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December 20, 2002, 1:20 p.m. In the Clear It’s the Dems who have the race problem now. By Michael Graham

s a conservative, southern Republican who believes it's possible to oppose both affirmative action and the KKK, my Christmas wish was for Trent Lott to write himself out of the picture. Today I am singing the Hallelujah chorus.

As many other NRO commentators have noted, we conservatives are on the verge of winning the issue of race. Liberals—sadly, led by black Democrats—are more race obsessed today than any group of Americans since the white Conservative Citizen’s Councils of the 1960s." The Democrats reliance on race-based politics is making voters across the political spectrum uncomfortable, including black voters suffering under "outrage fatigue" after decades of Jackson, Sharpton, and Farrakhan.

In the past, conservative Republicans couldn't take advantage of these conditions because we were the party of Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond. In January, that will change. When conservatives rallied their ranks to throw Trent Lott overboard, they highlighted this change.

For 40 years, there are two kinds of white conservatives: Those for whom the phrases "federalism," "state's rights," "individual accountability," and "color-blind society" were code words used to keep alive Strom-style segregation; and those of us for whom these ideals are guiding principles that we earnestly believe will make a better America for all.

The demise of Trent Lott is the final nail in the coffin of the Confederista movement inside the GOP. Joy to the world!

— Radio talk-show host Michael Graham is author of Redneck Nation: How the South Really Won the War.