I want to start by praising Jimmy Carter. The Republicans have always loathed him because he epitomized decency as a human being, something their own politicians rarely demonstrate, and also because his life was a beautiful repudiation of the fake Christianity so often expressed by the hypocrites in the GOP.
I first became aware of Jimmy Carter in 1975, when he was running in the Democratic primaries. I was instantly attracted to his warm smile, his gentle, self-effacing rhetoric, the sincerity that cloaked him like a robe. I always thought he was a good President, and still do, and his post-presidential activities have set a standard that will never be equaled, much less excelled. No wonder Republicans are so upset by him: the contrast with their current fuehrer, such a small, petty narcissist, couldn’t be greater. Trump’s victory in the last election is due primarily, in my opinion, to the Democratic obsession with race, an addiction that has harmed the party and turned off tens of millions of former liberals.
We throw that word “racism” around as if it refers to something real, but it doesn’t. I don’t believe that anyone wakes up in the morning with an irredeemable hatred of entire masses of human beings based on race. Yes, some people hate others based on their religion, but that’s just plain old-fashioned religious bigotry, and there’s no way to get rid of it until we get rid of religion.
Yet race warriors routinely refer to “racism” as if it were a widespread phenomenon. Commentators like Dr. Cornell West and the Rev. Al Sharpton make lucrative careers off propagating the myth of racism. Political agitators like Carroll Fife and Cat Brooks do the same; they know that griping about “racism” is good for fundraising. They’re no different from those televangelist hucksters who get rich pandering to deluded people.
The media, always desperate for a controversy, buys into the racism myth. Tune in to KQED’s Morning Edition program; it’s all you hear. Same with the Chronicle’s front page: racism causes all our problems, from homelessness and crime to poor academic performance and asthma. And so the concept of racism is introduced into the body politic, where it runs rampant, like a cancer. Everyone assumes that “racism” is real because everyone talks about it. But just because we’re talking about something doesn’t make it real. Ask Santa Claus.
It’s particularly offensive for these race warriors to allege that White people are inherently racist. What could be more racist than that? And if we deny being racist, the warriors reply, “That just proves you’re racist.” It’s pretzel logic. And now, of course, Oakland is about to coronate Barbara Lee, a do-nothing legislator whose ideology was forged fifty years ago when the Power to the People crowd was ascendant. Still blathering about “equality,” Lee promises to bring Oakland backwards, further fracturing our already divided city.
So enough about racism! Jimmy Carter treated everyone equally, no matter how exalted or humble they were. We can and should do no less.
Steve Heimoff