If Harry Reid is forced to retire, do conservatives and Republicans actually end up the biggest losers?
This morning I read a quote from Ilya Somin of the Volokh Conspiracy and laughed out loud. Here’s what was said:
If the GOP wins this particular fight and Reid is forced to resign, there will be a new norm in public discourse under which no prominent person can openly say the same kinds of things as Reid without being labeled a racist.
We’ve been there for a long time — if you’re anything but a liberal Democrat. Republicans, conservatives … regular Americans can’t say what Harry Reid said without censure.
Noting that President Obama turns the jive on and off is no different than noting that Hillary Clinton does it. It’s no different than noting that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson do it. It’s no different than noting that major sports and music celebrities (white and black) do it. That is not racist. That’s a fact. Now, whether or not this verbal nuance is a good or bad thing is another argument entirely, but I don’t think anyone can honestly argue that it doesn’t happen.
If I said these things and I was a Democrat, though, I wouldn’t be presumed racist — just a little edgy and maybe somewhat insensitive. But since I’m a conservative, that last paragraph just confirms what is self-evident to someone from the left: I’m a racist — else would I be a conservative?
Never mind that there are plenty of black people who would make the same observation. Never mind that there are black conservatives who would say the same thing. The conservative blacks, though, are illegitimate. They betray their race for refusing to do things like sliding into jive in front of certain audiences. They are trying to be “too white.” They aren’t proud of their black heritage, evidently.
Of course, the whole “black enough” argument is deeply offensive and ridiculous and actually very racist. But these notions are put forth by the very leaders who insist that they are for changing the black culture to respect education, erudition, and intelligent discourse.
So while Ilya Somin is correct in decrying the constriction of speech for all people, I’m saying it’s already happened for some people. Now, I wrote those words because I have already given up. Being labeled racist bothers me less than restricting my speech. And by virtue of being conservative, I am already labeled racist.
What makes me inherently racist is my conservatism. It’s axiomatic. So screw it. The label has lost it’s sting.
Since it’s pretty well established that conservatives will be judged racist no matter what, the question is whether or not to hold Reid and his elite coterie on the left to the same standards. Well, the standards are wrong and stupid and self-serving. It’s the self-serving part I want to demolish. So I say, go after Harry Reid with a vengeance — and every other moronic liberal who spews vile anti-Semitism and misogynist, sexist, or racist rhetoric. Even if it’s mildly offensive language, hang them with their own standards and words. Delegitimize their power. Delegitimize the power of political correctness.
The only way to undo the PC nonsense is to illustrate it with the absurdity of it by those who purvey the nonsense. Punish them with it. If Reid has to step down, that will actually help the Democrats politically. I don’t want that. I just want Reid to be nuclear waste — hazardous to touch, but impossible to fire.
He’s going to lose in Nevada. I want him to lose. I want his racist, double-standard ideology to lose. The only way to see that ideology gone is by electing people who don’t make a living race-baiting and seeing color first. Remember, Harry Reid was the one who impugned any American (that would be the majority) who is against health care as being like slave owners. Let him endure some pain for being “insensitive”.
Leftists use political correctness to constrain their enemies. They accuse anyone who disagrees with them of bigotry. They use the language of hate and dare the right to challenge them, knowing that a charge of racism or any other -ism will sink a conservative or Republican because Republicans actually worry about those things.
Ilya Somin is afraid that Republicans and conservatives will be more harmed by focusing on Reid? Really? What do we have to lose? It’s not like conservatives are ever, ever, ever given the benefit of the doubt about any matter pertaining to race. They are vilified and humiliated. Their political careers are ended at a hint of verbal stumble. That is unlikely to change, unless the left is held to the same impossible standard and forced to decide that maybe the whole racism charge doesn’t serve their purposes anymore. Will it change then? Maybe.
It seems like we’re still a generation from a true colorblind society. We are being slowed down by leftists who insist on seeing through the lens of color to the exclusion of the lens of character. Make them pay for their obstruction of justice. Hold them to their own stupid standards.
When the left’s assumptions and standards no longer serve their political purpose — when their own side pays just as much as a conservatives or Republicans would — the standards will vanish. Suddenly, many things too scary to discuss will become part of the lexicon again.
Political correctness needs to die. That will only happen when Harry Reid and his minions feel the injustice of political correctness themselves. And it is unjust. And living in a politically correct world means living in a limited, humorless, intellectually stunted world. It needs to stop.
Make Reid pay. Maybe the “racist” war will finally end when the left no longer benefits from waging it.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member