OUR VIEW: The left's unseemly obsession with race

Racists piled into Acacia Park on Thursday for yet another racist Tea Party (joking). Racist Jon Caldara, chairman of Colorado’s libertarian Independence Institute, kicked things off: “Good morning, fellow racists!” (joking).

It should be unseemly to make light of racism, but suddenly it can’t be. That’s because ranking lunatics on the left have trivialized the serious scourge of racism. Activists on the right, who oppose the policies of a president who happens to be biracial, can do nothing but laugh as the left cries wolf. Leftist actors, bloggers and news commentators have taken to crying “racist” each time a conservative questions the policies, words, actions or character of President Barack Obama, put in power mostly by white people from both major parties. In covering Sept. 12 Tea Parties, CNN tried desperately to depict protesters as racist by focusing on one ignorant placard that depicted Obama as a witch doctor, as a statement against his health care plan. By labeling presidential critics as racist, leftists only expose their own bizarre obsession with race. They reveal a propensity to see Obama as a victim first, and not as the most powerful man in the world who happens to be black. They reveal their belief that a black man needs a pass on the intense scrutiny given to all other presidents. Do these leftists think black men are weak?

The absurdity peaked Tuesday when former President Jimmy Carter cried racism. Carter criticized U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, the man who yelled “you lie” after Obama said his health care proposal would not give benefits to illegal immigrants.

A resolution approved by his fellow representatives admonished Wilson’s poor decorum. But Carter believes Wilson was more than just rude. Wilson, Carter tells us, made the comment “based on racism.” “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president,” Carter said.

The former president isn’t known for intellectual depth, but this latest bout of baseless babble should instill a retroactive fear in Americans regarding Carter’s White House days. Sometimes we can prove a person in power is or has been racist. U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Va., is a liberal patriarch with a proven racist history. He was an elected leader in the Ku Klux Klan in 1942. Years later he wrote a letter to the Grand Wizard of the Klan stating: “The Klan is needed today as never before.”

In 1997, Byrd encouraged young people seeking politics to “be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don’t get that albatross around your neck. Once you’ve made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena.”

This liberal senator didn’t say avoid the Klan because it’s racist, hateful, hurtful, immoral and murderous. Byrd said avoid the Klan because it might harm one in politics.

While some in power are proven racists, Wilson is not. He said “you lie” to a president who happens to be black. Nobody has found any evidence that Wilson is racist. He has never joined the Klan and has no record of spoken or written racism. He accused a man of lying. Black men lie and white men lie. Imagine a black conservative — say, former presidential candidate Alan Keyes, GOP chairman Michael Steele, or former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts — proposed health care reforms. Suppose Wilson liked those reforms. Would he have yelled something rude, because the man at the lectern was black? It’s highly doubtful. Wilson’s gripe involved policy, not race.

When leaders show overt signs of bigotry, we should never forget. This brings us back to Carter, who has a history of remarks and writings that smack of anti-Semitism. In his 2007 book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” Carter encouraged Palestinian violence against Jews. Here’s a passage: “It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel.”

Carter implied terrorists should continue killing Jews until the Jewish state does what he wants. When outrage ensued, Carter apologized. So did Wilson. But there’s an enormous difference between their offenses. Carter apologized for premeditated bigotry. Wilson apologized for a spontaneous two-word comment with no connection to violence or race. Yet Carter says Wilson is the bigot.

Bigotry is evil. Political dissent, such as a peaceful Tea Party, is righteous civic duty. Conflating the two is racist.