Jim Crow Liberalism

[Danno 1,228]

Interesting enough, these piece was written before Sotomayer was selected for the Supreme Court.

Jim Crow Liberalism

by Patrick J. Buchanan

Posted 05/08/2009 ET

Having lost both houses of Congress and the White House in two straight elections, Republicans are going through an identity crisis, its leaders holding town hall meetings to "listen" to the people.

"What should we focus on? Should we drop the social issues? How do we get the young people back?"

Such angst and soul-searching is not the mark of the leader, but the mark of a man suffering from doubt and despair.

Why is the party in trouble? Simple. Dubya got a hold of the keys, got high on neocon hooch, and crashed and rolled the family SUV.

He launched an unnecessary war against a country that had not attacked us. With his utopian No Child Left Behind scheme and his Medicare drug plan, he did his passable imitation of LBJ, and blew a hole in the budget.

Touting globalism, he presided over the loss of one in every four U.S. manufacturing jobs and ran up $5 trillion in trade deficits. He refused to defend the Mexican border against an invasion, then pushed an amnesty for the invaders.

This was no Reaganite. This was the neocons' apprentice.

How does the party reconnect with Middle America? How does it win back the Reagan Democrats who went home disgusted?

Become again the party of Frank Ricci.

And who is Frank Ricci?

He is a fireman in New Haven, Conn., with 11 years in the department, who suffers from dyslexia, but nonetheless has pursued his dream of becoming a lieutenant and a captain.

Six months before the promotion test, Ricci quit his second job. He bought $1,000 worth of the textbooks he was told to study, had a friend read them onto tapes to compensate for his dyslexia, studied every spare hour he got, and sat for the test, to compete for one of eight lieutenant slots open.

Frank made it. Frank Ricci came in sixth.

It was after the results of the test were made known that the problems arose. For, of the officers who had made the cut, all were white, except for one Latino.

Concluding the test results would, if used by the department, have an "adverse impact" on the black community, New Haven tossed out the results and called for new exams to ensure a "fair" outcome.

Thus, because he is a white man whose people came from Italy, Frank Ricci is to be denied a promotion he worked for and won, and be robbed of his American dream by the liberal bigots who run New Haven.

Had Frank Ricci and half of the other top performers been black, all would be on their way to becoming lieutenants and captains.

What is being done to Frank Ricci is exactly what was done to black folks for decades. Great black ballplayers who might have become legends like DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig never got the chance because they were black. Black students were denied admission to prep schools, colleges and military academies because of their color.

Now, what was done to them is being done to white folks. And it is just as wrong as it was then.

In 21st century America, race discrimination endures.

All we have done is switch the color of the victims with the color of the beneficiaries. Today it is white males applying for jobs and promotions as cops, firemen, government workers, who are held back because their color does not comport with the desired "diversity."

What New Haven has done to Frank Ricci is like the U.S. Olympic Committee throwing out all the trial heat results in the 100- and 200-meter races because not a single white runner qualified.

New Haven contends the "disparate impact" of the test hurts the black community, proving discrimination. But does the relative absence of blacks in the National Hockey League prove discrimination?

If the Republican Party wants a future, it will become again the party that stands on the principle that "No discrimination means no discrimination," that stands with the victims of state bigotry, and that stands up to hypocrites like the Jim Crow liberals of New Haven.

Affirmative action began as a mandate to cast a wider net and ensure all had an equal shot. It has become a mighty engine of state injustice that seeks to remedy the consequences of past racial sins and crimes, by committing new ones.

In Michigan, Washington and California, none of them red states, majorities have voted to abolish affirmative action. Only Colorado failed in a dead heat last fall. A Republican drive to write into federal law an end to all race and gender preferences, as well as to all race and gender discrimination, is a cause whose time has come.

This is a winning issue for the GOP, for it is rooted in principle and comports with what is written on the human heart. Down deep, even liberals know that what is being done to Frank Ricci is not right.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Liberal bigots stink.

[mRx 16]

Social engineering never brings about equality.

Hopefully, someday, people will see themselves as the individuals that they are, and not as members of some intangible group.

By treating people as members of groups or social classes, the government encourages such racial disparity and segregation.

[Ban Hammer 13,659]

Liberal bigots stink.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Dubya got a hold of the keys, got high on neocon hooch, and crashed and rolled the family SUV.

He launched an unnecessary war against a country that had not attacked us. With his utopian No Child Left Behind scheme and his Medicare drug plan, he did his passable imitation of LBJ, and blew a hole in the budget.

Touting globalism, he presided over the loss of one in every four U.S. manufacturing jobs and ran up $5 trillion in trade deficits. He refused to defend the Mexican border against an invasion, then pushed an amnesty for the invaders.

This was no Reaganite. This was the neocons' apprentice.

