You can be a winner in the Game of Race!

Sarah Palin's latest pronouncement:

And that double standard is—and that hypocrisy is another reason why so many Americans are quite disgusted with the political games that are played, not only on both sides of the aisle, but in this case, on the left wing, what they are playing with this game of racism and kind of letting Harry Reid's comments slide, but having crucified Trent Lott for essentially along the same lines[.]

Harry Reid stated a political reality that only shocked people who are paid to feign shock: that Americans find black people with lighter skin tones who sound white are more likely to be elected than, say, Frank Pembleton, possibly the greatest character in the history of television. It's a sad truth that having dark skin and sounding different from white people impacts a candidate's electability, but it's a truth nonetheless. What Trent Lott said—what Palin believes to be "essentially along the same lines" of Reid's lamentable political truth—was that he was proud that Mississippi supported a segregationist candidate, and that the if the rest of the country had "followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." Moreover, to this day Lott hasn't explained what exactly "all these problems" that would've been avoided had blacks been kept in their place actually are.

So, for Palin, acknowledging a sad political reality is the equivalent of wishing that the Civil Rights Movement had never happened because, for Palin, racism is a game. Not only is it a game, she unwittingly confesses that she and her fellow Republicans are currently very much playing it by themselves, and are annoyed that the Democrats refuse to play along by "kind of letting Harry Reid's comments slide." She wants to play Race because just this once, she believes her team can win. Is it any wonder the large majority of non-white Americans find her and her party reprehensible?