A few months ago, commenting on the Obama-Wright affair, I wrote:

"I find significant discomfort in the parade of conservatives, who, in our pursuit of Obama and his pastor, have adopted the language of the politically correct Left. If we have any hope of returning to sanity on the issue of speech, we must break the cycle of acrimonious sanctimony. Perhaps we should take the initiative and offer grace rather than vengeance while we hold the upper hand in one of these disgusting and frightening public spectacles."

"The repeated accusations of racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism are inflicting great injury on our body politic. Accepting the proposition that "hate" and "intolerance" are the ultimate unpardonable sins is an unwise long-term strategy for conservatives; this invidious protocol is a rigged game invented by liberals that we can never ultimately win."

Why were we so relentless and uncompromising in our quest for satisfaction in that sickening affair?

We have suffered great abuse. For a brief moment, the tables were turned, and we wanted our pound of flesh.

Do I exaggerate the circumstances of our trauma?

Not by much. Many of us labor in a culture of extreme intolerance for any hint of intolerance.

Even as the collective rhetoric of the American intelligentsia purports to prize nonconformity, critical thinking, and dissent as the most admirable of all public virtues, the shock troops of nonconformity stand ready to intimidate and punish public figures and private individuals who fail to conform to our most sacred cultural creed, the ideology of tolerance.

The charge of "racism" has become the most stigmatizing condemnation in our society, often signaling a painful and potentially career-ending ordeal for accused public figures and/or academics.

This poisonous theater in the culture war has exacted a high price over the years:

Republicans lost a Senate seat in 2006 (and probably a fairly decent fellow), when George Allen uttered one word: "macaca" (the exact meaning of which remains mysterious to me still). The Party of Lincoln cashiered a Senate Majority Leader in 2005 after he stooped to praise an ancient political warrior on the occasion of his 100th birthday and impending retirement. Even the great conservative hero of our generation, Ronald Reagan, a man praised by objective chroniclers for his unflinching sense of fairness (racial and otherwise), still faces the specter of evil intentions for an ambiguous sentence spoken at a county fair near Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980.

Any fair-minded observer will admit things have been tough for conservatives over the past few decades, and, even more importantly, the mainstream media has prosecuted a merciless double-standard.

What about the "lipstick and the pig" comments?

We must abandon this theatrical display of victimization immediately. We sound too much like DemocRATS (remember that one?).

Obama called Palin a pig? Sort of? Maybe. Close enough? I am always suspicious of "coded" race and/or sex baiting. Sometimes a cigar really is just a cigar. Even if it was the real thing, SO WHAT? Suck it up. Good one, Obama. Bite me! Pretty pathetic attempt at a burn, actually. We'll see you chokers in the playoffs.

But let's stop demanding apologies. It makes us look like the pusillanimous party.

If this were going the other way, you say, they'd have our asses. Pretty much. Can't argue with you there. If someone had said something like, "this really is the pot calling the kettle black," all Hell would have broken lose. But the double-standard be damned--I don't want to win that way. Let's walk it off. Pin the quote up in the locker room and take it out of their hides on the field of play.

Is she the new Reagan? If she is, she's going to laugh off this desperate slight and say, "Well, Barack, there you go again," and then counter with a rhetorical sharp right cross to the jaw.

UPDATE: a hearty Texas welcome to Instapundit readers.