When a politician says something deeply insensitive, and the press falls silent, guess the party.

Racial politics are the currency of the Democrats. This is well known, and we are conditioned by now to the reality. This trends towards unreality however when members of that party expose themselves as hypocritical mooks on the content of race. When those who lecture and hector on racial comportment end up falling prey to their very own tripwires it needs to be pointed out.

Hawaiian Congressman Ed Case was recently at a speaking event and he felt the need to wade into the tall grass of identity politics. As detailed by Nicholas Wu, from National Journal, Case felt at ease getting insensitive as he felt the need to establish his own credentials. “I’m an Asian, trapped in a white body,” said the Congressman.

Congressman Ed Case, who represents a majority Asian district in Honolulu – “I’m an Asian trapped in a white body” pic.twitter.com/Roro6Yk8CW

— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) January 16, 2019

One inspiration for this level of insensitivity/idiocy is that this is a Hawaiian politician we are dealing with. The hyper-leftist Island republic generates the need for this level of posturing and signaling from their leaders. This is the state that gave us Senator Mazie Hirono, who was free to tell all men to “shut up”, and who once lobbied so hard for gay rights she felt the need to apologize for not being a lesbian. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard also hails from the 50th state, a woman who has frequently said anything needed to get political play.

Case, recently elected to The US House for the second time, may be getting away with it because he is regarded as a middling politician. Once a speaker of the Hawaiian House he has less than a .500 record in federal elections. He lost a run for the Governor’s mansion, earned a House appointment in a special election to fill a vacated seat, lost two bids for the US Senate (once to Hirono), lost another special election in another district in 2010, and lost in the party primary that same year.

So yes, it can be tough to get noticed within one’s state when it is Hawaii, even as a Democrat. But how does that excuse one from criticism when making blatantly racist statements, compounded by the additional race-crime of cultural appropriation? That Capital “D” preceding the name sure helps. Any Republican/conservative would be getting keel-hauled by the media at this same moment, with party leadership being called on to disavow the statements.

Of course it requires pointing out that the lack of a furor here means that the usual Democrat race-baiting is little more than a hollow maneuver. It also illustrates the press being a willing accomplice for the Democrats in feigning outrage at any perceived conservative racist slight, but showing far more restraint whenever a Democrat is found to have spoken “inartfully” (their preferred euphemism) on racial terms.

It is revealing that Ed Case can say something so thunderously ignorant and not bear the brunt of media blowback. The temptation here is to say the the media response is crickets, and in this case the metaphor runs deeper — the media silence on the Case comments echos those breeds of silent crickets found on the islands of Hawaii.