Today on the homepage, I begin a series on Paul Ryan, a kind of Ryan-palooza. That first installment is here. A couple of weeks ago, Ryan told me, “I think the president is kind of intellectually exhausted, and the Left is intellectually exhausted. They’re talking about income inequality because they can’t talk about growth.”

Ah, but as the last few days have proven, they can always talk about race. They can always cry “Racist!” — dirtily, underhandedly, defamatorily. Paul Ryan is, of course, the opposite of a racist: someone who sees people as people, not skin colors, and wants the best for us all.

Which is intolerable, to the modern American Left.

P.S. Imagine the position Paul Ryan is in: To the nutty Right, you’re a traitorous quasi-socialist. To the nutty Left — although you might say the mainstream Left — you’re a racist right-wing extremist. Perhaps there are enough sane people remaining in the country to appreciate him.