Rather than offer their own positive, pro-growth agenda for America, Democrats have gone really negative -- and really nasty. They casually hurl charges of racism at conservative targets— including at the president himself.

In their America, the wall is racist. Deporting illegals is racist. ICE is racist. Century-old monuments are racist. Assimilation -- definitely racist. Requiring English be spoken -- absolutely racist. College Indian mascots  -- oh, they were way racists. Way beyond blackface. Many costumes are now racist.

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But now liberals are in a huge pickle: How do they maintain their racial bona fides when one of their own governors admits he moonwalked at a med school Halloween party in blackface? With that admission and the surfacing of a similar image from his yearbook, the career of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam hangs in the balance.

Initially, the governor apologized. But then at a press conference the next day, Northam was like, "Picture, what picture?" and denied being the person in the photo. Democrats moved quickly to jettison him, knowing he can become the Todd Akin of the 2020 race. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic National Committee, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Joe Biden and many of the other potential Democratic presidential candidates all rushed out with statements demanding that Northam resign.

The left now finds itself hoisted on its own petard. To satisfy their nutbag base, Democrats have set themselves up as the PC Puritans — a band of political enforcers who traverse the culture, stamping out any and all who violate their ever-shifting ethical codes. Now everybody is walking on eggshells everywhere to avoid being called out for white privilege or gender privilege, without the privilege of knowing what this new orthodoxy even requires.

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Ralph Northam's fate will ultimately be decided by Democrats in the Commonwealth. And Republicans would do well to avoid joining the PC Puritans of the left as the Democrats are tripping over themselves to prove how enlightened they are by throwing even their own under the PC Express.

I find it richly ironic that Biden was one of the first to tweet out, "There is no place for racism in America. Governor Northam has lost all moral authority and should resign immediately.” The Democrat frontrunner in a new Iowa poll, Biden has a lot of nerve. After all, this is the man who said the following of his own future running mate, Barack Obama: "I mean, you got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook."

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And who can forget when Amtrak Joe once said, "You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

Don’t be deceived. This whole effort is in fact a smokescreen, my friends -- a party-wide effort to distract from the Democrats real liability: their atrocious policies

The Washington Examiner has now dug up an NPR transcript from 1975 where Biden talks about his support for segregated schools. Is this disqualifying in the new Democratic Party? Is Biden just a deep-seated racist, incapable of running for president on the Democratic ticket?

I think you get the point. This is all going in a bad direction for Democrats, and probably the rest of us as well. But each time the Democrats highlight the evolving purity of their party and reach into the past to convict someone today, they distance themselves from America. Today, anyone who once impersonated Michael Jackson at a dance party might as well have burned a cross on someone's lawn.

Former Democratic congressman Jim Moran, a Northam defender, said, "I think it is a rush to judgment before we know all of the facts and before we've considered all of the consequences. ... Even if the worst case scenario is true, I think there is an issue of redemption."

Oh, no. Redemption? Forgiveness, which was once only reserved for the left, is now unavailable for them, too. As we have seen with Kevin Hart, and Al Franken, the PC Puritans get to decide who is orthodox and who is unclean. And they alone decide whom to burn at the stake.

But don’t be deceived. This whole effort is, in fact, a smokescreen, a party-wide effort to distract from the Democrats real liability: their atrocious policies. While the focus is locked on Northam’s, let’s not forget how he first came to national prominence last week. It was his abhorrent defense of the Democrats “abortion on demand at all stages” agenda.

The exposure of the grisly reality that the Democrats desire -- abortion, even after birth -- has startled voters across the political spectrum, and it should. But suddenly we’re talking about 30-year-old pictures instead of a murderous policy that imperils the life of millions of children today.

Republicans should not fall into the trap. Avoid the identity politics and the PC Puritans. Stick to the facts and to the issues. We win on those. Democrats are vulnerable on those.

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Most Americans are unaware, for instance, that when Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed his law expanding abortion in New York, he simultaneously removed abortion from the state’s criminal code. So, now New York permits the abortion of a child, beyond 24 weeks, for essentially any reason — and infanticide is no longer illegal.

Let the Democrats continue their witch hunts. The stocks in the town square will surely be full. Republicans should keep connecting with the rest of America, who fear that come 2020, we could be heading off the rails of prosperity and toward socialism.

Adapted from Laura Ingraham's monologue from "The Ingraham Angle" on February 4, 2019.