Democrats falsely claim conservatives are racists. Let's pretend it's true... So what?

From the moment that Barack Obama threw his hat into the ring for President, Democrats have been accusing those who disagree with him of being racists. They are of course being disingenuous, pernicious and at the end of the day, most importantly, wrong.

But what if they weren’t? Let’s say somehow the entire universe of conservatives was made up of racists… so what? Does it change the veracity of their stated disagreements with President Obama? If it were in fact the case that conservatives hate him because he is black does that mean that their well thought out, reasonable and clearly articulated reasons for opposing him are somehow less valid? No, of course it doesn’t.

This issue makes me think of hate crimes. I’ve never been a supporter of hate crime legislation. Not because I like crimes or hate, but because it's the act that makes something a crime, not the real or imagined hate. If someone beats up someone else because of their race or sexual orientation or religion, they should be prosecuted for assault, period. Is a victim any less injured or dead because the perpetrator assaulted them for their money instead of their – fill in the blank characteristic? No, obviously not. That’s ridiculous. The criminal justice system should deal with the crime and not worry about trying to look into the soul of the criminal.

In the same way, politics should focus on people’s words and actions and not try and look into the souls of the various participants. Why? Because that is all we can really know about a person. As George Bush discovered with Vladimir Putin, it’s impossible to look into someone’s soul and know what is going on in there. Along those same lines, when Steve Jobs died I wrote that it was possible that he was selfish son of a bitch, but I’d never know. What I do know however is that his words and actions did a great deal of good for hundreds of millions of people around the world. It didn’t matter if Jobs thought PC users were mental dwarves when compared to the Mensa like intelligence demonstrated by those who use Macs. He opened up iTunes to everyone and changed the world of music. It’s what he did that changed the world not what was going on in his soul. But of course race plus politics is something altogether different.

Race has been an issue swirling around Barack Obama since he first declared his candidacy and then continued once he became President. There was the whole Jeremiah Wright deal and Obama’s spending two decades in his church but somehow inexplicably never hearing a single racist comment. There was his knee jerk reaction that the Cambridge police department "acted stupidly" without knowing the facts of the case. There was his attorney general dropping voter intimidation charges against the demonstrably guilty New Black Panther Party. And just last month the President revived African-Americans for Obama. Can one imagine the outrage if Mitt Romney created a Whites for Romney organization?

To the degree that race is an issue for President Obama, it’s either been because he is making it so or because his party is using it as a red herring to deflect criticism of their agenda. The most obvious example of the latter was during the ObamaCare debate when the Democrats famously accused protesters of using racial epithets and spitting on black congressmen. The late Andrew Breitbart did a good job of dispensing with those charges.

That brings us to the basic element of liberal politics. Their default position towards anyone who opposes Barack Obama and the Democratic Party’s socialist agenda is to accuse them of being racist and that is supposed to be the end of the conversation. In that kind of an environment a conservative simply cannot win – how do you disprove something for which the mere accusation itself is seemingly enough to prove guilt? You can’t. My suggestion therefore is to take a different tack altogether: Don’t try. Rather, I suggest playing the hypothetical card. Instead of trying to disprove the undisprovable, instead suggest: “Ok, let’s pretend I am what you have painted me to be, and let’s assume that’s not going to change… now let’s talk about the issues.”

Now of course many of the good and principled liberals will demure to discuss the issues because they feel it’s inappropriate to discuss politics with racists other than to demonstrate their own non-racist bona fides. In that case you might then suggest to them that if their leader can advocate sitting down and talking with people who want to wipe the United States off the face of the planet they might deign to talk with people who simply want to discuss things like the tax code, the EPA and healthcare.

Don’t hold your breath however. Apparently liberals / Democrats believe that if one is racist (or more accurately, is labeled racist by them) then you are simply not qualified to have a voice in the political arena and your issues need not be addressed. That’s quite a leap for a party whose Senate leader for a decade was a man who had been an Exalted Cyclops of the KKK and filibustered to block the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Conservatives need not acquiesce to the liberal’s attempt to stifle public discourse. By calling their bluff and taking the non sequitur of racism off the table, conservatives have the opportunity to expose the liberal agenda for what it is, nothing but a recipe for disaster of a cleptocratic nanny state. In doing so and by discussing the facts rather than letting Democrats malign the messengers of the messages they fear, perhaps we can once again allow the American people to focus on the real issues facing the country rather than parrying with shadows of a Democrat created illusion with no basis in reality.

