After the Washington Times exposed Maryland Democrats as willing participants in racist attacks on Michael Steele and other black conservatives, the embarrassment has caused a number of Democrats to publicly eschew such tactics. Unfortunately, they refuse to condemn the people in their party who practice such behavior on behalf of the party, putting them in the awkward position of condemning racism while excusing the racists:

U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin yesterday pledged not to use racially tinged attacks in his campaign for U.S. Senate but stopped short of repudiating fellow Maryland Democrats who have said such tactics are acceptable against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele because he is a black conservative Republican.

"I have never in my entire life brought race into what I do in life, and it is not going to come in now, at this stage," said Mr. Cardin, a 10-term congressman who could face Mr. Steele in the contest to replace retiring Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes. "I don't think race has any place in this campaign."

Only Rep. Albert Wynn delivered a scolding to his own party, and talked about the real problem with the Democratic attacks on Steele:

"I think the comments and the attacks were outrageous and reprehensible. It does a disservice to the African-American community, and it creates a herd mentality that whatever the Democrats say we should repeat," Mr. Wynn said.

Throwing Oreo cookies and treating Steele as a traitor to his ethnicity reinforces what Wynn describes perfectly as a herd mentality, and it's one that Democrats have only been too happy to promote. They do not want Wynn or anyone else to suggest that African-Americans should think for themselves; they want to sell the notion that all Republicans are bigots regardless of race, and so therefore all tactics used to defeat them should be considered honorable -- as the ends justify the means. Moreover, they want the herd mentality directed by just a select few in order to control the near-lock they have on this particular demographic.

Kudos to Rep. Wynn for even broaching this subject and using this opportunity to remind the Democrats that this strategy demeans his community and will not be acceptable. Perhaps Rep. Wynn will next direct his ire to the racial attacks coming from people like Jesse Jackson, who accused Samuel Alito of being a segregationist and hijacking Rosa Parks' memorial services to do so.

True political freedom will come when the various minority groups quit buying the victimization and latent racialism that the Democrats sell and demand solutions to the issues that face their communities, real solutions and not just the panaceas they've sold like snake oil for the past two generations. Until the African-American community makes the Democrats work for their vote, however, that day will never come.

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