The Race Card-Why It Should Not Succeed

Jimmy Carter-Wrong again


Today, former President Jimmy Carter joined the chorus of voices on the left who are accusing those opposed to President Obama's policies as "racists". He has also accused Joe Wilson of being a racist.

"I think it's (Wilson's outburst) based on racism," Carter said in response to a question at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta, Georgia. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."

Carter is not the first person to voice this judgement. It is becoming the standard talking point among Democrats and the left. But, as a former president, he is the most prominent. It is clear that the battle lines have now been drawn. They say that those of us who are voicing our opposition to the president's policies are doing so because we don't want to have a black president. Never mind the fact that a majority of Americans elected Obama over a white candidate. In spite of Obama's campaign promises to bring us together and bridge the racial divide, he is rapidly dividing this country, not only on ideology, but sadly because of race. It is shameful, and it should not be allowed to succeed.

I won't go into a long litany of Jimmy Carter's follies. Suffice to say, he was arguably the most incompetent president in US history, at one point as president, blamed the country's woes on our own "malaise", and has been disastrous in his wrong-headed meddling into foreign affairs since he left office. For him to join in the throwing out the race card only shows the man's stupidity and why he never should have been president in the first place.

There is no need to go into America's long and difficult history when it comes to race. I myself have done that in this blog on several occasions. What I want to say here is that this brazen attempt at racial politics must not be allowed to succeed. For one thing, it can only further divide us as a people and set back decades of progress in race relations. Millions of Americans, somewhere around 50%, have serious problems with the direction President Obama is taking this country-from health care to the economy to the banking institutions and foreign affairs. Millions see their own welfare threatened by these policies. We are making our voices heard. Millions of decent Americans who never attended a protest in their lives are now speaking out in protest.

And now we are being called racists-not only by Democrats and MSNBC, but now by a former president. We cannot allow that to silence our voices. After all, that's one reason the race card was invented in the first place-to shut down disagreement with any controversial black figure or issue.

Are there some out there who don't want a black president? Of course there are. The point is that this element has no articulate voice or contribution to make to our cause. We conservatives don't want or need their input.

In my view, it behooves President Obama himself to call for a halt to these accusations. In his heart, I think he knows it isn't true. He presented himself as the one person who could bridge the racial divide in America. It is high time for him to get to work on that before this really gets out of hand. In the meantime, we must keep our voices being heard without worrying about who says we are "racists". If we are to let that tactic succeed in silencing us, we will lose the fight on health care and every other issue we care about.