The Left is losing its grip on that weapon because of flagrant overuse and abuse. In fact, an accusation of racism has become something like a badge of honor on the Right, precisely because the Left is so prone to using it as a debate-killer.
My response to being called a racist has been "Damned right I am!" for a very long time now.
I don't know if you posted a link to that piece before or not Fran but if you did I somehow missed it until now. DAMN! That was cathartic!
As a result of my age and circumstances I find myself increasingly looking back, not forward. The view forward is bleak at best. Backwards is getting a bit fuzzy around the edges but there are still warm moments when I was surrounded by people whose word was truly their bond. When acts of courtesy and kindness weren't noteworthy simply because they were so common. When a man was expected to show respect by holding a door for a lady.....and a lady acknowledged that display by smiling instead of grimacing or telling you to "F off". I recall a time when presidents might appear as stodgy or fuddy-duddy but they were respectable even if you didn't like their politics. I recall a time when presidents didn't strike fear into the American public or seek to drive wedges between folks. Or stoke the flams of racial discord. I know that there was a time when we had overt racists in the Oval Office - but I never thought I'd ever live to see one.
Not all of my memories are idyllic and inviting. I remember traveling on a train towards Chicago with my family and seeing a black man for the first time and my 5 year old sister asking my mom "Did that man get burned in a fire?" I remember being witness to the early days of integration in New Orleans schools and having to pass the police gauntlet to get to class. I remember being chased through the streets by roving gangs of black thugs and learning to fight for my life.
I've had some of the most unspeakably horrible acts of violence and misery visited upon myself and my family and yet somehow emerged on the other side without the inclination to go out and commit random acts of violence on innocent neighbors. Call me foolish but I have an insistence that others elect not to do the same to me.
I don't much care for the world as it has devolved - and it has un-evolved. There are occasional respites but not much joy. We are at the mercy of a man who is "making amends" for the plight of the black by inciting violence against us. He is enticing his "peeps" to take out their aggressions on us. He is daring us to fight back.
What kind of F'd up world is it when your main motivation is hoping for an opportunity to return the favor?