The GOP’s Paler Than Ever: From the tainted Bush to McCain’s Sarah Palin
September 4, 2008
The tainted Bush of war and recession is practically a pariah. The more the GOP associates with him, the more his failed policies of the last 8 years indicate the need for a new direction. So it’s disappointing that during the GOP convention little was offered to suggest a new direction for America.
Instead, we get Sarah Palin, the Tina Fey look-alike and virtually unknown governor of Alaska. That is until this week, when more people found out about her daughter’s baby out of wedlock; her alleged use of her office to settle a personal score; and her connections to Alaska’s corrupt Republican machine led by Sen. Ted Stevens.
In other words, she’s not exactly heaven sent. So why did John McCain use her as his “Hail Mary”?
To counter a historic presidential race for people of color, McCain did the best cynical thing he could do.
He couldn’t match Barack Obama with another person of color and split up the minority vote. So McCain did what everyone does to muck up the rise of people of color in America.
In classic “divide and conquer” mode, he shot back with an affirmative action counter-move: He substituted race with gender.
Asian American Hillary-ites for Palin?
If McCain was out to get the disgruntled Hillary vote, he could have done a whole lot better than a pro-life hunter like Palin.
For APAs, there’s Elaine Chao, the current secretary of labor under Bush. Married to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Chao may have been too much like an insider to help McCain. With both Bush and Beltway taint to fight off, she was likely an automatic nix.
But why a woman? As Joy Behar on The View said the other day, “You can’t just trade a vagina for a vagina.”
The other parts count for something. Women know this. The Hillary-ites I talked to aren’t wowed by Palin’s views on either pro-life or creationism. In fact, the Palin choice may have completed what Hillary tried to do last week in her speech at the Democratic National Convention. It may have finally united the Democrats. It may have even made some Republican-leaning independents come over to the Dems.
While covering the DNC, I stayed with an old friend, a true minority: a conservative white vegetarian Zionist woman in Boulder, Colo. While I was there, she kept Fox News on as a room deodorizer.
But when Palin was chosen and her pro-life stance on abortion revealed, she was stunned. There was no way she could find herself supporting the GOP ticket.
The reversal of Roe v. Wade and abortion rights shouldn’t be the only thing on your mind. Remember the next president will fill out the Supreme Court’s future vacancies. That could very well preserve or overturn everything considered progressive and fair to minorities since the 1960s. Do you really want to go back to square one?
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Jindal would have been an inspired choice
I’ve never been a fan of Louisiana Governor Piyush “Bobby” Jindal. To me, he’s “Uncle Bobby,” man of no color, who goes out of his way to erase any relevancy of his ethnicity. It’s the ideology of the selfish, self-made man who pays no homage to his past.
But after seeing Jindal in action during the Gustav affair, I think McCain blew it. Piyush should have been the pick.
With Gustav, Jindal was a man in charge, a latter day Giuliani. He’s also a more perfect anti-Obama. A person of color with all the right conservative values. He’s a pro-life creationist. And he brings in the southern vote.
Jindal said he didn’t want to do it. So McCain looked elsewhere. But could there be other reasons why he wasn’t chosen? Was McCain totally comfortable with an Asian?
His pick of Palin, whom he didn’t know very well, reveals a comfort level with another business archetype: the white aging mentor and the young, up and coming beauty. Who in the path to the glass ceiling has not seen that duo surge ahead?
It’s the acceptable form of affirmative action. White women trump ethnic guys. Jindal’s not ethnic anyway, but believe me, if he lost out because of that, you’d bet he’d discover his ethnicity fast. Self-made men don’t want to believe in racism because it messes up their self-made image. But the truth is that they are both beneficiary and a victim of race politics.
The Palin choice exposes the GOP’s weak bench. You’ll strain your eye while trying to find a person of color at the RNC. That certainly wasn’t the case in Philadelphia in 2000, when I saw Bush try to make it a priority. That convention even had the O’Jays singing “Love Train.”
But sadly all that has failed and now the party is paler than ever with Palin—and backsliding fast.
Email emil@amok.com
Updates on Palin’s speech, more on the Republicans, Democrats, and the racist LPGA on the blog:
Comments
19 Responses to “The GOP’s Paler Than Ever: From the tainted Bush to McCain’s Sarah Palin”
Got something to say?
