Minorities, you can’t make it on your own! This is the message constantly spewed by the Left. Their “reasons” are simple: racism is keeping you down, class-ism is keeping you down, sexism is keeping you down, etc. etc. With these blunt rhetorical instruments they brand Republicans and everyone on the Right as being the bigots, the rich robber-barons, the abusers of poor minorities. Reality is much more nuanced (to use one of their favorite words) than they make it out to be. Bigots exist on all sides and we have good reason to reject their views, in the words of honest Abe, a Republican: “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Unfortunately, this message of unity, that we are all Americans regardless of what state, race, heritage, gender, “social group,” or religion, is something that the Left has not heard and indeed, it is a message that liberals have rejected. Name something that can be termed a social identity group and you will find a liberal group that identifies with it. What is most amazing about the Left is that, after helping erect barriers between so-called identity groups, they turn around and call the Right bigoted and prejudiced. It is political jujitsu that has been taking place for a long time and it is very effective. At the end of the day though, the liberals who profess these lofty ideals of “helping” minorities rise above (the majority I presume) while instead helping create subcultures and cultural enclaves where these very minorities get stuck, are in fact more racist and classist and sexist than the conservatives they criticize.

Case in point are the recently revealed comments by Senate Majority Leader and Democrat Harry Reid who, during the campaign, said that Barack Obama could win the presidency because he is “light-skinned” and has “no Negro dialect”. Of course, Obama immediately forgave Reid’s comments saying he knows Reid’s heart, yet when Professor Gates was arrested last year, Obama immediately brought into question whether or not the police officers were being racist. Clearly, Democrats get a pass on racism. Even the vice-president’s comments about Indian-Americans and seven-elevens were simply taken as being a gaffe, almost silly in its portrayal. At the same time, regular Americans are scrutinized, Don Imus gets fired, Bill O’Reilly criticized for his characterization of a Black restaurant, and social differences are used as a wedge and charges of racism are used as a bludgeon by the Democrats. I am not saying that disparaging remarks about people based on social/physical similarities should be tolerated, I am saying that the standard must apply to all. Sadly, this will not change anytime soon, for American liberalism stands on the “two America’s” argument, on the “majority vs minority” argument, and on the idea that the majority is bigoted/backward and need to “progress” with “progressive” policies. Racism is as integral today to the Democratic Party as it was in the 1800’s. Only when we absolutely rejects the divisionism that has existed and continues to exist today because of racism, gender-ism, etc. can we, as a society, move forward. Just look nearby, at Latin America, where women have shattered “the glass ceiling” with no formal “women’s empowerment movement” (see: Bachelet of Chile and Cristina Fernández of Argentina) and minorities have become presidents (see: Peru’s former president Fujimori who was of Japanese descent) to see that probably the greatest impediment to “minority empowerment” is the fact that liberals have been simply using minorities as political pawns instead of actually helping them. To move forward we need to stop seeing any differences between Americans, but with liberals constantly reminding us of how racist we are, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy for us, how can we?

-AG