Dowd and Carter Guilty of That Which They Decry

I'm sure New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and former President Jimmy Carter derive a great deal of self-satisfaction slandering other people with false charges of racism, but the damage they're doing to race relations is worse than any bona fide racist could dream of doing.

I ask you: Who is more likely racist, the person who sees race every time she turns around or the person who aspires toward colorblindness? Could those always pointing the accusatory finger be projecting their own discomfort with race?

Listen to how Maureen begins her snarky Sept. 12 column, in which she posited that Rep. Joe Wilson's "you lie" outburst was driven by racism. She writes: "Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men's club — Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"

I don't know whether "middle-aged white guys" and "their own men's club" flow more from some bitter feminist strain Dowd seems to possess or her liberal obsession with the superficial aspects of people's differences in pigment, but it is nonetheless bizarre.

Why is it that Dowd sees race in the politicians sitting beside Joe Wilson? And why is she compelled to make "white guys" a pejorative? In her world, to be white and male is to be guilty. Well, I reject the charge, thank you, and would appreciate a little due process before condemnation by such self-proclaimed open-minded liberals as Dowd.

One of the main sins of racism is its devaluation of the individual worth of a member of a racial group based on membership in that group. How ironic that in her thinking and writings Dowd commits the very sin she decries: condemning "middle-aged white guys" by virtue of their skin color and age.

Moving on from Dowd's indictment of Wilson's hapless, pasty colleagues flanking him in the House chamber, Dowd explains that she has "been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer ... had much to do with race. ... But Wilson's shocking disrespect for the office of the president ... convinced me: Some people just can't believe a black man is president and will never accept it."

Oh? I wasn't aware that former President George W. Bush is black. For Dowd didn't have the same sensitivities toward the Democrats' "shocking disrespect for the office of the president" in their choral booing of President Bush in the House chamber.

As for Dowd's divination that "some people ... will never accept" a black president, we'll just have to assume she's projecting or engaging in wishful thinking — the kind of thinking that leftists engage in about conservatives.

Indeed, many liberals like Dowd believe (I'm not assuming; they've told me) that conservatives — based solely on conservatives' ideology — are racists. That's how Dowd can freely jump to such an obscene conclusion about Wilson. Ultimately, it's his conservatism, not his "you lie" utterance, that convinces her. Again, with such categorical thinking to condemn a member (Wilson) of a group (conservatives), Dowd commits the very sin she decries.

Then there's the perennial sermonizer Jimmy Carter out on the stump affirming Dowd's clairvoyance with his own: "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."

What entitles Carter to make that leap? Oh, simple, it's when people "begin to attack" him "as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler." I wonder, then, why so many leftists depicted President Bush as Hitler.

I also wonder how Maureen Dowd, absent some strain of perversion in her thinking, can hear "You lie, boy!" in Rep. Wilson's statement. I'm not denying that some white-on-black racism still exists, but Dowd and Carter are obviously manufacturing it here both to validate their own prejudices against conservatives and as a weapon to advance their policy preferences.

Most conservatives — and increasing numbers of independents and even some Democrats — strongly disapprove of Barack Obama's policies and what we believe are his deceitful tactics in trying to implement them. He has earned this stunning reversal of support from taking office with 70 percent approval ratings.

But just as when Democrats blithely and recklessly accused President Bush of being racist because of deficiencies in the federal government's reaction to Hurricane Katrina, Dowd and Carter are doing great damage to race relations in this nation by attributing base racial motives to people where none exists, thereby legitimizing the worst fears of some that racism is thriving in places it is not. I'm sorry, but that is contemptible behavior.

David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His book "Bankrupt: The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today's Democratic Party" was released recently in paperback. To find out more about David Limbaugh, please visit his Web site at www.DavidLimbaugh.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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