“Paler than ever”? Seriously? Do you not see the bigotry in your statement? Would you have the gumption to write…’well there goes the NBA, darker than ever’?!? You wouldn’t even make it out of your cubical before your co-workers would have you tarred and feathered with paper clips and glue. Furthermore being a “person of color” is not a qualification to be President nor for dog-catcher for that matter. This nation is a meritocracy and we as a people are through with bitter racial bean counters like yourself. Elections should be about issues, judgment and character, not skin pigment. So stop trying to make something out of nothing here.
I am extremely proud of my half-Korean and half-Caucasian heritage. However, like Jindal, I DO go out of my way to erase any semblance of chip-on-the-shoulder racial grievance mongering of the type that people like you pathetically exhibit. Why? Because racism no longer exists as an institution and its offensive to the sensible fair-minded people of all races who make up the vast majority of this nation. Enough is enough…grow up, move on and get a life.
“Paler than ever”? Seriously? Do you not see the bigotry in your statement? Would you have the gumption to write…’well there goes the NBA, darker than ever’?!? You wouldn’t even make it out of your cubical before your co-workers would have you tarred and feathered with paper clips and glue.”
NBA black guys dont determine my future.
“Furthermore being a “person of color” is not a qualification to be President nor for dog-catcher for that matter.”
Neither is being white.
” This nation is a meritocracy and we as a people are through with bitter racial bean counters like yourself.”
Oh really? Is that why we have one crises after the other? Housing Crisis? Banking Crisis? Airline industry crisis? and pretty soon crisis from collapsing commodity prices? Is that why we have leaking levies, falling bridges, shuttles breaking up in midair killing seven brave people? If indeed we are the nation of meritocracy and this group is the best we have, we need more skilled immigration, not less unlike what anti-immigration groups such as FAIR and CIS or racist individuals such as Mark Kirkroian or Heather MacDonald suggest. Skilled jobs should not be going to Americans first. It should go to the best qualified.
“Elections should be about issues, judgment and character, not skin pigment. So stop trying to make something out of nothing here.”
It think you are dreaming.
“I am extremely proud of my half-Korean and half-Caucasian heritage. However, like Jindal, I DO go out of my way to erase any semblance of chip-on-the-shoulder racial grievance mongering of the type that people like you pathetically exhibit. Why? Because racism no longer exists as an institution and its offensive to the sensible fair-minded people of all races who make up the vast majority of this nation. Enough is enough…grow up, move on and get a life.”
Comments from an out of touch individual.
I totally agree with you Emil. I watched Palin speech and was heart broken. It seemed angry(with a smile of course) very devisive. It was not a speech of unity for our nation. I respected John McCain until now. He’s politics as usual and I don’t feel I can trust him anymore. When I balanced her small town & State population as mayor & Govenor I realized McCain has put the America at risk for his own personal gain as he did not offer ME anything different from what we have as a U.S. and VP President today. Ms. Palin education is not even top-notched. I want something new this time. Someone who is tolerant of all cultures.
Amy
“I am extremely proud of my half-Korean and half-Caucasian heritage. However, like Jindal, I DO go out of my way to erase any semblance of chip-on-the-shoulder racial grievance mongering of the type that people like you pathetically exhibit. Why? Because racism no longer exists as an institution and its offensive to the sensible fair-minded people of all races who make up the vast majority of this nation.”
Marco,
If sensible fair-minded people make up the vast majority of this nation, why would anyone of any race have to GO out of there way to erase anything about themselves. Why must we always “blend in” in order to feel that we belong? Validation is so passe’.
“The Palin choice exposes the GOP’s weak bench”
McCain caught up with Obama even BEFORE Palin upstaged him. Now all he ruckus over the public witch burning has only made Palin a bigger star than Obama. McCain is a good man who gives dull, dull speeches. This woman has fire. Alaskans don’t give a polar bear’s ass if she think God is on the side of our troops, she rejects abortion for her perfectly beautiful son or her daughter’s child, if she believes children should be free to believe in creation if they don’t believe in evolution, and if she can shoot and gut a moose, so much the better. Her polls show that, unlike the liberal media who is willing to throw a brave new woman on the witch pyre like so much firewood, nobody in Alaska hates her or questions if she is qualified to be governor or president. Like or hate her, Palin is a star, and she’s on fire. McCain deserves credit for knowing about her when nobody else did, and liberals should be ASHAMED at the abuse they’re subjecting this woman to, and they will regret it.
