Dakota Beacon

Should Harry Reid step down as Majority Leader of the Senate?  This is the question of the day. It comes in the wake of discovery of his racist comments and slurs against Black Americans.  For those who haven't read his words, they say, in effect, that Barack Obama would make the ideal candidate because 1) he's a very "light-skinned" Black man who 2) has virtually no "Negro dialect, except when he wants to".

Of course Black Americans have a right to feel profoundly insulted.  Reid has apologized and, in his infinite arrogance, Barack Obama has graciously accepted - presumably for himself and all other, lesser Black Americans, at least the "lighter-skinned" ones without a "Negro dialect", whatever that may be.  In so accepting he forgives Reid for his presumption.

Let's examine this.  Where does this leave Black Americans who are of darker complexion or whose speech presents characteristics which identify them as "Black"?  It might have been better for Obama to remain silent and ignore the remarks and the apology and let them stand alone.

What we're not hearing is an apology to the American voters.  Has it escaped Reid's - or Obama's - attention that he has offended the voters more deeply than his racial slurs offended Blacks?

Think about it:  he's projected his own bigoted and exploitative attitudes onto all Americans.  He's expressed the assumption that the American electorate is similarly preoccupied - as he is - with race.  Some might be - among both major racial groups - but by no means can we assume this is a majority.  Alan Keyes rallied a great deal of Republican grassroots support.  Sadly, the grassroots were ignored, as they too often are, by the Party organization.  But currently the RNC Chairmanship is held by Michael Steele, whose great shortcoming - lack of vision - is totally unrelated to race.

I judge a candidate on his position on the issues, his personal integrity and his capability to lead.  Race doesn't even factor in for me.  I suspect that most, at least a majority, of Americans, share my priorities.  I am "White".  To me, a "light-skinned" socialist is a socialist.  A "dark-skinned" socialist is a socialist.  A "light-skinned" or "dark-skinned" conservative is a conservative.  Period.

Harry Reid owes White Americans a greater apology than he owed Barack Obama.  Should he step down as Majority Leader?  Well, as a US Senator, he's totally inadequate to lead, but he does fit well into the traditions of the Democrat Party in that he believes strongly in the Race Card, and in pandering to minority voting groups.  Perhaps he should by-pass stepping down as Leader, and go straight to resigning his Senate seat.  After all, we must assume than every Senator is qualified to lead.  Reid is unfit to serve in the Senate.

He is a racist.

Regarding the re-hash of Trent Lott's comments - those which ended his Senate career - he made no racial remarks.  For those who've forgotten, Lott applauded the remarkable career of service of his friend and colleague, Strom Thurmond.  Thurmond was a champion of States' Rights in an era when one application of that doctrine tended toward racial discrimination in certain pockets of the Deep South.  It was improper, in fact,  for Lott to apologize.  Thurmond was not the racist that Democrat Robert Byrd is - Byrd is well known to have held membership in the Ku Klux Klan.  Thurmond did not.  Lott did not.  No one is suggesting that nonogenarian Byrd leave.  Because he's a loyal Democrat.  Same reason Reid will stick around - at least until Election Day. 

Decent Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds are Americans first.  It is long past time to cease inferring racism or projecting it onto others.  Black or White, Americans all have an urgent common cause right now - we must repair the damage done to our country by this Congress and restore healthy dialogue on the issues.

Harry Reid displays a typical characteristic of the Left.  In his own mind he has reduced us all to variations in tint and hue - a truly dehumanizing process.  "Liberals" see us that way - not as individuals with minds and souls, but rather as pieces in a puzzle, masses of color, components in voting blocs, elements of racial groups - not as individual human beings with souls and minds.  These people don't hear our words, just our "dialects".  To a Centrist that is what Americans are.  This is why they are comfortable with horrifying practices like abortion, why the death panels are acceptable to them.  Note the preference for "light-skinned" versus "dark-skinned" Black people.  This, you see, is why it is not surprising to find a Harry Reid standing beside an Ezekiel Emanuel.  This is the only way a person could countenance the eugenics Emanuel and his colleagues are working into the health care bill.