Since the days of FDR’s New Deal and accelerated by LBJ’s Great Society, the Democratic Party has successfully – and falsely – posed as the party of civil rights. “Civil rights,” code phrase the party of African Americans.

It’s not true.

For the 40 years the Democrats held Congress, little was done to help AAs. Disagree? If I’m wrong, why is there still so much discussion about race and why do self-appointed and self-regulated “Black Leaders” continue to beat the drum of discord over the “disenfranchised?”

But, more to the point, why is it that when a predominantly white population votes for a white candidate over a black one, they’re considered racist, yet – YET – when a black population choses one of their own over a white candidate, it’s understood, accepted and, above all, not racist?

In the South Carolina primary, Barack Obama whomped two white candidates with an “understandable.” Michael Barone wrote “Polls in South Carolina, where blacks will make up about 50 percent of primary voters, have him carrying blacks by wide margins — the reason everyone assumes he will win there.“

He went on: “Nationally, Rasmussen’s post-Nevada daily tracking shows Obama leading among blacks 62 percent to 19 percent and Clinton leading among whites 43 percent to 23 percent. That looks like a sharper racial polarization than we saw before the round of caucuses and primaries began. It raises the possibility that Hillary Clinton may win the Democratic nomination by visibly disrespecting a core constituency of the party. And that could spell trouble, in the form of low black turnout, in the general election.“

Ben Smith gives Obama the same edge in an article on Politico.

But most curious is that race was injected – beyond the makeup of the electorate – as an issue against a candidate. No surprise, of course, that it happened in the south… in the state where secession was born. In good ol’ boy South Carolina.

But wait! What’s this?

It wasn’t a Republican that reared the ugly head of racial politics.

GASP! It wasn’t even a South Carolinian.

Nor was it a conservative!

It was … it was … it was BILL CLINTON! America’s “first black President!”

So, to tally this thing:

1. It’s OK to ignore the problems and issues of the African American community (just keep telling them you’re on their side and the other guys aren’t)
2. It’s OK to vote for a candidate because of skin color (or against the other candidate if (s)he is not of the same pigment as you), and
3. It’s OK to denigrate a candidacy based on race

…as long as you’re a Democrat.