For all you Asians who are normally comatose about politics, THIS IS WHAT THE LIBERALS ARE ALL ABOUT. THESE ARE THE TRULY MEAN, INTOLERANT, UNFAIR PEOPLE.
McCain when you dig beneath the surface is a deeply honorable man of great integrity, the son of two generations of Admirals who served their nation, and won his elections through leadership and accomplishment. He always believes deeply in what he believes in, and tells you exactly what he believes in.
Obama is a man with a deeply negative view of America and what it stands for, and is a student of the same marxism / muslim radicalism that threatens America at his hour. He stands for nothing except embracing conventional liberal politcs or whatever it takes to win. He won his elections largely as a result of machine politics, and destroying his opponents with the sort of slime they are throwing at Palin. where else would a community organization rise to fast to hustle his way to the democratic nomineee?
MCCAIN PALIN MCCAIN PALIN MCCAIN PALIN MCCAIN PALIN MCCAIN PALIN MCCAIN PALIN
“Obama is a man with a deeply negative view of America and what it stands for, and is a student of the same marxism / muslim radicalism that threatens America at his hour. ”
Pat Buchanan with his anti trade and anti-free market principles is more Marxist than Obama ever will be. To this you can add a number of GOP congressmen including Steve King of Iowa as well as Dana Rohrbacher and Duncan Hunter from California.
“For all you Asians who are normally comatose about politics, THIS IS WHAT THE LIBERALS ARE ALL ABOUT. THESE ARE THE TRULY MEAN, INTOLERANT, UNFAIR PEOPLE. ”
There are more Asians who are very well informed about American politics than most whites are. So stop patronizing.
Are you trying to replace that crazy “why I hate” guy as the resident AW racist you little troll looking MFer?
Your use of “pale” as a pejorative is racist. Would you comment about Filipinos being fired as a “Brown out” or an increase of Asian journalists with “Journalism yellower than ever”?The double standard can be expected from a paper that saw fit to publish Kenneth Eng’s racist rants.
I appreciate your politics, therefore I feel an urge to comment and say I agree with you on many levels, and contrary to a comment above, NO, I do not believe you are in any way similar to the “Why I Hate” guy from some time ago - not the least bit.
Keep up the great work! I really appreciate your articles!
“Neither is being white.”
Thus validating my argument. Race should NOT matter. I refrain from entering mine on any application or form chart.
“Oh really? Is that why we have one crises after the other? Housing Crisis? Banking Crisis? Airline industry crisis? and pretty soon crisis from collapsing commodity prices? Is that why we have leaking levies, falling bridges, shuttles breaking up in midair killing seven brave people? If indeed we are the nation of meritocracy and this group is the best we have, we need more skilled immigration, not less unlike what anti-immigration groups such as FAIR and CIS or racist individuals such as Mark Kirkroian or Heather MacDonald suggest. Skilled jobs should not be going to Americans first. It should go to the best qualified.”
So are you by extension suggesting that all problems in this country are the fault of those in charge and/or in the majority, i.e. white people? I await your response on this one…
All jobs, whether skilled or not, should go to both American citizens and LEGAL immigrants based upon merit first. Having an unwritten policy such as that, in the public and private sector, will only further the “We” in the “We the People of the United States” for everyone. Now that’s affirmative action we can ALL believe in.
“It think you are dreaming.”
Hence the “should” in my original statement. I for one, I’m not a naive person. I realize that human nature leads people to flock together with birds of a similar feather. However, in this great experiment of ours (that attempts to blend a greater diversity of humanity together than any other nation past or present under a common Anglo-Saxon derived perpetually hybridizing culture) I think it’s more than ok to DREAM of a post-racial society. After all Barack Obama tried to exemplify this virtue, that is, until his 20-year membership in a black nationalist church came to light. George, you sound like a bitter person who clings to “racial bean-counting” and a post-modern Balkanization of America into a tossed-salad society of perpetually squabbling minorities for a piece of the pie. If so, your vision may one day lead to the dissolution of this experiment. Is that what you want? I don’t, and will fight people like you at every turn by any means necessary.
