The McCain Defamation

I refer not to John McCain, but to "The Other McCain" - as in Robert Stacy McCain, a favorite blogger of mine, first-rate journalist, Southern gentleman, devout family man, and once again the target of bogus allegations of racism. I've previously written about the scurrilous defamation of McCain here and here, but I feel obliged to do so once again in light of this post by conservative blogger Patterico of Patterico's Pontifications. Patterico followed up that initial post with this one on Monday evening along with two additional entries ("Racial Ratiocination" and "The Right Way, the Wrong Way, and the Buckley Way") by guest blogger Dafydd ab Hugh. McCain has responded with the following entries: "Fear and Loathing at Patterico", "I'd Rather be in Pasadena", "An Interesting Question", "Blog Commissars", and "Your secret racist buddy". I realize that is a lot to read, but it is well worth your time to click on all of the links provided and do so.

I do not know what motivated Patterico to engage McCain on this topic and I do not intend to speculate. This blog post by DaTechguy closely approximates my own opinion regarding McCain's writings from 1996 which are at the heart of this whole matter. The bottom line is that I consider Robert Stacy McCain to be upstanding individual with no racist inclinations whatsoever, and in the year-an-a-half I have been regularly reading his blog I have seen absolutely nothing posted there to make me think otherwise. If I knew McCain personally, I would be proud to be his friend.

As for the accusation-in-question, Stacy McCain is more than capable of defending himself and has done so with great alacrity and circumspection. The reason I feel the need to chime in at this point is to provide my own thoughts on this shopworn insult - a weapon repeatedly used by leftists against conservatives in lieu of the inability of the former to engage in meaningful political discourse. In short, crying "racism" is the first and last refuge of leftist scoundrels, and I will have no truck with it whatsoever.

Any outspoken conservative will, at some point, be called a racist. The intent of liberals in accusing conservatives of racism is not to condemn perceived bad behavior, but to marginalize those who dissent from leftist orthodoxy. Nowadays the mere accusation of racism is an effective conviction, the person accused being presumed guilty until proven innocent. To employ the charge of racism in this reckless manner is irresponsible and unacceptable, and it has the counterproductive effect of encouraging true racism by generating apathy toward the existence thereof.

I will also point out that nearly every public discussion of racism these days is fundamentally dishonest. At issue in such discussions is the racism of whites toward non-whites, but rarely if ever is the racism of nonwhites toward whites ever addressed. But it does exist. When growing up in a predominantly Hispanic South Texas bordertown many, many years ago, I found myself on a few occasions at the receiving end of such ignorant behavior, being called a "pinche gringo" (this translates as "fucking gringo" in English, "gringo" being a crude, disrespectful term for non-Hispanic whites) for the "sin" of having a father who is a non-Hispanic white (my mother is of Hispanic heritage). All too often liberals will excuse such idiocy, claiming that it must be understood within the context of historical wrongs and ongoing injustices. That is hogwash. Objectively, racism is either right or it is wrong, tolerable or intolerable - there is no middle ground. Racism is "natural" insofar as it is an unfortunate part of the human condition, but it should never be accepted or excused in any way.

As I see it, Robert Stacy McCain did not and has not exhibited racism, nor has he ever excused it. As Stacy himself likes to say, "there are facts and there are witnesses to those facts." The fact is that Stacy is a good man, and you may consider me one of the witnesses.

Update I:

Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom weighs in with "On blogging and its discontents"; Stacy McCain expounds further with "Jeff Goldstein gets to the nub of it".

Update II:

Little Miss Attila adds her thoughts with "What Goldstein Said"; Donald Douglas says "Take It From Me. An Interracial Man in an Interracial Marriage, Robert Stacy McCain is No Racist!"

Update III:

Patterico's latest: "Please Do Not Put Words in my Mouth"; more from Jeff Goldstein: "Language lessons, revisited"; Stacy McCain adds: "A woman has the right to change her mind"; Donald Douglas at American Power chimes in again with "Patrick Frey Attempts Walk-Back of Racist Insinuations Against Robert Stacy McCain"

Update IV (12/10/2009):

See my new entry: "The McCain Mutiny"