The latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain:
This time, it’s the reaction to my post about the two South Carolina Republican county chairs who used a sterotype of Jews being penny pinchers in a misguided and failed attempt to praise Sen. Jim DeMint’s frugal fiscal policies. The comments really made no sense, and the next day the two South Carolinians apologized.
The point of my post was to contrast the criticism of these comments with the warm embrace Democrats gave and still give people like Al Sharpton who never have apologized for much worse comments about Jews. The South Carolinians’ comments, and my criticisms, had nothing to do with any racial issues.
Jesse Taylor at Pandagon, however, couldn’t help but invoke the race card when attacking my post:
When a Republican says something that’s racist or ethnically offensive, it never actually is, so long as it’s about black people. (Or, really, anyone, but mainly black people.) If they’re in any way affiliated with any form of entertainment, it was a joke. If the slur was in any way based on any perceivable version of reality (i.e., it’s okay to say that Mexicans are lazy baby machines, because many Mexicans own beds, and the only reason you own a bed is to sleep and make Mexican babies), then really, the people being slurred have to explain why anyone would think that way about them.
I guess it’s easier to play the race card than to deal with the fact — as pointed out in my prior post — that the Democratic Party had Al Sharpton speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 despite: The Tawana Brawley hoax, the Crown Heights “diamond merchant” incitement, the Freddie’s Fashion Mart “white interlopers” slur, and all the other Al Sharpton agitations directed at Jews which predated that invitation.
One of Pandagon’s commenters understood my point, even if its proprietor did not get it:
[Bamberg County GOP Chairman Edwin] Merwin’s comments were more recent, to be sure. But the anti-Semitic nature of them had nothing to do with the political point of what he was attempting to make. He was using a blatantly anti-Semitic analogy to make a point that had nothing to do with Jews qua Jews. Sharpton was unambigously playing anti-Semitic politics in a potentially violent way. Huge difference. Jacobson was presumably saying: Yeah, Merwin’s a douche, but there are bigger problems when it comes to prominent figures and anti-Semitism. You can disagree with that, but it’s not ridiculous. It’s best to let people decide for themselves what they are offended by.
As usual, the use of the race card reflected poorly on the person playing the game.
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