That’s natural, but dangerous. It falls into the progressive Democrats’ trap of assigning value (either a positive or a negative value) to an individual based on what group he or she belongs to or is perceived to belong to.

Notice what Alan, to his credit, went on to say: “So I compensate by listening, by treating each black person I meet as an individual, worthy of my consideration and attention. I do this for everyone I meet, for I would hate to be treated as a cipher, a cog in the great machine.”

If the Republican Party is really the party of the individual — or, more accurately, if conservative philosophy is really the philosophy of the individual — then you gotta give that guy the benefit of the doubt. Find out if maybe he’s in the 5% who saw through Obama’s fakery back in 2008, or if maybe he’s one of the few percent more who have had the scales fall from their eyes since then. I can tell you from my own experience that a lot of folks I work with, of all ethnicities and skin tones, who used to have Obama screensavers on their PCs don’t have them any more, and the number of Obama stickers in the parking lot has dwindled dramatically.

Don’t give up on that hypothetical guy. If he is the type who has the wisdom and humility to learn from experience, he may turn out to be the best friend, employee, customer, or colleague you ever had.