The White Party (Updated)
[Guest post by DRJ]
CNN reports another example of a politician injecting race and gender into the Presidential election:
“If you look at folks of color, even women, they’re more successful in the Democratic Party than they are in the white, uh, excuse me, in the Republican Party,” [Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard] Dean said Friday in an appearance on NPR’s “Tell Me More” program.
Race and gender. Those are the Democratic talking points in this election.
UPDATE: Here’s the video from Breitbart and an expanded excerpt from the Boston Globe:
“If you look at folks of color, even women, they’re more successful in the Democratic Party than they are in the white, uh, excuse me, in the Republican Party because we just give more opportunity to folks who are hardworking people who are immigrants and come from members of minority groups,” Dean said at one point.
It’s not the first time Dean has done this. He called the GOP the “white Christian” party in a 2005 interview in San Francisco:
“Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, unapologetic in the face of recent criticism that he has been too tough on his political opposition, said in San Francisco this week that Republicans are “a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It’s pretty much a white Christian party.”
“The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people,” Dean said Monday, responding to a question about diversity during a forum with minority leaders and journalists. “We’re more welcoming to different folks, because that’s the type of people we are. But that’s not enough. We do have to deliver on things: jobs and housing and business opportunities.”
— DRJ
Ohhh, they’ll go far with that brain – addled, hoary and inane strategy. No doubt they’re going after those redneck, bitter, gun crazy and clingy religious folk that Obama eternally pissed off a few months ago. Axelrod is a genius, no question.
Dmac (874677) — 8/16/2008 @ 2:49 pmHoward, how many black people were in that great diverse state of Vermont of yours?
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 8/16/2008 @ 2:55 pmDean is another trust fund baby (Dean, Witter and Co) who will tell us how to succeed in life. First rule: be born to rich parents.
Mike K (155601) — 8/16/2008 @ 3:56 pmWhat is this man’s thinking? There’s nothing inclusive about his approach. They’ve learned by now McCain doesn’t play the racist game. That’s Dean’s team.
Vermont Neighbor (a066ed) — 8/16/2008 @ 4:12 pmHoward Dean speaks for all non-white people.
Wealthy (although not of the Witter family), prep-schooled, raised in East Hampton, educated at Yale, etc. Does anyone else doubt that someone with right of center affiliations making this statement would be pilloried?
Dean’s all for appointing people of color – as long as they’re leftists. Not exactly about freedom of opportunity.
Apogee (366e8b) — 8/16/2008 @ 4:14 pmWell he’s only right. Remember the Republican convention a few years back with a bunch of black people up on the stage singing and dancing away.
And none in the audience.
Things haven’t changed.
David Ehrenstein (699cff) — 8/16/2008 @ 4:26 pmAnd then there’s The White Party!
David Ehrenstein (699cff) — 8/16/2008 @ 4:34 pmHowie “the difference between us and the GOP is we care if people go to bed hungry” Dean strikes again. Once again it is a Democrat that plays the race card.
Icy Truth (784175) — 8/16/2008 @ 4:40 pmDean is such a slimebag. In the last three or four administrations, black cabinet members were window dressing Democrat administrations and had substantive, central roles based on their talents in the Republican ones.
SPQR (26be8b) — 8/16/2008 @ 4:58 pmI simply do not understand what he means. Colin Powell, who isn’t even conservative, and Condoleeza Rice, and Alberto Gonzoles are only three examples of just how wrong Dean is. How many minorities were on his Presidential campaign? I’m guessing not many, not that it matters much.
The bush administration has pretty obviously been the most racially diverse administration in history, and without using affirmative action.
Dean is making it up as he goes along, and I hope he keeps broadcasting his hate. He’s had nothing to say but ugly things for a very long time now. He’s an angry bitter dumbass. And moderates are put off by this kind of crap.
Let’s see if Obama condemns this attack the way Mccain has condemned those on the right who say stupid racial stuff.
Juan (4cdfb7) — 8/16/2008 @ 5:00 pmJuan, I think it was pointed out that Dean never had any minority staff or advisors as Governor or candidate.
SPQR (26be8b) — 8/16/2008 @ 5:04 pmAh, but he had a black roommate in college. He did his time.
Icy Truth (784175) — 8/16/2008 @ 5:31 pmJust amazing that this guy, and those from the same club as him, keep getting away with these kinds of statements. Must be way too used to talking to a bunch of tenth graders (or their equivalents), I guess.
Andrew (8a94e5) — 8/16/2008 @ 5:57 pmThank heavens for blogs and talk radio.
