The GOP Can Attract Minorities -- If They Can Stop Being Bigots

Great article by Ruben Navarrette Jr. on PajamasMedia.com the other day:

It’s sad to watch.

Republicans have a good case to make to African American voters about how the GOP is the real party of empowerment and opportunity, and how the Democratic Party is only interested in empowering itself at the expense of minorities. So much so that it will attack those uppity enough to think for themselves.

On education, for instance, Democrats side with mostly white teachers’ unions against black parents who want their children’s schools to be held accountable for student performance — finally purged of what a Republican president called “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” The educational reform law, No Child Left Behind, has the support of the NAACP, but is fiercely opposed by the teachers’ unions.

Many African Americans also find appealing the GOP’s adherence to personal responsibility, lower taxes, smaller government, and traditional moral values.

But Republicans never get around to making that case to the black community, because too many of them are busy making jackasses out of themselves and coming across as thickheaded, insensitive, and mean-spirited racists. The election of the first black president only made matters worse, as some conservatives, particularly at the local level, responded to this historic event by taking political discourse into the gutter with jokes and sophomoric stunts that don’t amuse but offend:

• Rusty DePass, a Republican activist in South Carolina and former state senate candidate, made a crude joke that played off the stereotype likening African-Americans to apes. After a gorilla escaped from a local zoo, DePass responded: “I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors — probably harmless.” DePass later acknowledged to a news station that he was talking about First Lady Michelle Obama.

• A Republican legislative aide in Tennessee distributed an offensive e-mail with portraits of all the presidents. President Obama is depicted as nothing more than two cartoonish white eyes against a black background. Sherri Goforth, an assistant to State Senator Diane Black, has admitted she sent the email with the title “Historical Keepsake Photo.” Goforth said that she mistakenly sent it “to the wrong list of people.”

• Last year, before the presidential election, a Republican women’s group in San Bernardino County sent out a newsletter joking that Obama, if elected, would be a president who appeared on food stamps instead of dollar bills. The mailer included an illustration of “Obama Bucks” — a picture of the Democratic candidate surrounded by watermelon and fried chicken.

• A few months later, after Obama was elected, Dean Grose — the Republican mayor of Los Alamitos, CA — resigned after being roundly criticized for distributing an email showing a watermelon patch in front of the White House with the caption: “No Easter egg hunt this year.” Grose later apologized for forwarding the email and claimed that he wasn’t aware of the racial stereotype that blacks like watermelon.

Certainly, Republicans don’t have a monopoly on racism. It’s a matter of public record that the first slings of racism aimed at Barack Obama came from fellow Democrats, supporters of Hillary Clinton who tried to depict her challenger as a reformed drug dealer, a Muslim, a black militant, a “shuck and jive” political hustler, and — thank you, Geraldine Ferraro — someone who wouldn’t have gotten this far in life if he hadn’t been black.

But Democrats get a pass for their sins because African Americans can cite one battle after another when Democrats stood with them, dating back to Harry Truman desegregating the armed forces in 1948. And even though, in the 1950s and 1960s — which served as the defining eras for the black Civil Rights Movement — Southern Democrats were among the chief antagonists, it was Democrat John F. Kennedy who first addressed the nation on the importance of recognizing the civil rights of black Americans. And it was Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson who signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Meanwhile, Republicans are becoming known for bad jokes and racist pranks. If they keep it up, with the United States becoming more diverse and inching towards the day — demographers put it near 2032 — where whites become a statistical minority here, they may soon be known for something else: consistently coming in second.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 9/1/08

The Gulf Coast Waits For Hurricane Gustavo; McCain Cancels Most RNC Activities

How John McCain Should Take On Obama's "Trojan Horse"

MSNBC Smears Sarah Palin From Very 1st Moment

"Catholic" Speaker Nancy Pelosi Denies That Catholicism Condemns Abortion

Gay Activists Mislead Floridians On Marriage Amendment

Joe Biden Received 5 Deferments For Draft. Same As Dick Cheney

Why Palin? McCain vs. Karl Rove

Drawing Women's Attention, Maybe Not Allegiance

Geraldine Ferraro Leaves Door Open To Vote For McCain/Palin

Democrat Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Looks To Cut Deal To Stay Out Of Jail

Michael Jackson Celebrates 50th Birthday With Cake, Cartoons

Meet Harriet Christian: Racist Hillary Clinton Supporter

This is the type of folks the Hillary shills at TalkLeft feel is now Barack Obama's job to reach out and ease their pain, help turn over a new leaf in order to "unite" the Democratic party. Forget their unabashed hate. Forget their ignorance. Forget their racist rants and utter stupidity in threating to vote for a man out of sheer spite. The Hillary supporters now say that Barack must convince the delusional likes of Harriet Christian to vote for him. Indeed, what Geraldine Ferraro has wrought is now making its ugly face seen:



And somewhere John McCain is smiling.

