OPINION:
I have a rule or two about the topic of race. Possibly, I could extend it to three or four rules. The first rule is that in a dialogue about politics, current events, horticulture, haute cuisine, you name it, the first person to introduce the question of race is probably a racist. If that person belabors the point, he or she is definitely a racist intent on exploiting the issue for personal gain. Finally, if he or she is obsessive on the matter, his or her racism has become pathological. There is no known cure for such creatures. Think of Al Sharpton discussing haute cuisine without reference to race relations. I suggest it is quite unthinkable.
By this standard Hillary Clinton is definitely, at least by contemporary standards, a racist. Just last week America was enjoying a perfectly normal presidential contest with Donald Trump calling Hillary “crooked,” and Hillary questioning his temperament and the color of his hair — highly misandrist charges, if you ask me. Then, of a sudden, what does Hillary come up with? She charges Donald with “racism,” and the whole mainstream media reverberates with her charges. The New York Times has even found traces of racial bigotry in Donald’s early business career, and his childhood out there on the playground. Frankly, The New York Times’ stories sounded like Donald Trump was raised in apartheid South Africa rather than Queens, N.Y. Then Hillary charged him with courting the Ku Klux Klan, and her running mate dutifully observed that Donald embraced “Ku Klux Klan values,” though Donald bathes regularly and even uses deodorant.
Every presidential election year about this time, the Democratic Party trots out the Ku Klux Klan as a major supporter of the Republican candidate. In fact, the Democrats make the Klan out to be a major player in American politics, though they in their snowy white burkinis usually poll very poorly among the general electorate. Nonetheless, the Democrats’ quadrennial outbursts are something every pinheaded Klansman looks forward to with touching avidity. Back in Jerkwater, every Klansman (they usually number no more than a dozen or so) gets ready for his presidential moment with enthusiasm. Awash in delusions of grandeur they bathe, shave off their grizzle, put on clean shirts, perhaps even laundered shirts, and don long pants. Forget the overalls. This is a presidential year. Now they are prepared for the arrival of the television cameras from the big city, and the smarter ones have even prepared a short diatribe about our white civilization or the peril of tooth decay, referred to as TD.
Serious observers of the American political scene can all agree; charges such as Hillary and the Democrats made against Donald last week do more to keep the Ku Klux Klan alive than a grant from the Ford Foundation. Both have been the sustainers of racism in America for years, and now they have found another fringe group that is supposedly equally terrifying. As Hillary sees it, this group will guarantee that every person of color in America rushes to the polls. Its unmarketable name is the “alt-right.” Frankly, I had never heard of the alt-right until the mainstream media began terrorizing us with its claims a week or so ago, though I would advise readers not to waste their time reading up on it. The alt-right will be passe the day after this election, possibly earlier than that.
Yet the Klan is an election perennial. It will never evaporate. It is too valuable for Hillary and the Democratic Party to let it expire. I would not be surprised to discover Democratic Party stalwarts supplying its woebegone members with food stamps in off-election years and powder to treat head lice. Actually, this year a grand dragon of the Klan by the name of Will Quigg even demonstrated some political acuity. He came out last week endorsing Hillary. Imagine that, a grand dragon complete with conical headdress endorsing America’s first woman presidential nominee of a major party? Apparently, he is endorsing her despite her many brushes with the law. I can see the headline now: “Grand Dragon Quigg Goes For Crooked Hillary.” His endorsement will dilute the Klan’s strong stand for law and order but political promises are made to be broken.
Moreover, the Klan even claims to have given Hillary more than $20,000 in donations, though Hillary’s spokesman, Josh Schwein, claims, “This is completely false.” Well, he would say that, would he not?
There is more good news for the Clinton campaign. The national chair of the Communist Party USA, John Bachtell, has also endorsed Hillary. Possibly, the Democrats’ tried-and-true charge of racism against the Republicans is working once again.
• R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is author of “The Death of Liberalism,” published by Thomas Nelson Inc.
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