Conservatives have been called racist so many times they hardly bother to take notice.

Calling someone a racist is the nuclear weapon of name-calling. The charge is supposed to shut down all debate and remove any need for further argument. It elevates the morality of the person making the charge and causes the offended to slink away humiliated

into the dark.

Such a powerful and self-serving weapon will surely suffer from overuse.

Those who like to lob this epitaph about generally fall into four categories.

First, the charge can validly be used when there are examples of actual racism, as in the case of an organization hiring a black woman over a more qualified white male, and a person is intent on exposing the wrong.

As my example suggests, the cases may be common, but the complaints are rare.

Second, there are the people that seem almost obsessively intent on projecting their own sins onto others. Freud would enjoy studying this group.

I once submitted an article containing an example of poor grammar in an attempt to make a point about education. This caused one reader to become apoplectic. She claimed that I was a racist and should therefore be banned from ever writing again.

Why was I a racist? Evidently, the offended person thought that African-Americans used poor grammar, and so an example of poor grammar must have been a parody, and to publish this, although there was no discussion of race, was somehow a racist act. In all honesty, such a thought had never entered my mind.

This person saw race when I never saw it, therefore I was a racist. I believe that Freud referred to that as projection.

Another example: I once made the point that African-Americans had been extremely successful in areas of expertise in which they chose to compete. This caused several people to become very irate. Evidently it is racist to suggest that marginalized people can be achieving.

Still another: I recently made mention of a number of cities that had large proportions of their citizens in poverty. All of these cities had Democratic administrations almost forever. Instead of wondering why a party falls short on its promises, several people looked up the stats and discovered that these cities had large minority populations. Bingo!

I was a racist for combining cities on a scale unrelated to race, but someone had found the unmentioned and secret connection.

Third, although I literally detest political correctness for all the reasons that a liberal ought to applaud, there are still those who insist upon it. I assume that they would feel culturally and ideologically naked without it.

They are like bloodhounds constantly sniffing the air for the least trace of a dreaded word or phrase that may, just may, indicate that someone is thinking improperly.

Fourth, there is the group of critics who know very well that a person they are calling racist is not a racist, but it fits their purposes to make the claim.

There are actually two strategies here. The first is obvious. One tactic of propaganda is to throw out a negative claim about your opponent, hoping that it will create a little traction.

The second type under this category is more difficult to describe, so I'll use an example. Once at O'Hare, I watched a group of travelers who had their flight canceled. They came up to the desk of the airline and threw a fit. They yelled. They pounded the table. In actuality, they were no more upset than the more rational passengers who simply walked up and got a voucher for a free room, but it fit their purposes to play out the charade. They almost smiled and winked at each other after their performance.

When you see someone being accused of being a racist, remember the smile and the wink, because in public venues, this is the norm.