A Follow-Up to the Harry Reid Post

My post early this morning entitled "Harry Reid (Racist, Nev.)" deserves a follow-up.

I want to make it clear, if it wasn't already, that my label for Reid was written tongue-in-cheek as a way of pointing out the double standard that the Democrats continue to perpetuate when it comes to race.

Anyone who knows me or has read some of my writing about race issues knows that I absolutely detest the way the term "racist" has been devalued by years of irresponsible overuse. Whenever a Republican utters a phrase that has any sort of racial interpretation or overtones, there is no shortage of people on the Left, in the media and government, who engage in the usual kneejerk reaction of branding the utterer a racist or a bigot. It's a ridiculous tactic, and I've continuously denounced the practice whenever I see it.

My point is that, were Reid a Republican (or, as I wrote in the post earlier, Biden, when he made similar remarks), the uproar on the Left among the Sharptons, the Maureen Dowds, and yes, quite likely, the President of the United States, would have been deafening. Instead, all is quiet, as blacks in Congress (Eleanor Holmes Norton), in the White House, and the media have either ignored the story or accepted Reid's apology with no questions asked and no genuine condemnations to speak of. This is bizarre, given the indignation and outrage that these same folks showed when Trent Lott, a Republican, made a controversial remark and apologized later.

The Democratic party and its supporters on the Left have made a living off of divisive identity politics that emphasize skin color and class differences for decades. They are the ones who are hampering meaningful progress in the arena of race relations.

Harry Reid is a moron. He's made that clear time and again. He's pathetic, he's a train wreck, and he's going to lose more than the Majority Leader position in November- he's going to lose his seat altogether. He said something stupid that he shouldn't have said- or, more precisely, he used a word he shouldn't have. Surely a political figure like Reid ought to know that "Negro" is no longer a socially acceptable term for a black person. Ultimately, though, Reid's remarks, however impolitic, aren't all that awful. They aren't even necessarily incorrect. They're just dumb.

Harry Reid isn't a racist, a fact that lefties are quick to point out now that one of their own has blundered. But if Harry had an "R" next to his name rather than a "D", these same folks would be in hysterics, batting about the "racist" term with reckless abandon. And that, my friends, is the real shame.