To your post I would elaborate on your statement that the GOP ploy was to, "refuse to name racism." 

In fact conservatives often label people as racists. But in their view racism is a thing of the past, so anyone who talks about racism today is (in their mind) fomenting racial discord and is therefore a racist. This leads to the conclusion that liberals are racists. 

We see this type of thinking often in this forum. Charles Dalton is often a target of this.