ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Democrats have this annoying habit of seeing race in places where race isn’t even an issue.

It’s called identity politics, it’s one of the left’s favorite means of politicking, and it’s damaging to America because it immediately stifles all sane debate.

The left does it with gender, as well.

Take a look at this point made by Fox News pundit and “Five” co-host Juan Williams, whose recent piece in The Hill far too frequently represents the collective view of the left: “Many people — including me — have been targets of President Trump’s Twitter tirades, but women of color provoke a special kind of Trump ire.”

His comments are already interesting because they actually acknowledge how President Donald Trump’s “Twitter tirades” encompass all — that this president takes to task with his tweets “many people,” of all walks of life.

And indeed Trump does.

Trump’s called out the now-deceased Sen. John McCain on Twitter. Trump’s slammed Sen. Jeff Flake on Twitter. Trump’s hit at his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, on Twitter. And just this week, Trump called out the former senator from Nevada, Harry Reid, on Twitter. The common denominator with these dudes?

They’re all white. They’re all males.

Yet when the left wants to criticize Trump, it’s all about the minority races and female gender.

“The sight of a young Muslim congresswoman, wearing a hijab, holding a powerful 71-year-old white Republican accountable signals the dawn of a new day in American politics,” Williams wrote in The Hill, in reference to recent congressional questioning by Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat, of Trump’s special envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams. “The heavily white, older male party of Trump is fighting to hold back what they see coming over the horizon.”

Which is?

Well, in leftist-speak, what’s coming over the horizon that is leaving the ideological right in nail-biting terror are women, and women of color, in particular.

“Trump last month dismissed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) with a wave of the hand and a ‘who cares,’ ” Williams wrote. “Trump has been even more dismissive of other women of color. … Imagine the bitter attacks if Trump faces a strong woman of color, such as Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), in the 2020 election.”

Williams also mentioned Omarosa Manigault Newman, former Rep. Mia Love, Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Frederica Wilson and Rep. Rashida Tlaib as other women of color who’ve been targeted and attacked by Trump and other conservatives because of their sex and skin color.

But take a memo, left: Conservatives oppose these women, some of color, some not, because they press policies that are dangerous to the limited government tenets of America.

It has nothing to do with race or gender or race and gender.

It has everything to do with views.

Pretending, as Williams did in The Hill — as many on the left are wont to do — that Trump “regularly uses white identity politics to stir up his base,” is a clamp on sensible political discourse.

It’s a deceitful argument that actually sends a subtle message to women and women of color, especially, that their race and gender matter more than their minds — a slap in the face to equality, in and of itself.

And it’s the weakest method of politicking that exists because it says hey, I’ve no real ideas to sell so I’m just going to guilt you into voting for me by using my sex and skin color.

Enough already of race-baiting and gender-slinging. Enough already of the antics. Simply put, if the left can’t win based on policies and platforms and ideas, then the left has no business being in the political race at all.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley.

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