What happens when your entire political philosophy is so discredited that you can’t even make a coherent argument for it any longer? If you’re Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN), it’s simple — you just call your opponents who are winning the debate “racists” and accuse them of being comfortable with lynching:

A top lawmaker in the Congressional Black Caucus says tea partiers on Capitol Hill would like to see African Americans hanging from trees and accuses the movement of wishing for a return to the Jim Crow era.

Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana who serves as the CBC’s chief vote counter, said at a CBC event in Miami that some in Congress would “love to see us as second-class citizens” and “some of them in Congress right now of this tea party movement would love to see you and me…hanging on a tree.”

It’s not the first time the “Jim Crow” accusation has flown this year. Earlier it was the chair of the DNC, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who tossed out that smear, only to shamefacedly retract it when it made national news.   Why?  Because it was reprehensible demagoguery of the worst kind, a fact that was obvious to everyone — or at least obvious to everyone outside the CBC.

Via the Right Scoop, Allen West is now reconsidering his CBC membership:

And for good reason. The civil-rights movement was not a political effort aimed primarily at deficit spending and massive government growth. It was a movement intended to eliminate real and official racial discrimination. Carson’s words are not just evil, they are entirely ignorant and as damaging to the cause of equality as they are to rational political debate. Not only should Carson be reprimanded for his words, he should really be shunned, and hopefully replaced in the next election by voters in his district.

Update: I had initially identified Carson as D-IL, but he is D-IN. I’ve fixed it above.