The sad lesson of the Reid affair

The real, sad lesson of this episode is that we have somehow come to define racism as disagreeing with the Democratic Party or its African American base. Reid’s defenders told Politico they’re planning to disseminate the NAACP voting score of Republicans who criticize Reid, as if voting against the NAACP is a test of your racial conscience. The Congressional Black Caucus says Reid’s comments are forgivable because he’s advancing the Democratic agenda. Translation: If you aren’t advancing the Democratic agenda and you slip up, prepare to be branded a racist and pelted from the public stage.

Heck, you don’t really even have to slip up. We’ve spent much of the last year being told that “tea party” protesters are unforgivably racist for complaining about high taxes and deficits. But ruminating on Obama’s light skin and versatility with the “Negro dialect” is merely forgivably inappropriate.

Democrats have so completely mastered this practice and internalized their own heroic narrative, they are completely at home with their cognitive dissonance. For instance, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y) is reportedly one of Reid’s biggest defenders. Schumer won his Senate seat in 1998 in large part by insinuating his opponent, Alfonse D’Amato, was an anti-Semite because D’Amato had allegedly called Schumer a “putzhead” in a private conversation.