The Practice of Labeling all Criticism of Obama as Racism

I was opposed to President Obama's economic policies and political ideology even before he became President.   This is the reason I did not vote for him.  It had nothing to do with race.

However, when he was elected, like a lot of other conservatives, I thought he might at least have a more positive impact on racial discord in this country.  We could not have been more wrong.

Obama has not only chosen to weigh in on some local incidents which presidents usually don't involve themselves with (From Professor Gates to George Zimmerman), but did so in a way that, in my opinion, created more dissension and unrest.  Honestly, I have come to believe that was actually his objective.

Obama has the undivided attention of most of the African-American community. Rather than urging calm and using soothing language, Obama seems to always choose remarks that will obviously fan the flames.  Similar to Al Sharpton only toned down somewhat, instead of Abraham Lincoln's tone "With malice toward none with charity toward all," to quell retributive tensions following the Civil War, Obama attempts no similar message of healing to diffuse the racial innuendos. That tendency is disturbing.

The practice of labeling all criticism of Obama as racism has become standard operating procedure for most of his supporters. They do so because it has been effective. To those who habitually exercise this ploy, I would like to ask, if it were Alan Keyes or Dr. Ben Carson or Herman Cain who was president, rather than Barack Obama; would their own opposition to the President’s policies be racism?

We all recognize that racism is a serious offense, but few recognize the fact that false accusations of such a vice are equally egregious.  One must then ask about the general motives behind such assertions.  I think the answer becomes obvious: nobody likes to be accused of bigotry in any form, and claims of such motives or illicit conduct cause many people to abandon their arguments or agenda and focus on defending themselves from the allegations.

Aside from being disingenuous, there is a real problem with the presumption of institutional or latent individual racism at the heart of all criticism.   It makes minority candidates functionally immune to all critique (since all criticism is really just cloaked racism), which is bad for the political process.

I know that you know that Barack Obama claimed that his would be the “most transparent” Administration in all of history.    Now with broken hard drives, official gag orders, targeted assassinations of the innocent, and countless documented lies later,  I know that you know he is a liar.

But, you’re probably reluctant to mention it for fear of being labeled a racist.