The Last Resort of the Political Scoundrel

When you can't win on ideas you can try to win by calling your opponent a racist:

Politics has a tendency to devolve into juvenile playground taunts and smears. This election cycle has been no different — with one of the Democrats’ most coveted insults this year being calling the opposing candidate a racist.

As comedian Dennis Miller has said, “Racism is the new ‘doody-head.’”

[...]

Ron Miller, executive director of Regular Folks United, told TheDC that the racism charge is the last refuge of candidates who have nothing else to run on. “These are desperate attempts on their part to stir up their base to vote on November 2nd. They can’t run on their records, so they turn to the last refuge of scoundrels, the race card,” Miller said.

Continuing in that vein, after the NAACP labeled the Tea Party racist, some have alleged that it is reasonable to assume that that description extends to all Tea Party-backed candidates, such as Republican U.S. Senate candidates Joe Miller in Alaska, Ken Buck in Colorado, and Christine O’Donnell Delaware, among many others.

The NAACP declined to comment to TheDC about any one candidate, however, given the NAACP’s 501 c-3’s tax status which prohibits the organization from participating in electioneering.

Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, told TheDC that the reason for all the charges of racism is that the American left cannot compete in the arena of ideas and so it relies instead on ad hominem attacks — the most convenient attack being the charge of racism.

“They can’t debate the right in the marketplace,” Bozell said. “So the only bullet they have left, and which I have been warning people about for years, is character assassination. And their message is very simple, ‘You may hate us, but the alternative is much worse.’ That is the best they can do.”

Isn't it funny the NAACP suddenly decides they can't comment on racism charges when somebody finally asks them about it, but otherwise they feel free to throw bogus charges around with impunity.

The left has done something I'm not sure was ever going to happen - they've taken all the evil out of the racism charge.  It no longer means anything because it's been used so often in so many situations where it wasn't warranted (the linked article has a number of those).

Candidates no longer need to fear a charge of racism.  Voters simply aren't listening anymore.