Please don't call people racist because they disagree with you

[Ms. Toad]

95. To the contrary,

It is too painfully close to the truth for you to acknowledge it. President Obama is engaging in many activities which are the antithesis of the platform he ran on, and are strikingly similar to those he condemned when they were Bush's policies. To continue to criticize those polices is not racist, (whether or not I expressly compare his actions to the activities carried out by George Bush).

Allegations that such criticism is racist are abhorrent and border on racism, in and of themselves, because they demand that we treat President Obama differently merely because of his race.

In other words, because President Obama is black, I must be racist if if I criticize him for:

• His first term treatment of members of the LGBT community, even though I made the same criticisms against President Clinton
  
• His secret collection and analysis of data relating to US citizens, even though I made the same criticisms against President Johnson's use of the COINTELPRO program, and
  
• His secret collection and analysis of data relating to US citizens and continuation of the "war on terror and GITMO", even though I criticized President Bush for strikingly similar activities.
  

That is the gist of virtually all of the "you're a racist" posts say. At best they allege that if you dare to compare President Bush and President Obama's virtually identical "war on terror" policies it must be motivated by racism - with no explanation as to where that leap of logic comes from - and most respected analysis acknowledges that as far as the "war on terror" there is very little difference. Most of the "you're a racist" posts just equate criticism to racism, with captions like "What can it be, except racism?" And all conveniently ignore ignore the fact that many of us have also consistently criticized white Democratic presidents who were not progressive enough in certain of their policies.