It’s more than that: while it’s the standard Democratic demagoguery, the bigger issue is that it is an attempt to deflect the Democrats’ problems with race.
And it works. A guy by the name of Steve Newton, responding to a comment on the Delaware Liberal which pointed out the segregationist history of the Democratic Party, wrote:
Which worked as great demagoguery, until someone pointed out that Mr Wallace ran for the Democratic nomination in 1972, not the Republican nod.
With enough demagoguery, our friends on the left have tried to rewrite history.
The history of the recent Democratic nominating campaign is a history of campaigns based on race. Barack Obama won 90% of the black vote, and a clear minority of the white vote. It came to a head in South Carolina — which the Democrats deliberately moved ahead, to give black voters more of a voice in the process — where Mr Obama won a huge majority of the black vote, Hillary Clinton won a majority of the votes of white women, and John Edwards won the votes of white men. Once Mr Edwards dropped out, leaving only one white candidate, that one white candidate won a substantial majority of the remaining white vote, and a majority of votes cast after South Carolina. As she heightened the racial appeal of her campaign, she won Texas and Ohio and, a month later, Pennsylvania, based on a campaign that sometimes subtly, and sometimes not so, was focusing on white voters.
Remember Mrs Clinton’s claim to be the candidate of “hard-working Americans, white Americans?”
Yet our friends in the Democratic Party would have us believe that voting based on race is the province of the Republican Party.
Dana R Pico (556f76) — 8/16/2008 @ 6:05 pmThe Democrats are constantly rewriting history, the dishonesty seems fundamental to their self-delusion.
SPQR (26be8b) — 8/16/2008 @ 6:14 pmWhen you look at the leadership of the democrats they certainly look like the party of pallor.
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 8/16/2008 @ 6:41 pmDoes Harry “Skeletor” Reid have anybody but relatives working for him?
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 8/16/2008 @ 6:42 pmApparently one has to have absolutely no sense of shame, and be completely unaware of the mountains of unintended irony they produce in order to be head of the DNC or a Dem presidential candidate. HoDo might be worse than Baracky.
JD (5f0e11) — 8/16/2008 @ 7:11 pm“Apparently one has to have absolutely no sense of shame, and be completely unaware of the mountains of unintended irony they produce in order to be head of the DNC or a Dem presidential candidate.”
JD – Those are absolute job requirements because if they told people what they really thought, nobody would vote for them.
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 8/16/2008 @ 7:14 pmI wonder about men like Howard Dean- his remarks indicate that he is obsessed with skin color. I have had a great deal of experience with such liberals- they talk as if they accept what they call “people of color” as equals. But they can never quite shake off the need to refer to skin color. That habit has a curious effect on a “person of color.” He knows what his function is for the liberal- he is helping the white man feel good about himself. Someone should tell Dean that skin color is not what defines a human being. In point of fact some of my best friends have been white and most of my best teachers were white. I was almost killed by three thugs when I was a boy. They were not white.
mhr (2dfe0f) — 8/16/2008 @ 7:44 pmTake it easy on Howlin’ Howie. He makes crooked grifters in the GOP seem harmless by comparison.
Howie’s fundamentally a just a regular ol’ dishonest fat-cat Dembulb trying to con MSM into doing his dirty work for him. And, don’t forget, Howie’s still smarting from the self-inflicted meltdown which took him out of the running last time around. He may not be very effective, but he’s got a wide mean streak, and he’s looking for a little payback.
He’s an arse, upon which everyone has sat, except a man. (id op)
Ropelight (42c46d) — 8/16/2008 @ 9:21 pmDean is on the ground moaning and groaning, if he was a horse someone would put him out of his misery. He is one sorry POS the democrats have representing them. If I hadn’t left the party because of Dimmy I would leave because of Howling Howie.
Scrapiron (d671ab) — 8/16/2008 @ 9:32 pmDemocrats who listen to and support this POS must have an IQ in the minus catagory.
mhr 20:
Indeed. That need to “feel good about himself” also explains why they (affluent white liberals, in this case) are quite content to throw “people of color” under the bus when the genuine needs or welfare of that group are trumped by a more “important” concern.
To wit, I have actually had ‘liberals’ tell me to my face that they find it acceptable for Asians in poverty to suffer optical maladies and blindness rather than introduce a genetic enhancement into their food supply (so called “golden rice”) rather than risk the possibility of an enhanced strain of rice getting loose into “the wild.”
Never mind the technical merits of either side of the argument, but the sheer moral gall of taking it upon themselves to decide whether another human should be denied effective nutrition simply because they don’t like the method of delivery is not only exceedingly presumptuous, but I fail to see how it could be regarded as anything other than an especially ugly form of racism.
