PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
by Nathan Shrader
The recent commentary on the racial politics of the 2008 campaign by former Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democrat nominee for Vice President of the United States, is just the latest example of a party paying for the sins of several decades of foolhardy pandering to identity politics. Unfortunately for Ms. Ferraro, the long-running spat regarding Reverend Jeremiah's Wright has made her the forgotten casualty of the political correctness war that has ensnared the Democrats, the media, and the nation.
The Democrat Party—the Party of Jefferson Davis—is presently living out a nightmare scenario featuring a vigorous campaign in which its two leading candidates are a black man and a white female, a situation that is tearing the party apart at the soul. While the Republican nominating contest largely came down to a debate over policy issues and electability, the Democrat contest features no substantive disagreement over policy and a boatload of disagreement over skin color and gender.
Congresswoman Ferraro's statement on Monday, March 11 that Senator Obama is dominating the presidential race because he is black may have been a silly thing to say, but it is largely true. If Barack Obama was instead a white Midwestern senator by the name of Brian O'Neil, advocating similar liberal policies with a relatively thin resume, would anybody care? The answer is certainly no. The hypothetical Senator O'Neil's campaign would have gone the same route of Senators Biden, Dodd, and Edwards—a collection of three Caucasians with similarly liberal voting records, fine oratory skills, and much thicker political resumes.
All of a sudden, Congresswoman Ferraro fell into the trap baited by the PC mafia over the course of the last forty years. She referenced the obvious, that Senator Obama's race has helped garner media attention and votes that Biden, Dodd, and Edwards could never have, despite their similarities on policy issues.
As such, Hillary Clinton has only achieved what she has in being elected to the US Senate and running quite successfully thus far as the first mainstream female Democrat candidate for the presidency because she was the First Lady of the United States. How is Congresswoman Ferraro's claim about Senator Obama's race any different than mine about Senator Clinton?
The answer is that there is no difference whatsoever, and that both my comment about Clinton and Ferraro's comment about Obama are basic, commonsense observations that an amateur political scientist could produce from simply following press coverage of the campaign and election results thus far.
PC thugs across the nation will tell you that my comment was sexist and Ferraro's was racist when in fact both are factual and neither nefarious. The Democrat Party, in vain efforts to make up for its past alliances with organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, the leadership of the Confederate States of America, and the most staunch opposition leaders of the women's suffrage movement has moved so far in the opposite direction that nobody—not even an esteemed former Vice Presidential nominee—can question race or gender without feeling tremendous blowback.
This is a field sowed by many decades of political guilt over the Democrat Party's past treatment of women, minorities, and other non-white men. It is unlikely that this scenario will change by the fall, with experts like Tim Russert already predicting that if Clinton is nominated, blacks will sit home on Election Day and if Obama is nominated, women will angrily vote Republican or not cast ballots at all.
A political party needs to be based upon much more than race and gender. A good reason why the Republican Party has won and will likely continue to win national elections in the modern era. From Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Eisenhower, and Reagan the Republican Party has elected presidential candidates who care not about the color of one's skin or the gender of a person, but rather about the dignity and worth of every individual while also protecting American interests, citizens, and jobs.
The only thing that will likely keep the Republican Party from using this PC wedge to defeat the Democrat nominee this year is the GOP candidate himself—John McCain—a man who speaks for himself and his ego and not for his party or its principles. He does not stand for the time-honored Republican principles of putting American workers first, limiting government's reach, a humble foreign policy, or reducing the tax burden on the people. Republicans have no reason to knock on doors, man the phone banks, or send in their hard-earned dollars to help him since he has done so little aside from helping himself.
The American voters have demonstrated again and again with more wisdom than any pundit or politician will ever offer that their sacred ballot, won with the blood of their forefathers, is cast for the person who inspires their hearts, wins their minds, and offers something larger than race or gender, both of which are determined by a power mightier than any politician, political party, or election campaign.
While Republicans grapple with the very difficult decision of whether to sit this one out or follow a cantankerous candidate who wrongly compares himself with great men like Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt, the Democrat Party has shown that it will continue to eat itself alive while attempting to atone for the sins of the past.
Nathan Shrader can be reached at nathanrshrader@yahoo.com
