The Politics of Race: America 2009

The Politics of Race: America 2009

Former President Jimmy Carter, by definition, accused political opponents of President Barack Obama as racists saying that they "just cannot accept a black man as president."

Carter's accusation smacks of racist politics. Black economic experts including Thomas Sowell, a Hoover Institute scholar and former University of Chicago economics professor and Walter Williams of George Mason University, both vociferously oppose Obama for his attempt at federal takeover of the United States economy, health care and banks. Black political leaders such as former Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell now with the nonpartisan Family Research Council and former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele now the Republican National Committee chairman both strongly reject such race-based attacks.

Oftentimes, the last and desperate ploy for liberals is the race card. Meant to shut and shame the opponents, mostly white Republicans and Southern conservatives, such race baiting is not only a sham but destructive to free speech and robust political dialogue.

From Jimmy Carter and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who accused U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) of racism, such elitists should pull back their collective fangs and argue based on the merits of their issues.

After all, their chosen leader in the White House is only in his 8th month in office. Such political bomb throwing is premature, unless their arguments are already being overwhelmed by the loud informed majority that opposes Obama's policies (see recent Pew and Gallup polls).

As a minority, I despise such talk from Carter and Dowd. From their elitist perch, they are not helping minorities. By vicariously but wrongly personifying minority victimhood, Carter and Dowd are helping us all become victims of an overbearing federal government by quickly forcing upon us a tyrannical nanny state.

According to Ronald Kessler of Newsmax, former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice rejected the 1984 Democrat National Convention refrains appealing to "women, minorities and the poor, which basically means helpless people and the poor."

The shrill politics of victimhood threatens to dilute the dramatic steps advanced by Martin Luther King, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Rice.

Like Rice, who formerly was a Stanford University provost, "I'd rather be ignored than patronized."

As a senior professor of political science and mass communication, I know that this country--the United States of America--has more opportunities than any nation in history that I know of. My parents, who left the Philippines shortly before President Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship, staked their family's future on American exceptionalism—a belief that America will especially reward those who work hard for their posterity. I continue to believe in their faith in the American Dream. Let’s not accept divisive racial slurs nor squander liberty’s blessings.

Truly, freedom is the foundation of this constitutional republic--one nation under God indivisible. Let's defend liberty. Let’s pray to Providence, the personal and infinite God, as well as work because as Edmund Burke said, “vigilance is the price of liberty."

So as minorities and as Americans, the best play for personal and national success is not by embracing victimhood but living happy and contented lives.