By Peter Burrows elburropete@gmail.com

A number of things happened on election day that have me very encouraged. The first was the reelection of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. More than any political office holder, he has led the fight against public unions and their far too powerful influence on government.

The Democrats may rail against the "one percent" and against income inequality, but those are just smoke screens to hide the fact that the real inequality in America is the outrageous overcompensation of public employees vs. private employees. Public employee unions are BIG contributors to the Democratic Party.

The second thing was the failure of the "race card' to bail out the Democrats, and they played that card shamelessly. Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice took issue with this, saying it was offensive and that the Democrats were "out of touch." She went on to say, "The idea that you would play such a card and try fear mongering among minorities just because you disagree with Republicans, that they are somehow all racists, I find it appalling, I find it insulting."

I hope more and more black Americans start to realize how insulting it is. As an aside, I've wanted Ms. Rice to run for higher office for years. That's CONDI Rice, not President Obama's National Security Advisor SUSAN Rice, who is in so far over her head that I feel sorry for her. To some morons, criticizing Susan Rice makes you a racist and admiring Condi Rice means you only like "Aunt Jemimas." Sigh.

Which brings me to another nice thing about the election, the victories of Tim Scott in South Carolina and Mia Love in Utah. Love is the first black REPUBLICAN woman in Congress, and Scott is the first elected black senator from the South since reconstruction, also a REPUBLICAN.

Scott, who was appointed to the senate in 2013 by Governor Nikki Haley to fill Jim Dement's vacated seat, received an F on the NAACP annual scorecard. Good for him. And here's what Mia Love said after her victory: "President Obama's vision of America is a divided one, pitting us against each other based on our income level, gender, and social status. His policies have failed." Ms. Love can expect lots of Fs from the NAACP.

Will their victories put to rest the breathtakingly stupid assertion that Republicans are racists? Of course not. The Democratic Party NEEDS to portray Republicans as racists. It is one of their big lies, repeated endlessly, and actually believed by many.

Last September I wrote a column, "The Myth of White Paranoia," in which I had a paragraph listing black Americans "whom I would like to see prosper, multiply and rule the world." In that paragraph you will find the names Mia Love and Tim Scott. You will also find the name "Ben Carson," which upsets me because it should have been "Dr. Ben Carson." (See my recent columns, "Yen for Ben.") Last Tuesday, Dr. Carson became a registered REPUBLICAN.

Way back in 2000, Harry Stein wrote a book titled, "How I Accidentally Joined The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (and found inner peace.)" Mr. Stein is a fine writer, but he has a weakness for long titles, as illustrated by his most recent book, "No Matter What, They'll Call This Book Racist - how our fear of talking honestly about race hurts us all." The dedication of this book is both profound and insightful:

To black conservatives everywhere, shock troops in the battle for America's soul.

Run Ben, Run.