I was basically referring to the fact that the Democrat Party has built its base by agitating for special interest groups at the expense of unity. It matters not which group:blacks, feminists, homsexuals, unions, radical environmentalists, pacifists, aethists etc.

The mentality is that of pre-melting pot dislike for the enemy (all not included in their ranks)at the expense of a unified America.

Such division for attaining power through identity politics has polarized and caused grave harm to the country.

1) I wasn't stating my race/sex in order to get acceptance from anyone on this blog. I am very clear about who I am and what I believe, and mature enough to allow people to have their own opinions without it infringing on mine. I simply stated it because it was important to provide that context for comments I made later in my post.

2)I agree, your race, age,sex, or sexual preferences do not have anything to do with the correctness of your comments. But it has everything to do with who you are as a person, and your opinions are (in part) a reflection of this. The problem is that most people assume how these factors (such as race or age) will play out in people's individual lives and make assumptions.

3)I'm not sure what your previous comments have to do with "the political dissection of the country," but our country is founded on the fact that political discourse among citizens will bring our unity and move our country forward.

However, I appreciate the sentiment of a country united.

As an American holding the traditional values we once cherished, I reject identity politics based upon superfluous criteria. My sex, race, age, or sexual preferences have nothing to do with the correctness of my remarks.

It is time to put the political dissection of this country to rest -as in one nation indivisible. (and invisible as well!)

However, I find this article very biased and unprofessional. Essentially, every argument is dismissed or swept under the rug. Many minorities become frustrated because when we do raise our voices to protest or engage in discussion, people comment that it shouldn't be about race, it's about the "real issues?" Or that we are getting worked up over nothing? How can you feel that you are heard, an equal, or have a voice if your opinion is constantly dismissed?

Also, it may be that Hilary just slipped up if she said it once. But she said the same thing just a few days before in a speech in NH. This was no mistake, this was a part of her rhetoric.

To add, why did her comments (in both cases)imply that all MLK did was make great speeches? What about the Nobel Peace Prize? Leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott? Organizing one of the largest marches on DC? Helping to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference? His work regarding South Africa, Vietnam, and Latin America? His economic initiatives?

Why aren't the MSM and the majority of the blogs reporting Bob Johnson's Sidney Poitier comment (in the same speech he refered to Obama's drug use, and much more offensive)? What about the Nevada lawsuit? And Joyner's assertion that the term "shuck and jive" doesn't have the same meaning today is laughable. The MLK comment was not done in isolation.

And please, stop assuming that I am so monolithic that I am going to automatically vote for a black man because he is black, or a woman because I am a woman too.

The lack of respect, and the lack of knowledge and research into the candidates makes me wonder of we are ready for any kind of change at all.

"The result is that we're seeing an inordinate amount of grunting and groaning over extremely minor differences and "personal qualifications", along with predictable attempts by the candidates to synthesize."

Well said.

(My own position on the Obama-Hillary squabble is intermediate: clearly she got a ridiculous bum rap for her MLK comment, but against that you have to consider her willingness to climb into bed with a monumental sleeze like Robert Johnson -- and, for that matter, her willingness to lie through her teeth about Obama's original position on Iraq.)

(2) On the subject of the Southern Strategy, Floyd is spouting absolute historical hooey; I hope it's just because he's young and doesn't have either memories or detailed book knowledge of that period. 1964 was THE key year for the massive transformation of both parties, in which the Dems finally stopped equivocating and embraced civil rights, and white Southerners responded by stampeding overwhelmingly to the GOP -- which was quite happy to accept them, and thus permanently changed the nature of its coalition and its policies. In Goldwater's immortal phrase: "We should go hunting where the ducks are" -- the "ducks" being white racists. Thurmond (and Jesse Helms) were just the most prominent of those ducks; their flocks blackened the skies of the South in 1964. That's why the core of Goldwater's support in that election was the South, and specifically the Deep South. Outside the South, LBJ beat him 64-36; in the South, he came within 4 points of Johnson. In Mississippi, he got a staggering 87% of the vote, and I assure you that it wasn't because of those Dirty Hippies, who didn't happen to be around then.

Consevative Republican strategists and pundits stampeded to embrace the new Southern Strategy, also known as "being as racist as you can possibly be without being so blatant about it as to give the game away completely to Northern Republicans who might have qualms about it". (Floyd should really take a stroll through the pages of National Review during the '60s and '70s; it VERY often slid clear over the line into flat-out blatant -- and, in fact, flabbergasting -- racism.) It certainly wasn't the only factor that put Nixon and Reagan in -- the furor over supposed far leftism and dangerous dovishness certainly played a huge role in sinking McGovern, and Reagan's electoral victories were due more to the disastrous failure of Carter's economic policies than to the Southern Strategy -- but it was a very important factor indeed.

The echoes from that event have resonated in the South ever since. Explicit racism is obviously tremendously weaker in the South than it used to be, but it still plays some role; remember the ridiculous fights over the Confederate symbols on Southern flags? And the South's old racial bigotry has now, to a large extent, been replaced by religious bigotry -- which, I think, very often consists of hatred of "cultural liberals" simply because they're perceived as "liberals", and a lot of Southerners still harbor buried resentments against "liberals" in general which are left over from the days when they (or their parents) hated liberals for pushing racial integration.

Oh dear. And we still have months of this to sit through.
A series of comments from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband and her supporters are spurring a racial backlash and adding a divisive edge to the presidential primary as the candidates hea...

Her father was murdered at the age of 9 and she felt abandoned. She was raised in a mostly white community and she did not have any positive African American male figures in her life. She start dating a boy of another race and I was curious why she did not want to date any one of the same descent and she said she did not think she could find any positive African American men. I told her, “Yes You Can.” Not that it is anything wrong with her dating someone outside her race, because “Yes She Can.”

Recently she called me one afternoon crying after she went to go see Senator Obama. She said he restored her faith in mankind. He painted a picture of hope and possibilities. She said, “Mommy, Yes I Can be success at anything that I set out to do and I Will be. I did not know too much about Senator Obama at that time, but I wanted to find out who is this man that blossomed the message I planted in my child.

From that day forward I have been on his bandwagon. Everything I read about him I agreed with or at least understand his thinking.

As an African American woman, it does my heart well to know that he will have to go home to look in the face of a woman that looks like me. Not only that, he is IN LOVE with a woman that is like me. He is me and I am him. To deny him an opportunity to prove that he can make a difference, is to deny myself and child that same opportunity. I recently liked Hillary, but I believe this is the time to take the next step and move forward. He is the most educated of both parties. If we do not do it now, we may not have another chance. I just do not believe that the Clinton’s are my saviors

We have to take a stand for children and grandchildren and show them that Yes They Can.

If we do not have the confidence that a black man can be president now, what make you think White America will give us another chance? I am beginning to lose faith in my people

The Lost Archive -- Missing for a half century, a cache of photos spurs sensitive research on Islam's holy text (WSJ) On the night of April 24, 1944, British air force bombers hammered a former Jesuit college here housing the...