How does the party reconnect with Middle America? How does it win back the Reagan Democrats who went home disgusted?

Become again the party of Frank Ricci.

Joe the Plumber didn't work out too well, so now it's John Ricci.

[The_Dude 1,142]

Liberal bigots stink.

So the redneck ones are cool with you?

[GaryC 7]

"I have a dream that someday a man will be judged not by the color of his skin but of the content of his character"

Words to live by. Racism stinks regardless of who is doing it.

[The_Dude 1,142]

"I have a dream that someday a man will be judged not by the color of his skin but of the content of his character"

Words to live by. Racism stinks regardless of who is doing it.

Thats a great quote, however, people now are being judged by their religion, or whom they prefer to go to bed with. Have things really changed that much, or just changed form?

[mRx 16]

"I have a dream that someday a man will be judged not by the color of his skin but of the content of his character"

Words to live by. Racism stinks regardless of who is doing it.

Thats a great quote, however, people now are being judged by their religion, or whom they prefer to go to bed with. Have things really changed that much, or just changed form?

Religious and sexual preferences would fall under the content of one's character, no?

[The_Dude 1,142]

"I have a dream that someday a man will be judged not by the color of his skin but of the content of his character"

Words to live by. Racism stinks regardless of who is doing it.

Thats a great quote, however, people now are being judged by their religion, or whom they prefer to go to bed with. Have things really changed that much, or just changed form?

Religious and sexual preferences would fall under the content of one's character, no?

No indeed.

[mRx 16]

"I have a dream that someday a man will be judged not by the color of his skin but of the content of his character"

Words to live by. Racism stinks regardless of who is doing it.

Thats a great quote, however, people now are being judged by their religion, or whom they prefer to go to bed with. Have things really changed that much, or just changed form?

Religious and sexual preferences would fall under the content of one's character, no?

No indeed.

Then under what criterium are individuals to judge each other upon, if not on their preferences?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Social engineering never brings about equality.

Hopefully, someday, people will see themselves as the individuals that they are, and not as members of some intangible group.

By treating people as members of groups or social classes, the government encourages such racial disparity and segregation.

It does - but its a thorny issue all around.

Wasn't there a William F. Buckley quote from years ago where he suggested that blacks shouldn't receive the vote. His thinking was that people with lower general levels of education can't make smart political choices (much along the same lines as why you have to be a certain age in order to vote).

Pragamatically of course - it doesn't do for government to sit back and sanction the existence of an underclass that is clearly divided along ethnic lines and which inevitably can be traced back to repressive policies administered by previous governments.

If as seems most likely, the reason that some ethnic minorities do score lower academically (leaving aside the possibility that tests may be flawed) is because of a combination of social factors - lowered levels of investment, poorer infrastructure in the areas they inhabit as well as ingrained generational/cultural attitudes it doesn't seem unreasonable to try to address this at the policy level.

The obvious problem with that, as has been said, is that its nearly impossible to come up with initiatives that aren't in someways discriminatory or artificial. The alternative to that of course is to do nothing - which only serves to further the social/economic divide between different populations.

As the government is obliged to address the concerns of all of its citizens - clearly it cannot endorse the idea that an entire demographic is somehow substandard.

To the OP title - it isn't that this is some score the points against "liberalism" garbage - the intent of programs such as AA is clear and quite reasonable, even if that isn't always reflected in the execution.

Edited May 28, 2009 by Private Pike

[Scott & Lai 12]

"I have a dream that someday a man will be judged not by the color of his skin but of the content of his character"

Words to live by. Racism stinks regardless of who is doing it.

I think that dream has been considered and rejected as anything more than a fond wish by far too many today.

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

So? What are the Republicans going to do about it?

Sit back and take it like a bunch of sissies?

The Republicans should stick to their guns to the death. Anything that smacks of liberlaism, just shoot at it. The American ppl will be able to see where the Republican party stands.

grow some brass round ones!

Daniel

[alienlovechild 75]

If as seems most likely, the reason that some ethnic minorities do score lower academically (leaving aside the possibility that tests may be flawed) is because of a combination of social factors - lowered levels of investment, poorer infrastructure in the areas they inhabit as well as ingrained generational/cultural attitudes it doesn't seem unreasonable to try to address this at the policy level.

Exactly how is affirmative action supposed to rectify the situation when huge numbers of kids don't even graduate high school? The last part is right that most of it intergenerational/cultural attitudes that don't promote academic achievement. Plenty of people from other parts of the world arrive with limited English yet their kids sometimes end up at the top of their class. The minorities in the middle already got there's sometimes through affirmative action now there's just a hardcore underclass that's not going to change until they decide to do so. The situation pits working class whites against minorities fighting for the scraps. I had to tell that one to one my professors who specialized in multicultural education and the man claimed he'd never thought of it that way.