Alternet's racist attack on Herman Cain

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/02/15/the-strange-racist-attack-on-herman-cain/

Racist attacks against black conservatives like Herman Cain are nothing new, and it's unfair to associate this attack with the "Left", but it's moral cowardice if anyone on the Left reads this and doesn't condemn it.

This is what passes for journalism at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/05/AR2010090501565_5.html

Most of the journalists in media have lost their ability to report objectively and bravely, constrained as they are by political correctness, partisanship and a desire to see the world as they want it to be rather than how it is. Our problems with racism and cultural divisions engendered by rampant statism, groupthink and special interest politics, and the failure of public schools in inner cities, are covered up in favor of social rationalizations and excuses for a system which teaches kids little else but all the wrong lessons.

Straw men and poor reasoning

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/06/AR2010080602665.html

Fear, in essence, begets fear. The loss of a job, or the worry that one might be lost, raises anxiety. This often plays out as increased suspicion of people who look different or come from different places. While times of robust growth and shared prosperity inspire feelings of interconnectedness and mutual gain, in times of worry, the picture quickly reverses. Views of the world turn zero-sum: If he wins, what do I lose? Any kind of change looks like decline -- the end of a "way of life."

One of the striking things about this particular shift is how quickly it has come about. Many expected racial tension during the 2008 presidential campaign, but it barely materialized. However, as unemployment and foreclosures have increased in the years since, so have trivial, race-based controversies, such as those surrounding the New Black Panther Party and Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod.

White conservatives are the only ones being accused of being suspicious of or hating foreigners, so how does the recession affect liberals, blacks, Asians, Latinos, socialists, recent immigrants from Hungary and others who aren't conservative and don't have white skin, but are Americans nonetheless concerned about and affected by the economy? Does this economic phenomenon affect only white conservatives? If not, then how does it affect white liberals out of work -- do they fear Muslims and blacks and browns and yellows? Does the socialist fear the moderate Democrats who are Latinos? How does this all work? Does the black liberal fear the Muslims or the white socialists? Yglesias must mean that a down economy generates racism only in white conservatives. That's a strange theory -- I didn't know racism was economy-dependent and only infects the hearts and minds of white conservatives when unemployment is high.

Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters -- race-baiters

If anyone was thinking about giving Charile Rangel and Maxine Waters the beneift of the doubt, they shouldn't even give them the time of day now that they're using racism as a defense. The facts of the investigations will speak for themselves, regardless of their color, and if they expect us to believe government investigators are out to bring down the black leadersip in the congress, then they have no respect for our intelligence -- the very fact they're doing this suggests guilt, so it's not helping either one of them.

This is a disgraceful insult to anyone who's sufferd from real racism, and the black community ought to call them on it, in my humble opinion.

Toxic political environment

We're living in a toxic political environment, and both right and left share the blame. The right shares the blame for not articulating a clear alternative to statism, reacting to the left's diversionary tactics, and failing to focus on limited government, individual rights and a free market. Some have focused, but the rest seem to believe this whole conflict between statism and limited government is about political power, getting the Republican Party elected, or establishing control over the party by one faction or another.

The left shares the blame for using despicable tactics to maintain power. The left is using the cheapest, most cowardly tactic of all -- accusing their opponents of racism. I won't go into a tit for tat on the race issue, but in the 21st century, this tactic doesn't work, and anyone using it ought to be ashamed of themselves -- they have no credibility.

Anyone on the right using race as a scare tactic is just as despicable. There's no need to discuss race at all when debatng the conflict between statism and limited government. The right should not highlight the race of an opponent, and the left should not cry racism when the right is criticizing someone on the left who happens to be a member of a minority group, especially when the criticism has nothing to do with race but with political beliefs and unscrupulous actions -- such as the ACORN issue, and Van Jones' involvement in radical causes -- neither of these have anything to do with race and everything to do with ideas and actions.

I'm at a point where I'm moving away from both parties and the poltical jackals in between until one shows some sanity and integrity or a new, viable party emerges. What we need is a private sector revival, not a political war. Citizens of all races should be standing against government overreach and statist policies which are destroying the economy and bogging us down in two wars -- not to mention violating privacy rights and threatening to infiltrate the internet, even more than they have already.

Forget about all the political class buffoons who self-style themselves as "elite" - They're a joke. Hardly any of these clowns know anything about production and creating new wealth, living in peace or existing in diversity -- they want to divide the nation and weaken the people in order to maintain power. Washington DC has grown into a monstrosity which needs to be cut down to size, and all the parasites living off of it with their useless games and snarky superiorty need to support themselves with honest work -- we need to quit feeding the monster.