Political pundits often refer to the time we’re in now – a few weeks out from an election – as the “silly season.”
It’s a time for obsessing over gaffes real and perceived, faux
outrage over harmless statements and a general sense of desperation on
the part of one candidate or perhaps both. This cycle’s silly season
started early, which is to be expected when the challenging party picks
its nominee early and the incumbent party has no record of success to
promote. But that early start means we sometimes run out of “silly”
early and head straight to desperate – and absurd.
Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas, a Democrat from Portsmouth, already
has run out of silly. An official representative of the Obama 2012
campaign, a member of its “Truth Team,” no less, Sen. Lucas
went on the John Fredericks Show
in Virginia to discuss the presidential election and went off the
rails. If you support Mitt Romney, she said on the air, you’re a racist.
Usually, leftists play the race card a little closer to the vest.
They slip it into the game subtly, through hints and occasional
one-liners. But not Sen. Lucas. She pulled it right out … early … and
tossed it into the middle of the table.
“What I am saying to you is Mitt Romney, he's speaking to a segment
of the population, who does not like to see people other than a White
man in a White House or any other elected position,” she said.
But she wasn’t done. She continued, “Let's be real clear about it...
let's be real clear Mitt Romney is speaking to a group of people out
there who don't like folks like Barack Obama in any elected or
leadership position. We know what's going on here, and some people may
be afraid to say it but I am not. I am not afraid to say it.”
She was “real clear,” all right … but only about her own bigotry and ignorance.
Lovely, right? The Obama “Truth Team” has yet to condemn this statement from an officially sanctioned campaign spokesman.
In 2003, then-
Sen. Hillary Clinton said,
“I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you
disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We
should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate
and disagree with any administration.” Aside from the fact no one had
suggested she couldn’t debate or disagree with the administration, she
was absolutely right. But don’t tell that to Sen. Lucas.
According to Sen. Lucas, “All the folks who are saying 'We don't like Barack Obama' they can't tell you any reason they don't…”
No reason? None at all? How about three years of unemployment above 8
percent every month and growth below 3 percent every quarter? Or the $5
trillion in new debt, ObamaCare or recess appointments when Congress
wasn’t in recess? I could go on, but to Sen. Lucas, I’ve already gone
too far. I’m a racist. I wonder if my opposing President Clinton makes
me a redneck-ist. Or my opposition to President Bush’s Medicare
prescription drug program makes me a…actually, there isn’t a word for
people who oppose things Republicans propose because the people with the
hair-trigger to name-call all oppose Republicans. Weird.
Senator Lucas is mad – about what or at whom I have no idea. But
she’s happy about one thing – she’s managed to pollute her children’s
minds with her sickness. She told Fredericks, “I absolutely believe it's
all about race, and for the first time I've convinced my children
finally that racism is alive and well.”
Great mom, eh?
When asked “Even in Virginia?” she replied, “In Virginia? How about all across this nation. And especially in Virginia!”
I guess she, a black woman, was elected by a bunch of racists. And I
guess President Obama carried Virginia in 2008 because all the racists
there forgot they were racists for a while.
Or maybe, just maybe, this country isn’t a racist country. This is
where I add the caveat that racism still exists, in people of all
colors, but in smaller numbers all the time. Progressives would like
people to believe we’re a nation full of Mississippi Democrats from the
1950s, but we’re not.
Criticism of – and dislike for – the policies of a president who happens to be black does not a Klansman make.
Nor does judging the President by the standard he set for himself
when he said in 2009,
“I will be held accountable. I’ve got four years….A year from now, I
think people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress,
but there’s still going to be some pain out there. If I don’t have this
done in three years, then this is going to be a one-term proposition.”
It’s not “done” in any sense – not even close. Every piece of
economic data suggests it hasn’t even started in the direction of being
“done.” But don’t tell that to Sen Lucas, lest she call Barack Obama a
racist.