Tuesday, March 19, 2013

GOP Irony

By Jeff Simpson

Yesterday the Republican party and Reince Priebus, released a detailed report on why they were so handily beaten in the election of 2012 and how to win elections in the future.  As Bob Cesca points out, Priebus seems to place his legacy on this one report:
 
RNC chairman and Mos Eisley cantina alien Reince Priebus introduced the report over the weekend in time for the conservative cosplay gathering in Maryland, and it sounds as if he’s ballyhooing the plan as the centerpiece of his legacy as chairman. Even though it was authored by Henry Barbour, Sally Bradshaw, Ari Fleischer, Zori Fonalledas, and Glenn McCall, it’s Priebus’ magic wand for fixing everything — I mean everything — that’s devouring the party.
One of the sections is about "demographic partners":

The Republican Party must focus its efforts to earn new supporters and voters in the following demographic communities: Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Indian Americans, Native Americans, women, and youth. This priority needs to be a continual effort thataffects every facet of our Party’s activities, including our messaging, strategy, outreach, and budget.

Isn't it ironic:

Cesca takes a look at that:

*  During a panel at CPAC titled “Trump the Race Card: Are You Sick and Tired of Being Called a Racist and You Know You’re Not One?” an attendee stood up and, among other things, implied that Frederick Douglass and other former slaves should’ve been grateful to their former masters for providing them with “food and shelter.” Additionally, the attendee, a member of “Towson’s White Student Union,” asked the African American speaker, “Why can’t we just have segregation?” Other attendees applauded and cheered. Yeah, so much for the title of the lecture. Shocker: the Republican Party is loaded with racists.

*   Straight-talking Jersey maverick Chris Christie referred to an African American attendee at a town hall meeting as “boy.” During a contentious exchange about privatizing public schools (Christie supports vouchers — a back-door path to privatization), an black constituent shouted, “Fix the public schools.” Christie, in full dick-move fashion, “Yeah, I hear ya’ boy.”

* lets not forget right here in Wisconsin, they have Jerry Bader:  "How is chess like real life?  It's better to be white and there's only one woman in the room and she get's to do whatever she wants. (belly laughs)."

Then there is the republicans Tom Perez problem:


If you’re just tuning in, Perez is a Hispanic leader and as head of DOJ’s civil rights division one of the Obama administration’s most progressive officials. But in recent years he’s also been the target of racialized attacks by familiar characters in the conservative media.

For both of those reasons, he’s the sort of nominee Republicans can’t help but filibuster. Thus, on the day of its unveiling, the Growth And Opportunity Project faces a major challenge to its own raison d’être. The report notes, “If we want ethnic minority voters to support Republicans, we have to engage them and show our sincerity.”

That’s hard enough to do when the party’s simultaneously filibustering a qualified candidate to be the only Latino in Obama’s second-term cabinet. But it’ll be even harder if the conservative media lapses into another Sotomayor-like spectacle of racial panic and drags elected officials with them.

“In the modern media environment a poorly phrased argument or out-of-context statement can spiral out of control and reflect poorly on the Party as a whole,” the Opportunity Project warns.

Unfortunately for the GOP the right is primed to make Perez another cause célèbre for what you might call the ethnic resentment wing of the conservative movement.


With friends like this, who needs enemies?   

 The Confederate flag atop the capitol building in South Carolina







1 comment:

  1. If you listen to Charlie Sykes, you would know white males are the most oppressed minority.

    ReplyDelete