It's The Ideas, Stupid


Dr. Benjamin Carson has died.

But don't take my word for it.  Trust instead perhaps his most stout defender, Gary Bauer, who on Monday wrote Dr. Carson is the victim of "leftist 'lynching.'"   Funeral arrangements are pending.

"Liberal Democrats," Bauer continued, "see a black conservative doctor with a wonderful personality and incredible achievements and no matter how popular he is, their first instinct is to take him down "  Similarly, Rush Limbaugh last week claimed "if you are a minority in this country and you make something of yourself and you dare stray from the Democrat Party plantation, you are going to pay the price for that in terms of what is said about you in public."  

Deftly repeating an emerging talking point, Carson himself on The Mark Levin show said of liberals "Well, they're the most racist people there are. Because you know, they put you in a little category, a little box, 'you have to think this way, how could you dare come off the plantation?'"  A moment earlier, Carson had accused these parasites of being "the most racist people" and argued "political correctness is threatening to destroy our nation because it puts a muzzle over honest conversation and the fabric of our nation is changed without the benefit of a conversation."

If you don't believe someone could almost simultaneously decry "political correctness (which) puts a muzzle over honest conversation" and call his critics "racist," check out the audio below, from Media Matters.









A sense of victimization is a common theme among ultra-conservatives, who exploit the sense of paranoia in the GOP base which believes the defunct ACORN got President Obama re-elected. If Democrats disagree with a black man or woman who is conservative, it must be because the individual is black and they want him to stay on "the plantation" or, as Limbaugh put it, to" bow down and be loyal to some big government or a series of programs." Rush maintained also

Only one acceptable way to be black in America, and you'd better not choose the route that Ben Carson chose. And you better not choose the route that Clarence Thomas chose. Or Shelby Steele. Or I could give you lists of prominent African Americans from now to the end of this show and not one of them is worth even a modicum of respect in today's Democrat Party.

Liberals might not hold in high esteem Clarence Thomas, Ann Coulter,  Bauer, and other conservatives who equate political differences with lynching. What could they be thinking?

Imagine! Democrats disagreeing with a conservative! How dare they do that- my gosh, he's black!  Some Republicans are flummoxed that Democrats can disagree with someone because they disagree with his ideas, irrespective of the subject's color.  It's difficult for some Repubs to get beyond race.  Sometimes motivated partly by bigotry, these individuals hold Barack Obama in low esteem because he's black, and so assume that Democrats make their assessment on the same basis.

The GOP is in the throes of a desperate re-branding effort, aiming to upgrade support among minorities without reassessing their extreme right-wing agenda.    Intermittently motivated partly by bigotry, some Repubs hold Barack Obama in low esteem because he's black, and so assume that Democrats make their assessment on the basis of race.    Notwithstanding their tolerance for the President's center-right policies, Democrats largely have the pesky habit of assessing the content of the ideas rather than the color of the subject's skin.  

Rush Limbaugh, held hostage by racial (and, even more so, class) prejudice, blathers on about conservatives being victimized.   It's more disturbing to see Gary Bauer and the GOP's newest heartthrob, Dr. Benjamin Carson, thinking along the same lines.



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