Just when you thought the leadership of the Democratic Party had its proverbial hands full with the anemic economy, a disastrous near-miss terrorist attack, and a health care reform effort that becomes more polarizing by the day, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid managed to feature prominently in a political and racially-tinged brouhaha that dominated headlines nationwide over the weekend.
In the recently released political tome “Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime,” the Nevada Democrat is quoted in 2008 referring to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in decidedly unpalatable and politically incorrect terms. While Mr. Reid has apologized to the president and vowed to remain in his leadership post, calls for his ouster have grown increasingly loud, particularly -and predictably – among Republicans.
The Reid affair is somewhat reminiscent of the firestorm that engulfed former Republican Senator Trent Lott in 2002, which ultimately led to him stepping down from his leadership post. It also deftly illustrates what many fair-minded observers sense are differing standards applicable to Democrats and Republicans on issues of racial sensitivity.
In the decades following the turbulent Civil Rights movement, the modern-day Democratic Party has coasted on a dubious reputation as being enlightened on the question of race, largely based on its ability to pander to black voters on politically charged issues such as racial preferences and social policy. And black community and political leaders often provide cover for Democrats found guilty of cultural insensitivity, even as they sharply repudiate Republicans for similar infractions – real or perceived.
In his bestselling book Liberal Fascism, author Jonah Goldberg delves deeply into the phenomenon that consistently forces conservatives to prove they aren’t racists, while simultaneously lowering the bar for liberals for their racist beliefs. Sen. Reid’s remarks, and the closing of ranks amongst top Democrats in their wake, highlights this troubling tendency which allows liberals to downplay or whitewash the intellectual roots of the Democrats’ far more nettlesome history with racism.
Democrats tend to use hushed tones when discussing the inconvenient fact that West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, an institution unto himself in the Senate as well as its longest-serving member, was a card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan. Airbrushed from the autobiography of the patron saint of progressive politics and the founder of the abortion rights movement, Margaret Sanger, were her racist views on eugenics and the black underclass.
And obscured in this weekend’s headlines about Sen. Reid was the revelation of surprisingly insensitive remarks made by former President Bill Clinton about Barack Obama. In a heated phone conversation during the height of the 2008 presidential campaign, the man affectionately known among African-Americans as the “First Black President” reportedly told the late Senator Ted Kennedy that “a few years ago, [Barack Obama] would have been getting us coffee.”
Because Sen. Reid is in a prominent Democrat, partisanship will inevitably play a role in criticism of his remarks. But the conundrum facing Democrats – particularly African-American leaders of the party – is bound up inextricably to the party’s credibility on race and social justice. Senator Reid’s racially-tinged remarks should dispel the fantasy that Democrats possess more moral authority than conservatives on racial issues, while drawing attention to the undeniable double standard that exists for liberals and conservatives.