THE INEVITABLE CARD – AT 8:05 A.M. ET:  Maybe it was inevitable, but have you noticed the increasingly racialized tone to our politics recently?

Leading the way is Attorney General Eric Holder, who once famously said that America is a land of racial cowards.  Holder not only refused to prosecute an open-and-shut case of voter intimidation against the new Black Panthers, there is now testimony that the Justice Department will not prosecute any case brought against a minority.

And now Holder, already suing Arizona on Constitutional grounds, says that he's looking into the possibility of suing the state on racial profiling grounds, even though there hasn't been any.

Last week, when an Oakland police officer was convicted "only" of involuntary homicide in the killing of a young African-American in a confrontation, Justice immediately announced, before tempers had cooled, that it was looking into filing federal charges.  On what basis? 

Now the NAACP appears poised to declare the Tea Party at least partially a "racist" movement.  And Michelle Obama, appearing before the group, urges blacks to "increase" their "intensity."

There have been reports that the Democrats, desperate in the face of low poll numbers, are trying to excite their base and increase its turnout.  A major part of that base is black and Hispanic.  Making those groups angry and apprehensive, and making it clear that they will be strongly represented, may well be effective short-term politics.

In the long run, though, racial agendas can backfire loudly.  The last Democratic mayor of heavily Democratic New York City, David Dinkins, was also the city's first black mayor.  The dream was that he would be a mayor who happened to be black.  The reality was that Dinkins could not overcome pressures by his supporters, and became the "black" mayor, clearly favoring his own group.  He was dispatched by Rudy Giuliani, beginning a non-Democratic mayoralty that has lasted 17 years. 

I think there is a possibility of an even greater racial tone, especially if Obama runs again.  The nation will be told that it is "racist" to vote him out of office, sending an ugly message to other countries, especially those in Latin America and Africa.

What is happening may well have been inevitable, and that is the sadness.  The country will not benefit.

July 13, 2010