We’ve come to expect race baiting when a minority candidate tries to break down barriers in public life. After all, Republicans built their majority over four decades by employing a Southern Strategy that used coded words to revive latent racist sensibilities. And if Barack Obama gets the presidential nomination, they will certainly try it again. But what we’re seeing now is Democrats – specifically Hillary Clinton and her campaign surrogates – using race in the same subtle ways to get white voters to question whether they should vote for “the black man.” While they vehemently deny such accusations – and Bill Clinton has become particularly defensive about it – it’s there. And if such tactics allow Clinton to win the Democratic nomination, it won’t be easy to mend fences in a general election. Which could mean that the Republican candidate would win.

It started last week with Hillary Clinton saying that “Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ... It took a president to get it done.” She meant to say that you need experienced politicians to bring about legislative change. But to diminish the work of the greatest black civil rights leader of our time didn’t go down well. At best it was wholly insensitive to the fact that LBJ only passed civil rights after a grass-roots movement pressured him to do so. It prompted at least one black Congressman to reconsider his neutrality in the primary race.

But the real offensive moment came on January 13th – when Robert Johnson, the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television, introduced Clinton at a campaign event and took aim at Obama: “[The Clintons] have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues,” he said, “since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood – and I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in the book – when they have been involved.” What he clearly meant was the Illinois Senator’s admitted past drug use – which he talked about in “Dreams From My Father.”

Laughably, the Clinton camp tried to argue that Johnson was referring to Obama’s community organizing experience – because well, you know, we just don’t talk about those things in polite society. Bill Clinton went on a radio program, and tried to distance the campaign from Johnson’s words – as if they shouldn’t get blamed for what he had said. But the damage was inflicted. Bringing up drugs uncovered all the worst stereotypes about African-Americans in the minds of white “swing voters.” And if it works in getting white liberals to vote for Clinton, the devious scheme had succeeded.

In December, Clinton’s campaign liaison in New Hampshire called a press conference where he warned that Obama’s past admitted drug use could make the Illinois Senator vulnerable to Republican attacks. After the outcry, the Clinton campaign fired him – and the candidate privately apologized to Obama. Now that they’ve been caught doing it again, they have to pretend that Johnson never said it – even when it’s obvious that they’re lying. What’s incredible is that they won’t even disavow Johnson, but instead are defending his statements as if he said nothing wrong.

Political history is full of cases where a black candidate trying to break a barrier gets race-baited by his Republican opponents. When Harold Washington ran to be Chicago’s first black mayor, his rivals chanted “Vote Right, Vote White!” When Harvey Gantt ran against North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, we saw an attack ad showing a pair of white hands getting a job rejection note. More recently, who can forget the high-tech lynching of Harold Ford – who barely lost a Tennessee Senate because of deeply offensive ads?

The racial attacks here are not that blatant – but it’s disturbing that race is still a volatile issue, even in a Democratic Party primary where voters should be focused on ending the Bush era. The fact that Hillary Clinton is campaigning as the first woman President (breaking a gender barrier) makes it even more demeaning. “It was supposed to be a fairy tale come true,” said Keli Goff on the Huffington Post, in reference to the prospect of making history with either of the two front-runners. “But now this fairy tale has turned a lot less Disney and a lot more Brothers Grimm.”

If Clinton prevails under this strategy, there will be a lot of hurt feelings among African-Americans and other minorities that won’t be easy to heal. Don’t expect excitement or an inspiring campaign if she becomes the Democratic nominee. In a year where Democrats should sweep the presidential election, it could unintentionally allow Republicans to take back the White House – again. Clinton could have won the primaries by running a positive campaign; apparently, her advisers have concluded that going negative on race is their only hope to beat Obama.

In 2001, New York mayoral candidate Mark Green won the Democratic nomination after his supporters made some offensive attacks on his Latino opponent that stroked racial fears. Such attacks made it hard for the black and Latino communities to rally around him in a general election, and he lost to a little-known Republican called Mike Bloomberg. Can we see the same thing happen again? More importantly, what will the Clintons do to help stop the madness?

She can start by firing Robert Johnson, and returning his campaign contributions.