Larry Elder, the conservative pundit, radio host, and leading Republican candidate for governor of California, was recently subjected to a horrific display of bigotry that the Los Angeles Times actually published. Erika Smith wrote an article titled “Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy. You’ve been warned.”
In addition to the sheer absurdity of the statement, it must be legitimately asked, why do leftists, liberals, and Democrats get away with such blatant and unfiltered bigotry and discrimination?
The answer is this: These are the real racists and bigots in the country, responsible for any racial divide. It is every person’s right to agree or disagree with a given political candidate. It is no one’s right to use prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination to do so. Racist ad hominem attacks implying that people of a certain race have no business holding unapproved opinions should have no place in the country’s political sphere. Logically analyze and criticize a candidate’s policies. Show why a certain candidate is inferior to another candidate. But don’t resort to blatant racism to attempt to sway public opinion.
As our own opinion submission guidelines at the Washington Examiner state,
This is a higher standard than the Los Angeles Times evidently. What Smith did was use Elder’s skin color as a reason not to vote for him. This is literally the textbook definition of racism. This was in addition to the tired old trope of “white supremacy” aimed at any Republican position or candidate by whom the Left feels threatened. While the behavior exemplified by Smith should be expected from people like her at this point, that does not mean it should be tolerated or accepted.
Smith’s prejudice oozes from the pores of her piece. “Few things infuriate me more than watching a Black person use willful blindness and cherry-picked facts to make overly simplistic arguments that whitewash the complex problems that come along with being Black in America,” Smith writes. As opposed to what? Politicians and political pundits of a variety of races, viewpoints, and parties do the same exact thing every minute, every hour, every day. Do you know of any politician who doesn’t make simplistic arguments about complex problems, right or wrong?
What does Elder’s skin color have to do with anything here? Smith is stating that if Elder were white, she would have a higher tolerance for him — in other words, freely admitting that it is Elder’s skin color that vexes her.
This type of racist and inflammatory rhetoric must be deemed unacceptable. The Left is working hard to create, weaponize, and monopolize racial strife, and people wonder why our country is so sharply politically divided.
