American Leftists care about race because of their dedication to a bankrupt political ideology, and because it gives them the opportunity to victimize the "victims."  

With all the brouhaha about the Shirley Sherrod incident, as well as the dropping of the voter intimidation case against the "new black panther party," race is now occupying center stage of the American political circus. It doesn't belong there and it should have, and would have exited long ago, except that various people on the left have been keeping the issue on life support in order to cause trouble for those who would gladly get on with their everyday lives instead. It would be pathetic if it weren't dangerous.

Those who believe that race is a continuing major issue should check out this column by Star Parker, who cites Pew and Gallup polling data to the contrary.  Or then there is Ellis Washington , who sees Barack Obama engaged in a "war on America." Clearly, there are people who don't see race as the issue. They see what our current government is doing as the issue. They see the effects of policy and of who is in charge. It doesn't matter what an elected official looks like; only what he or she does in office. More importantly, because these people are not on the political left, their vision is colored by facts rather than by ideology. And this is for a good reason. It is because they have moved beyond the superficial into examining things on a deeper level.

Race centered politics in the United States dates back to the end of the War Between the States. The introduction of civil rights laws and the end of segregation set the stage for elimination of racial issues. At this point the political left intervened, invoking an adaptation of the old Marxist concept of "class struggle."

The original Marxist doctrine was built on the traditional, relatively immobile social class structures of Europe. American society with its significantly more mobile society was not, despite Marx's beliefs, ripe for an anti-capitalist revolution. The American working people, seeking middle class prosperity, which was always within reach, and generally attainable were almost totally disinterested. However this did not prevent the Left from its revolutionary dreams, even without a sympathetic working class. Their ranks were composed primarily of intellectuals and idealists who eventually found a substitute for economic class in race. Thus, they worked to build a power base on anti-European/Caucasian sentiment.

The Left's key for substituting race for economic class was the fact that at one time, many Africans had been imported to America as slaves. Borrowing from the belief that the working classes were morally superior, the Left asserted that the descendants of slaves were in the same position. This led to the fomentation of racial divisiveness and the encouragement of such organizations as the original Black Panther Party, La Raza, and others. While their original strategy did not succeed, they clung to the ideology that race mattered, and that people from other than European ancestry were "exploited victims" or otherwise kept in the position of a permanent underclass, despite the reality of the American social system. They refuse to acknowledge that the passage of time had wrought serious changes, rendering their political basis a false one.

Barack Obama is a child of these false beliefs, and cultivated them within himself, as Ellis Washington pointed out in the column referenced above. Obama sincerely believes this drivel, as he wrote in his autobiographical books. Now, occupying a top position in government he still considers himself a victim and wants "payback." On top of this, he is very much aware that the only way that he can justify his re-election to those he has betrayed is by continuing to cultivate a divided society. The fact that Black Americans are suffering more than Whites under his political and economic mismanagement is merely another excuse to "blame whitey". The fault is never his, because he is still a victim, and the one who has made him a victim; the one who must take all the blame is generally George W. Bush. This is not because Mr. Bush actually did anything, but rather because he is a convenient scapegoat.

The ideology of the Left has always been about blame. Someone else has always been responsible for the flaws in society. As the National Lampoon Radio Hour once put it, in the USSR children couldn't have toys because capitalist elves had sabotaged the toy factories. In America it is the evil Europeans who are "at fault." Racial divisions must be maintained at all costs as a source of political power. Black Americans, and others of non-European ancestry must be convinced that even if they are successful, have positions of authority and wealth to go with them they are still victims. Even Michael Steele is a victim and doesn't know it because he is being exploited as a figurehead for a "racist" political party. That is the sole basis for why the racial issue is being revitalized now. It is to keep these people on the government plantation and exploited, not by the Europeans or Capitalists, but by other members of the "victim" class.

Instead of blindly following this ideology based on hatred and divisiveness, what most Americans would prefer, and what some "minorities" have come to learn is that if we are all Americans, color doesn't matter. That is why you have White Americans wholeheartedly supporting Star Parker, and Allen West in their bids for Congressional seats; not because of their appearance, but what is written on their hearts; that they are Americans and that race does not matter; belief in America and in its heritage does. A successful future will be built on the efforts of people such as this, and not through the empty rhetoric of someone who pretends to be "post-racial" in order to spread his own personal brand of racism from the Washington DC to the rest of the nation.