Monday, September 28, 2009

A proposal for the unjustly maligned right.

Over the last few weeks, several conservatives have become visibly upset at being labeled racists for their opposition to President Obama's attempts to pull the nation out of near-bankruptcy and give health care to the poor.

I quite agree. Racism should have no place in the debate. And yet, what else can you call pictures of our black president as a monkey, a Sambo, or a witch-doctor? What else can you call Beck and Limbaugh's fear-mongering? Instead of shooting the messenger, it seems to me that these citizens should be mad at their own ranks. It was not liberals sending those e-mails, marching with those signs, or carrying those assault rifles. It was conservatives.

Many conservatives ask: "where is [the liberal] apology [for defaming honest dissent as racist.]" I know just how they feel. For some time now, I've been asking where the conservative apology is for labeling liberals "America-hating traitors," even when our dissent turned out to be justified. There were no WMD. We did torture illegally. Bush did lie. Imagine our frustration.

Opposition to reform is to be expected and welcomed. There are many conservatives who have honest disagreements, and America needs to hear them. What we also need to hear is a Republican denunciation of the race hate that seems to have infected their base. Instead, the GOP has chosen to further insult liberals as socialists.

Tell you what, folks of the right: you first. Reject the racists in your ranks. Apologize for your unfair characterizations of liberals. I'll be right there to make up after you do. Otherwise, all I can say is, welcome to the club of unfairly defamed patriots, and the slow dissolution of American civility.