Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, sends the following astute comments about the left’s and the Charleston flag controversy (a controversy, by the way, that left initiated for its own benefit):
Laughing, but Seriously [Roger Clegg]
There is, again, an amusing disconnect on the Left between diagnosis and prescription for what ails American race relations. Last year, the outrage prompted by the entrenched racism and appalling brutality of our police led to a passionate demand for … fewer traffic tickets and less vigorous enforcement of our drug laws. Now, the murderous racism that permeates all White Amerikkka must be remedied by … fewer Confederate flags.
What’s going on here, of course, is that the amount of racism that remains in America is being exaggerated by the Left in order to advance its political agenda. Let no tragedy go to waste and all that. The trouble is, though, that it can’t ask for an end to slavery or Jim Crow or for laws that make racial discrimination in any public transaction illegal, because that’s all been done. It can’t even ask for the popular culture to be changed to vilify racists or for racism to become socially unacceptable, because that’s all been done, too. It can’t ask for an African American president, or Attorney General, or mayor of Baltimore either. There are still and will always be racists (of all colors), but the amount of actual racism that can be addressed by any serious government program is small — and that’s actually a good thing.
There is a long game here, though. If the public and, especially, our politicians are sufficiently intimidated, then it helps the Left to push, and even to expand, its agenda so long as a race card can be stapled to it. Limiting early voting or requiring voter ID is racist, opposing racial preferences is racist, punishing unruly students is racist, discriminating against felons in hiring or enfranchising is racist, and — someday, in the Left’s dreams — opposing reparations and making anything (except racism and smoking) illegal will be attacked as racist.
Conservatives can’t actually believe that free markets, intact families, following the law, and high moral, social, and educational standards are the best ways to pursue happiness and prosperity for all, can they?
But there I go again, lacking the charity that the Charleston congregation has inspiringly shown us. Fewer traffic tickets and Confederate flags are probably a good idea, after all. And the shrill accusations on the Left are perhaps best answered by measured if amused reassurance from the Right, congratulating us all on the beloved community that America is becoming.