“Comments from an out of touch individual.”
So does that certify you as a chip-on-the-shoulder racial grievance monger? Or do you not think the vast majority of people in this nation to be fair-minded and race neutral when faced with another fair-minded race neutral person/situation?
“If sensible fair-minded people make up the vast majority of this nation, why would anyone of any race have to GO out of there way to erase anything about themselves. Why must we always “blend in” in order to feel that we belong? Validation is so passe’.”
America is held together by a common Anglo-Saxon derived perpetually hybridizing culture. A culture that utilizes the English language as one of its common bonds. I’ve been to England, it is indeed a different place than here, though there are more similarities than not that our two nations share and is a common bond that should always be cherished. No where should people be forced to give up their cultures entirely, but if one makes the decision to immigrate to the United States; then a certain respect to those of us who are here is in order, i.e. obey our laws, learn the English language and respect our history. In time they will only add to the melting pot. It would be that way if an American were to emigrate to another country.
Emil:
Seems you’ve lit one more fuse here.
And it’s one I concur in. Heartily.
The Marcoses score some points, but the points are often BESIDE the point of being “alien” in your own land.
I don’t know about Marco, but I was born here, have lived here exclusively, well give or take a few months in the “Orient,” and I have fully abided by the rules and regs, adore much of Anglo literature, even some American, like Carson McCullers znd that great graybeard poet, you know, Whitman, and I am here to tell Marco that that alone does not quite work. Not if you are ambitious.
In one of his earlier statements posted here, he claims this country is a “meritocracy.” Oh, really?
Dubya is the BEST we got?
Nixon and Agnew?
No, the best we have or had, from Jimiie Carter today to George McGovern yesterday, the best have been sadly overlooked or undercherished.
The possibles, like JFK and RFK, we murdered.
Ditto the one black man they feared, and him no “black nationalist theologian” either, Art, they assaxsinated as well.
I’m too old and too tired to really read rather than merely scan all the above posts, but scan or read, it is obvious that the arguments are purely verbiage dressing for deep underlying bias rooted in self-service.
The day individuals begin to perceive and understand their individual biases and prejudices will be the day that it becomes possible for them to transcend same.
Until then, the best we can hope for is that “joblessness” will trump “racism” come Nov. 4.
Frank
P.S.: As for our latterday “Sarah,” will her handlers be able to edot everu wprd. every syllable, as they did with Dubya in 2000, and will the MSM submit to being totally muzzled in questioning, as in complicit?
“If sensible fair-minded people make up the vast majority of this nation, why would anyone of any race have to GO out of there way to erase anything about themselves. Why must we always “blend in” in order to feel that we belong? Validation is so passe’.”
“No where should people be forced to give up their cultures entirely, but if one makes the decision to immigrate to the United States; then a certain respect to those of us who are here is in order, i.e. obey our laws, learn the English language and respect our history.
–Marco on Sep 08, 2008″
I couldn’t agree more. Can you say…NATIVE AMERICANS! Remember them? Using your own words they were–
forced to give up their cultures entirely, but if one(ANGLO-SAXON) makes the decision to immigrate to the United States; then a certain respect to those of us who are here is in order, i.e. obey our laws, learn the English language and respect our history.
Europeans(Pilgrims) can to this land waiving Bibles to a friendly and receptive people & where are those people now? As a Christian, truth is first. Secondly, we should be known by our actions, not a speech based on market research and deception. So I am very weary of folks waivng Bibles trying to convince me thru their speechs of their faith when their actions and party history says otherwise. We live in a global environment. How can the GOP President nominee and poorly vetted VP nominee deal with our neighbors around the world with different cultures and deep beliefs(some biblical in nature) when you cannot deal/tolerate honestly, fairly, unbiasly at home? Does the GOP mirror the melting pot in this great country?
