Posted by
Josh Todd on Friday, September 05, 2008 7:45:56 AM
It's about time we just admit: it's about ideology and policy, not race.
Media stories and Democrats railing about the lack of diversity in the Republican Party, the subliminal racism in the GOP, and the inherent bigotry of conservatism are quite common, particularly during an election cycle. And while there certainly exists racism in our country, conservatism and the Republican Party are not about race.
Certainly some politics in the past included racial fear-mongering, but those days are past. In fact, certain GOP ads and rightist PAC ads have been deemed racist (e.g. a rightist PAC ad from the last election cycle about Harold Ford, showing a white, blonde woman gushing over Ford, was slammed as racist); thus, even if conservatives and Republicans--not always one in the same--were putting out racist spots, they couldn't get away with it.
Democrats and their ideological brethren in the media are usually making the accusations because the Democrat Party has a practical monopoly of minority votes (approximately 90% of black voters and more than 50% of Hispanic voters typically side with the Democrats); therefore, it's good politics to race bait and call the other fellow (the GOP) racist, xenophobic, etc.
But is it true?
While Democrats and their allies will trumpet examples of racism from conservatives or Republicans, the fact is that the GOP is simply not racist and is not under the control of rich, white racists. In fact, it is becoming more and more common to find prominent minority Republican candidates (Ken Blackwell, Lynn Swan, Michael Steele, etc.) and other minorities in positions at the more local level (e.g. Don McLaurin, the black Republican former mayor of Trotwood, Ohio, a predominately black suburb of Dayton).
On the contrary, one will find vigorous opposition, from the left, to these minority (particularly black) Republican candidacies and nominees. Clarence Thomas was a bad choice for the Supreme Court. Miguel Estrada would have been bad, too. Ken Blackwell and Lynn Swan were the wrong choices were governor. So on and so on... Does this mean that Democrats and the media are racist? Hardly.
It's time that we all admit that Democrat opposition to Ken Blackwell was ideological and policy-based (that is, based on party) and that Republican opposition to Barack Obama and other minority candidates is likewise rooted in ideology and policy differences. Thus, it is entirely appropriate to joke that the NAACP is really the NAALCP, or the National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People; for, if they were really for the advancement of all colored people, then they wouldn't have opposed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. They did so because Clarence Thomas was not liberal.
In other words, Democrats should quit race baiting and pretending that the American Right is plum full of bigots. Unfortunately, however, they will not for fear of losing all of those votes to the Republican Party.