Trump: You know who's a racist, right? Elizabeth Warren

I always think it's funny when people who routinely and shamelessly use race as a tool to advance their political ambitions find themselves called out as racists for doing so. And while there may be things about a Donald Trump candidacy that cause us consternation, let's also enjoy the fact that Trump is willing to do absolutely necessary things that no other Republican will dare to do. This is one of them. So when a woman pretends to be Native American for the sake of her political ambitions, why should that same woman be allowed to go around calling Donald Trump a racist and not get called on the carpet for her own abuse of race? She shouldn't, but if just about anyone else were calling the strategic shots for the GOP, you can bet she would be.

Advantage Trump:

"Goofy Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to as Pocahontas, pretended to be a Native American in order to advance her career. Very racist!" Trump tweeted. Trump has repeatedly referred to Warren as "Pocahontas," referring to the senator's past claims about her Native American heritage. The two have traded barbs throughout the week. On Thursday, Warren -- who has emerged as perhaps the Democrats' most outspoken Trump combatant -- called Trump a "thin-skinned, racist bully" after he criticized a judge with Mexican heritage who is overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University. "Pocahontas is at it again! Goofy Elizabeth Warren, one of the least productive U.S. Senators, has a nasty mouth. Hope she is V.P. choice." Trump tweeted in response on Friday.

Let's compare the two situations. Trump is being called a racist for suggesting that a judge's Mexican heritage might have something to do with, at least in Trump's mind, the judge's lack of fairness toward him in a lawsuit against Trump University. Why? Because Trump is always talking about building a wall on the Mexican border and Trump figures this might make the judge of Mexican heritage disinclined toward him. Trump might be completely wrong about the judge, but was this really a racist statement? Don't tell me who else said it was. Look at it on the merits. Trump did not make some blanket statement about Mexicans being stupid or incompetent or corrupt (nor did he say all Mexicans are rapists, despite what the media tells you). He said that this one individual might have a bias against him and that the bias might be related to his Mexican heritage. The only way you can turn that into a racist statement is if you believe that any time anyone ever mentions race, it must by definition be racist. Compare that to Warren's shameless pandering to Native Americans by claiming without any evidence to be one-sixteenth Cherokee. That is nothing more than a classic Democrat appeal to group identity politics. And by the way, if it's really racist to say that a person's race might influence their judgment in a case, why do liberals always complain about all-white juries convicting black defendants? I understand that political consultants hate it when Trump gets in these ongoing feuds with his critics, but is it really better to do what conventional Republican candidates do - which is to cower in the face of such accusations and then plead with everyone to believe that they really are sensitive and open-minded? It's the left that's obsessed with race, and that uses it at every opportunity as a political sledge hammer. Why shouldn't Donald Trump, who's been accused of racism by just about everyone on the left and even some in his own party, point that out? And why shouldn't it start with someone like Elizabeth Warren, who is among the biggest practitioners of this nonsense? As I've said all along, I have some very big problems with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. But the way he fights back against the nonsense of the Democrats and their media mouthpieces is not one of them.

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