I suppose most of us thought (or at least hoped) American politics were beyond this. Perhaps that was wishful thinking.

I’m talking about the reality of racism of the sort that’s been injected into the current campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and, by extension, into the selection of the next occupant of the White House in November.

I’m not of the sort that equates every real or perceived slight of Barack Obama as racist. Black, white, brown or red, male or female, old or young, those of us who’ve toiled in the public arena soon learn that all’s not fair in politics. Whatever the color, your skin either thickens pretty quickly or you decide this sort of thing is not your cup of tea (or shot and a beer).

Politics can often be more like rugby than bridge.

But it had seemed we’d come a long way since the days of the Dixiecrats in the rural south, of overt attempts to keep minorities from voting that were sometimes fatal to those attempting to right that wrong. Racism, sexism, religious animosities all seemed to be in the rear-view mirror, or so we sometimes smugly thought. Even ageism is evident as a result of the candidacy of John McCain, especially if you’re a fan of late night television.

All of those things have raised their ugly heads in this national campaign cycle. Mitt Romney was forced to give his JFK-style speech after questions about his Mormon religion. Hillary Clinton faced the obvious issue of being the first woman with a realistic shot at being president of the United States. Barack Obama brought the baggage of being both the progeny of a white mother and black father and carrying the middle name Hussein to his quest for the nation’s top job.

And the candidates themselves have not been above playing the race card.

Most recently, Clinton wondered out loud, in the aftermath of an overwhelming victory in West Virginia on Tuesday, about Obama’s ability to attract hard-working white voters. The implied emphasis in her statement was not on hard working. And Obama, in his Philadelphia speech confronting the race question in politics, talked about his own grandmother’s fear of black men. He also waited way too long before confronting issues arising from the rhetoric of his own pastor. McCain has issues of his own of a religious sort with another preacher.

Now comes word that the owner of a Georgia bar is selling “Obama in ’08” T-shirts. Not a bad thing in and of itself until you see the picture that goes with the slogan. It’s of the cartoon monkey “Curious George” peeling a banana. Bar owner Mike Norman says the shirts are not meant to be racist but only reflect his feeling that Obama and Curious George look so much alike.

If you believe that let’s talk about some lakefront property in Whitewater or Cisco.

Publications from Rolling Stone to The New York Times have written about the issues of racism and sexism in this election cycle. In the Washington Post as early as November of 2006, it was phrased this way by writer Benjamin Wallace-Wells:

“The question that remains for black Americans and women isn’t whether prejudice has diffused to the point that they can participate in the United States, it’s whether they can legitimately hope to lead it.”

That question is on the front burner now because of the very real possibility a black man or a white woman really might be our next leader. That wasn’t realistically the case in the pioneering efforts of Shirley Chisolm or Jessie Jackson, or Pat Schroeder or Geraldine Ferraro, the onetime vice presidential nominee and now Clinton supporter who reversed the race card recently.

“I will not be discriminated against because I’m white,” Ferraro thundered after being called to account for remarks made about Obama and his campaign.

Not that there hasn’t been progress. For example, the number of black elected officials has nearly doubled since Jackson’s campaigns in the mid-1980s. It remains to be seen if the ceiling that has limited those gains to local and state offices, to governors and members of Congress, will lift this time around.

It was Martin Luther King, himself an ultimate victim of the sort of issues we’re discussing, that best expressed what we all need to be working toward still ... toward a time when we judge people by the strength of their character rather than the color of their skin. Or their gender or age, for that matter.

Sadly, that’s apparently a time yet to come for some among us.

<i>Jim Spehar enjoys both the study and application of politics, at least most days. Comments to jimspehar@bresnan.net.</i>