerance is not just one sided. Like Nelson Polite in Lancaster, PA who wants to curtail freedom of political speech because his side didn't win and he doesn't want to see pictures of the sitting president, some people want to crush those in a awful wave of intolerance instead of saying, Hey, the American dream is real! Look at Condi Rice. Look at Gonzalez - look at all those people whose parents suffered under the old racism doing good.

Every time you turn your back on this reality, snickering, saying this person or that deserves it, you are creating a new Jim Crow that says if you don't share my viewpoint, I will do my best to disenfrancise you. And that destroys any claim to tolerance and acceptance you might be trying to make.