Racist Geraldine Ferraro Won't be Voting For Barack Obama

The longtime Democrat icon demonstrates again the reason why she's a racist:

Ferraro, a Hillary Clinton supporter, praised her candidate and chastised Obama in an interview published in today's New York Times.

"I think Obama was terribly sexist," Ferraro told the Times, adding that she might not vote for the likely Democratic nominee in the fall. But Ferraro offered praise for Clinton, telling the Times that Clinton had "raised this whole woman candidate thing to a whole different level than when I ran."

By exploiting the sexism card, Ferraro is playing to the only form of oppression that matters to liberal, white female elitists as we’ve seen this type of racial ignorance before on the campaign trail from the likes of feminist champion Gloria Steinem. To idiots like Geraldine Ferraro what’s good for the party, coming together in unison for the nominee, takes a backseat when that nominee is a black man—mind you, Ferraro has TWICE made the claim that Black presidential candidates only appeal to voters because of their race. That, and the fact that Ferraro herself had no problem being selected on a Presidential ticket as VP solely because she was a woman, speaks to Ferraro’s double-standard as well as her racial ignorance. Yet by going public with her utter stupidity Ferraro does speak for a percentage of white feminists who will also not vote for Barack Obama because he’s black. It's the darkest side of the liberal wing within the Democrat party that the "progressives" don't like to talk about, too bad for Barack Obama it could cost him the Presidency.

One Quarter Of Hillary Voters Would Not Vote For Barack

Billary wanted divisiveness and now she's got plenty of it:

PRINCETON, NJ -- A sizable proportion of Democrats would vote for John McCain next November if he is matched against the candidate they do not support for the Democratic nomination. This is particularly true for Hillary Clinton supporters, more than a quarter of whom currently say they would vote for McCain if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee.

This doesn't surprise me in the least. But unlike the Hillary shills that want to pin this on Rev. Jeremiah Wright, I say it's way more about Geraldine Ferraro. After all, it was Ferraro's racist comments about Barack Obama (the second time she'd made racist comments against a Black presidential candidate) that in my opinion brought to the surface the resentment of many white, elitist, liberal, female supporters of Hillary Clinton currently have towards the Black liberal Democratic base: "we've taken care of you for years and now you betray us like this?"

Again, it all goes back to the sense of entitlement within the Hillary camp, that it was "her turn" this year and how dare this Barack guy get in the way of Billary's return to the throne, much less how dare Black liberals switch their allegiance and loyalty to this relative newcomer. So while I feel that most white liberal males will stay loyal to the Democratic party regardless if Hillary or Obama wins the nomination, the fact that more and more Hillary supporters (aka rich, white, female, liberal, elitists) are willing to abandon their party if Senator Obama is the nominee not only shows their true colors, but can only help John McCain in the long run. And the McCain can mostly thank Geraldine Ferraro for that.

Tracy Morgan: Black Is The New President, Bitch!

Hilarious!

Geraldine Ferraro's Sheer Bigotry: Obama Lucky That He's Black

Oh, how dare a black man come along and ruin Hillary's party before its even had a chance to begin:

When the subject turned to Obama, Clinton's rival for the Democratic Party nomination, Ferraro's comments took on a decidedly bitter edge.

"I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama's campaign - to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against," she said. "For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It's been a very sexist media. Some just don't like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she continued. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." Ferraro does not buy the notion of Obama as the great reconciler.

"I was reading an article that said young Republicans are out there campaigning for Obama because they believe he's going to be able to put an end to partisanship," Ferraro said, clearly annoyed. "Dear God! Anyone that has worked in the Congress knows that for over 200 years this country has had partisanship - that's the way our country is."

Behold, the anger of the anti-Barack, Democratic Hillary supporter. And how depressing and bitter they are. Not to mention racist too. But just like Gloria Steinem before her, Ferraro, who was one half of one the worse Democratic tickets in the last 30 years, plays the sexist card even at the risk of further dividing her party. Nevermind that there are currently 16 white female members of the Senate as opposed to one black. Nevermind that one could easily argue that Hillary owes all her political "experience" to her husband. Nevermind the variety of people (including white women) from all walks of life coming out to vote for Barack Obama. Nevermind Hillary's 20-point lead in the polls just back in November. When Hillary's behind the wealthy, white, elitist, liberal bigots will come out and play.

Other's Blogging: DailyKos, Too Sense, Thought Crimes, BlueOllie