BLINDED BY THE WHITE: THE GOP CONTINUES TO SERVE MOOSE-TURD PIE!



            I continue to be astonished at the Republican party’s insistence on doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Isn’t that how many of us define insanity? They hire pollsters and researchers and analysts, searching in the same old places, for the answers that keep evading them. The problem is that they do not seem to know how to admit that they are blinded by centuries of state and church sponsored white protestant male supremacy in these United States of America. Until they can accurately access their problem, they will not be able to fix it.

            Democrats have a long history of championing those Americans that the moneyed elite have a history of kicking to the curb, those who have been cast out as “the other”:  the poor, the sick, the aged, students, ethnic minorities, the LGBT community, women, and all of those who, until only the last 40 years, have been on the outside looking in. We care about them and make it a point to learn about these lives; as well being able to recognize ourselves in them and share our own stories. That is why those victimized by the “otherization” of conservatives have more routinely voted Democratic in those 40 years. And it is these voting demographics that are claiming a larger share of the electorate with each election cycle; and continue to be a mystery to the Republican leadership. They cannot win national elections without winning over a significant chunk of these voters.

            However, in order to be able to see and accurately evaluate the big disconnect with these voters, Republicans will have to look inside themselves and inside our American history, to discover, and learn to appreciate, some of the low points in our past; and the low level of compassion and respect for these groups that their party has repeatedly shown to us for decades.

            Just a few days ago, conservative Republican Congressman Young from Alaska used the term “wetback” to describe the labor force on his father’s ranch in the 1950s and 60s. While this is quite typical language coming from conservative speakers, what is different is that, this time, the GOP chairman actually demanded, and got, an eventual apology from this Alaskan representative. His first apology, essentially a lame excuse for an instilled and taught white supremacy, was not enough to satisfy anyone; another departure from Republican norms when insulting others. Usually we don’t even get an apology, or even an acknowledgement of how their choices of terms are offensive and obsolete. So, I think it is important to give credit for even the slightest speck of enlightenment in the Republican camp.

            This tiny ray of light, however, seems to be fueled not by a desire to understand the other, but rather to, somehow, figure out a way to get our votes, that is, if they are unable to suppress them. What Republicans don’t seem to understand is that we know, we can see for ourselves, that there has been no substantive change of heart. Their mathematical and demographic panic is a poor substitute for true concern and compassion. Knowing that you can’t make it without us is very different from actually wanting us around. The three largest growing demographics that will be coming into leadership in the next 10 years are Latinos, women and the millennials. All of these groups are smart enough to see through the thinly veiled attempts to attract our attention only out of desperation and confusion.

            It is their product that is no longer selling like hotcakes to a large white majority, largely ignorant of the lives and travails of “the other.” It is the product. It is the policies. It is their ingrained fear of, as well as constant underestimation of and condescension to, the other – ethnic minorities, students, the elderly, the poor, gays and lesbians and women who want to control their own destinies. It is what you say, as well as how you say it. It is that they do not know us, and what they think they do know about us is just wrong and degrading most of the time.

            We can tell that white conservatives see themselves as superior to us, morally and intellectually. Why else would they say such things? That they themselves cannot see this is obvious, and the fact that they refuse to face this truth is what very well may continue to decimate their party for years to come.

            It is obvious that Congressman Young honestly felt that it was okay to use the term “wetback.” We know what racial slander John Sununu was pedaling when he described President Obama as “lazy.” There are images conjured-up when these words are spoken. We know that Haley Barbour couldn’t possibly have known what he was talking about when he described growing up in segregated schools as “no big deal.” No big deal for him, I’m sure. We know what kind of image Newt Gringrich was inviting when he said that poor black children don’t know what work is because they have no experience of seeing people go to work all day. We know that these images are what white conservatives see when they see dark-skinned people; and that it is nearly impossible for them to see someone like me, someone like President Obama, for who we truly are – members of groups traditionally discriminated against who had to work 10 times harder than Young, Sununu, Barbour and Gingrich combined just to be able to get into good schools, and much more so into the Ivy League.

            In saying this, I do not suggest that white conservatives, who continue to use racial slurs and sexist jokes as if it was 1959, are all evil or stupid or unpatriotic. In fact, my experience in large conservative groups, like Rotary, has proven quite the contrary. For the most part, they are good and decent people who want to do the right thing. I heard many similar comments at my Rotary meetings, which is largely the reason that I am no longer a member. And yet, having come to know them more personally, I knew that the people saying these things were not mean people; just ignorant. And it is this same ignorance and pride that prevents the current GOP from moving forward with the new demographics. For me, these kinds of comments and antics arouse my curiosity more than any sense of slight. For how can this fear of “the other” trump even the survival instinct? Would they really rather die off than love us? Wow! How Christian is that? Why is it so hard for them to admit that they don’t know what they don’t know about us?

            I recall a cut from a Utah Phillips album called, “Moose-turd Pie,” in which he baked a beautiful pie made of moose dung. It’s really a funny routine. But when Republicans try over and over again to serve us moose-turd pie, it’s not so funny. You see, it really doesn’t matter if you serve this pie on the finest china, or garnish it with parsley, or try to make it look or smell like something else, we can still tell that it’s moose-turd pie, and it is not to our liking. We’re still not gonna eat it. Ever!