Emil is just another one who attacks Palin right out of the gate. The reason GOP has no black people is not because they hate black people, it’s because 99.99% (or whatever approximation of 100%) of blacks decided to vote for somebody that looks like them, and elite, overeducated whites prefer somebody that does NOT look like them. And that shows WHAT side voted because of race?
It’s amazing how the left complains about right wingers who believe that a woman’s first priority is family, then they’re all over Palin. Barack Obama’s Muslim fathers, both of them are off limits, but if Palin believes that the Bible is God’s word and that Esther was an example of biblical leadership, and students should be allowed to believe in creationism, that’s beyond the reasonable limits of tolerance? Palin make look like an alien queen monster to the left, but it’s Obama’s worldview that strikes the average Walmart / Target shopper as bizarre and unpatriotic, not Palin. All these ridiculous attacks expose where the hearts of the Democrats really lie, like that FLDS woman who says that people accuse from their own hearts.
It’s game over for the Democrats, McGovern all over again. See you at the polls in November.
Okay, awarthurhu. Let me make sure I understand you.
Overeducated whites=open-minded, enlightened people,.i.e, they know a person’s character defines an individual, not their skin color.
#2. Black people vote for somebody that looks like them= that would be U.S. President #15, no, no, aah U.S. President#36, 28, 41.
ha ha ha ha…
By “overeducated” whites, I point out that the old dicthtomy Democrats=poor,black Republican= rich,white was simply wrong. Obama supporters in particular bring both poor blacks, and rich overeducated whites. Both groups consider race to be qualification, as in affirmative action, and consider “color-blind” and “racial preferences” to be a code-word for racism rather than what it is - the opposite of what King spoke of when a person would be judge by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Types like me drive people crazy when I again, state that you should hate and discriminate against NOBODY as opposed to the politically correct, when it is ok to savage white christian conservatives, but defend aborting downs kids, people of muslim heritage, churches that damn america, terrorists, and every deviant sort of culture and lifestyles. You have no business talking about tolerance with the sort of crap that has been thrown against Palin and the people she represents. I grew up with the Palin sort of people, and they are just as American as Obama’s pals, if not more so.
I am happy to admit liking cold chef boyardee pasta, twinkies, K-mart, Wal Mart, NASCAR and 1970s muscle cars, and I don’t run away from my past like some people are ashamed of the faith of their fathers.
John McSame is really patriotic that he deliberately chose someone like Palin to be his running mate, knowing fully well that this will make sure the voters will be so turned off to vote for Obama en masse, instead.
He will go down history as the one who has beaten his own party but saved the country from futher decay.
God bless America.
I completely disagree with what seems to be the majority opinion above, that the race of the candidates and their representatives at the convention is an out of bounds topic.
We can question the meaning of race all we wish. Frankly, I am a strong believer that race does not objectively exist. Certainly differences in skin pigmentation do, but it is human beings who choose to focus on this, in particular ways, and make a big deal of it.
As a result of this focus, however, certain racially defined divisions in society have occurred, and these divisions are very real. It IS absolutely important, in a society still divided, that political representatives be truly representational.
Now, that may not mean skin color necessarily (Bill Clinton represents the mainstream of black interests better than Clarence Thomas), but it does mean understanding of different points of view and inclusion of people from different places in the social landscape, in more than a superficial (”token”) way. These days, for the reasons stated above, representation of divided interests still correlates fairly closely (if never exactly) with skin color.
It’s not the pick of Palin’ itself that’s crucial (except as another layer of white bread on this mayo-and-egg white sandwich). It’s that John McCain doesn’t represent the range of American interests. His primary concern, as his tax plan shows, is for the super-rich (a very white upper crust), and his pointed appeal to the values of “middle America” with Palin’ and nationalist rhetoric is simply to fool them into getting on board with programs that are not even in their own best interest.
Whites are still the majority, and still (as of ‘06) have the highest percentage of voter turnout. McCain has given up on appealing to those groups he thinks he must necessarily lose to Obama, and hardly even makes a show in that direction (like his refreshing NAACP visit last spring) anymore.
In short, Pale and Paler is a fair assessment of what the McCain-Palin’ ticket offers. There’s racial awareness in that statement, not racism.