Is there anybody older and whiter than Pat Buchanan left in the Republican party? Bob Dole I guess but is that guy even still alive, Viagra not withstanding? Regardless, he's obviously not making the recent talking head circuits because Buchanan is totally bitch-slapping his ass when it comes to making racist comments that can only hurt their party:
A provocative article by Pat Buchanan argues that contrary to conventional wisdom, Republicans shouldn't worry about alienating Hispanic voters, they should just focus on getting white people to like them more:Yeah! Put those dirty brown people in their place by ignoring them and focusing on the demographic that already overwhelmingly supports you, jackass. They're only the largest growing voting bloc in the United States but the answer is obviously to get more nonexistent white people to vote Republican. Uh huh, because white people have been wholly unaware up until now of how the Republican party can benefit them. Here's another tip: Start showing Friends reruns at your conventions. They'll kill, I promise.In 2008, Hispanics, according to the latest figures, were 7.4 percent of the total vote. White folks were 74 percent, 10 times as large. Adding just 1 percent to the white vote is thus the same as adding 10 percent to the candidate’s Hispanic vote.
If John McCain, instead of getting 55 percent of the white vote, got the 58 percent George W. Bush got in 2004, that would have had the same impact as lifting his share of the Hispanic vote from 32 percent to 62 percent.
And he sees race-baiting attacks as the way to do it:
Had McCain been willing to drape Jeremiah Wright around the neck of Barack Obama, as Lee Atwater draped Willie Horton around the neck of Michael Dukakis, the mainstream media might have howled.
And McCain might be president.
His specific argument about Sonia Sotomayor is that Republicans need to get more explicit about the idea that, as a Latina, she will make rulings that disadvantage white people and that white America ought therefore band together to stop her. This is already the subtext of their arguments but I guess he feels it’s not close enough to the surface.
8 comments:
Be glad you don't have his mind-set. Imagine how afraid he must be, underneath the suit, the swagger and the bullshit. Think of the cowardice it takes to be a right-wing prick, afraid of what someone MIGHT do because they're not white.
Yeah but you have the advantage of being a laid-back Aussie, quietmagpie. Right-wing pricks like Buchanan are pricks because they have no other choice in the matter.
Things haven't really changed since the 60s when a KKK grand dragon was invited to speak at the U of Houston - not by this hippie, pinko, whatever. Turns out this guy from AL was younger than expected, slimmer than expected, and nicer looking than expected - looking sort of like your average Joe Blow.
After his talk many of us gathered around (surrounded?) him. He obviously felt threatened, paranoid and scared. Hey, we weren't the aggressors. We just wanted to get a feel for this poor, ignorant member of a hate group possessing the same mind-set that Buchanan exhibits forty years later. Will things ever change?
When I was younger PP I naively wondered why there was still racism in America on the cusp of the 21st century. It wasn't until I had gone to a conservative Southern college and met some real racists that I realized that this is what these people were taught, not just by their parents but also by their friends, their neighbors, their town and to an extent their government. And it's what they'll teach their own kids someday as well.
Racists are like in-laws: Unless you get really lucky you're going to have them. All you can do is steel yourself for when they visit.
I like your observation about in-laws. So true. Would be willing to bet my AL & GA cousins are all a twitter about my blog.
As you know, I grew up in the deep south. Went to a nunnery boot camp (HS) in a small conservative university town. As editor of our paper I wrote an editorial in favor of integration. Can't tell you the number of phone calls from my "true loves" at the university who called to advise me to stay out of town. One Nashville friend spit in my face and called me a Nigger Lover. Won't even go in to events in Houston.
But, things have improved here but by no means as much as they should have. Going to a small rural town in the south is like taking a step back in time - way, way back. If you're in a small country store in the boonies and a black man walks in to buy something, the owner will wait on the man but he gets this weird expression that you'll never see except in the South. It's as if the customer doesn't exist but really worse than that. I don't even know how to describe it. The owner is looking at the customer but making sure the customer knows he (the owner) doesn't see him.
David Cross, one of my favorite comedians PP (and a Georgia native), does a bit where he says that the South has some of the truest and purest racism in the world because in many places they still have segregated cemeteries. It's a testament to how the power of ignorance transcends life and death.
Yeah, dude. In-laws are the worst.
I share your pain, one L.
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