The Democrat's "middle class tax cut" is a populist red herring

I want to make my priorities clear from the start. One: middle class families need permanent tax relief. And two: I believe we can’t afford to borrow and spend another $700 billion on permanent tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

That is a line from President Obama’s weekly radio address last week. He’s referring to the coming tax hikes as the Bush Tax Cuts are due to sunset on December 31st. Interestingly, the reason the sunset provision is there in the first place is because Tom Daschle, (the then Democrat leader in the Senate) threatened a filibuster without it. That phrase tells you everything you need to know about President Obama’s sincerity when he talks about putting jobs and the economy first.

On Friday the unemployment numbers came out and the rate had crept back up to 9.8% as employers added a mere 39,000 jobs in October. At the same time President Obama and the Democrats are seeking to extend unemployment benefits beyond the already unprecedented 99 week limit. Ninety-nine weeks! That is two years of receiving a government check for doing nothing. (That doesn’t’ mean that unemployed people are literally doing nothing, but by definition they are not working.) I’m not sure how long it takes to develop a bad habit, but two years is probably a pretty good start. That causes one to wonder what is the bad habit forming effect of a government check on someone who has been receiving welfare for years…

Back to the Democrat red herring. As President Obama’s words demonstrate, the Democrats are seeking to manipulate the conversation using populist rhetoric to demonize the rich. At the core of their “solution” to our financial problems is their effort to raise taxes on the “millionaires and billionaires” while giving the middle class a tax cut. Republicans are fighting this effort, suggesting that doing so will harm job growth. The GOP position is based on the fact that small businesses are the engine of the American economy and create three out of every four new jobs in the country. That’s relevant because most small businesses owners file their taxes using personal income tax returns… and those are where the taxes are going to go up. Here are the numbers for the top two tax brackets:

For those in the second highest bracket – families with income between $171,851 and $373,650 – their tax bill is going to increase by ten percent as the rate moves from 33% to 36%. For those in the highest tax bracket – families with income above $373,650 – they will see their tax bill rise by 13% as the rate jumps from 35% to 39.6%.

Democrats are quick to point out that only 3% of small business filers are subject to the two highest tax brackets. That is true. Most small businesses are sole proprietorships where the business in question is a side venture to supplement income. Think of someone who sells comic books on eBay, dabbles as a real estate agent or designs websites on the side. What is far more important however is that while only 3% of small businesses are subject to the highest tax rates, the businesses that make up that 3% represent 44% of all small business income. Let’s do a little math problem:

IF: Small business represents over 75% of all net new job creation in the Unite States;
AND IF: 3% of small businesses generate 44% of all small business income and a similar number of jobs;
AND IF: Democrats want to raise taxes on the small businesses that fall in that 3%;
THEN: Democrats want to raise taxes on companies that are expected to be responsible for 33% of all new jobs.

That simple problem tells you everything you need to know about President Obama and the Democrats. Despite their rhetoric about wanting to put people back to work, they simply don’t care about actually creating jobs and growing the American economy. If you need even more proof, consider the coming tax hike on dividends. Dividends are currently taxed at 15%. On January 1st the dividend tax rate will skyrocket to 39.6%. (Oh, and don't forget the ObamaCare 1099 fiasco that will hammer small businesses) So, not only do we have Democrats seeking a direct tax increase on the small businesses who are supposed to create one third of all new jobs, at the same time they are discouraging investment in companies that are successful enough to be able to pay dividends at all… many of whom probably have and hire employees.

President Obama and the Democrats, in using the red herring of “middle class tax cuts” to pander to their progressive base are willing to sacrifice jobs and job creation so they can further cripple capitalism and push even more Americans into the fold of government dependency. As the economy slows and jobs evaporate expect Democrats to seek to extend unemployment benefits to 129 weeks then perhaps 159 weeks and then maybe be made permanent. At the end of the day that is exactly what Democrats want… they want to take everything the rich have stolen from the poor and the middle class and simply redistribute it. That of course is a house of cards as the rich have options about where they invest their money and even where they live or start their businesses. At some point when everyone becomes a ward of the state there is no one left on the other side from whom the state can take everything to support itself that house of cards will eventually come crashing down. Hopefully 2012 will usher in some new homebuilders.