Oh, and unfortunately, thugs come in all colors. No one need tell Dean that, since he is one. (Rhetorically, anyway.)
EW1(SG) (84e813) — 8/16/2008 @ 9:43 pmthis is certainly a diverse group
chas (e36377) — 8/16/2008 @ 9:48 pm#24, chas nails it, a picture IS worth 1000 words, sometimes more.
Ropelight (42c46d) — 8/16/2008 @ 10:21 pmDRJ “Race and gender. Those are the Democratic talking points in this election.”
I can only imagine that the other 99.9999% of the time Obama says something, that you only hear the trombone that Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Linus heard when the adults were talking.
Oiram (6ff3d9) — 8/16/2008 @ 11:31 pmI don’t think you like me tonight, Oiram.
DRJ (a5243f) — 8/16/2008 @ 11:36 pmProtest signs that *smart* Dems should carry at the convention:
STFU
About
Race
— Remember my promise to keep a tally of the number of times race is mentioned in the speeches, Oiram? I’m not kidding.
Icy Truth (784175) — 8/16/2008 @ 11:41 pmNo, I do like you DRJ.
You know I’m more or less a moderate. I really do think this county would collapse as well if my people were solely in charge.
The left hand has to keep an eye on the right hand and visa versa.
Anytime I think a Republican is making a mistake, I know that they are doing it with the best of intentions for our great nation.
Oiram (6ff3d9) — 8/16/2008 @ 11:42 pmI do remember Icy, but please don’t count the vague references to race.
Oiram (6ff3d9) — 8/16/2008 @ 11:44 pmThe only thing I promise is to note the vague references made by both parties.
Icy Truth (784175) — 8/16/2008 @ 11:51 pmLook, y’all just want non-whites who “know their place.”
Period, end of story.
David Ehrenstein (699cff) — 8/17/2008 @ 7:30 amObama’s very existence is reference to race, and therefore – by Icy’s standards — should not be alllowed. For referring to race is something only a racist would do. Isn’t that right, Icy?
David Ehrenstein (699cff) — 8/17/2008 @ 8:50 amHoward Dean’s meltdown just didn’t seem as bad as all the verbal gaffes and tactical mistakes made (so far) by Messiah.
Granted, he’s a jaded old fool living the high-end lifestyle of a classic white liberal. Maybe Howard’s angry that BHO is moving forward with so much baggage… so many free passes. After all, Dean was the first political Internet star, collecting tons of money and impressive grassroots momentum. Between his scream and Obama’s incompetency, only one comes off as mistreated by media bias: Howard Dean himself.
He really needs to yell at his big media pals for being hopelessly white, hopelessly guilty and hopelessly biased. (Olbermann, Letterman, etc.)
Vermont Neighbor (a066ed) — 8/17/2008 @ 2:06 pmLooking forward to Icy’s report.
Vermont Neighbor (a066ed) — 8/17/2008 @ 2:07 pmTHIS JUST IN!!!!! If Obama wins he’s going to replace the National Anthm with THIS!
David Ehrenstein (699cff) — 8/17/2008 @ 2:19 pmDavid! Don’t you know you could be arrested in Saudi Arabia and beheaded in Canada for linking that?
nk (3c7a86) — 8/17/2008 @ 3:30 pmnk #37:
And that, tells me all I need to know about that!
Thanks, nk!
EW1(SG) (84e813) — 8/17/2008 @ 4:02 pmPeriod. End of story.
So much for that difficult national conversation on race, huh, David?
I see, it was not supposed to be a discussion, but a lecture.
JD (5f0e11) — 8/17/2008 @ 4:32 pm#39
love2008 (0c8c2c) — 8/17/2008 @ 6:13 pmYou forgot, JD;
Racists!
Doesn’t work quite the same coming from you.
Stashiu3 (460dc1) — 8/17/2008 @ 6:17 pm#41
love2008 (0c8c2c) — 8/17/2008 @ 6:20 pmOr would you prefer,
Infidel?
I prefer honesty. Got any? Not by the evidence.
Stashiu3 (460dc1) — 8/17/2008 @ 6:24 pmlovie – when David E comes around, it is a given fact that we are racists. Michelle and David share their disdain and disappointment with our grand country. They are sad people.
JD (5f0e11) — 8/17/2008 @ 6:29 pmHonestly I think you are a ……….. never mind.
love2008 (0c8c2c) — 8/17/2008 @ 6:31 pm#44
love2008 (0c8c2c) — 8/17/2008 @ 6:35 pmDoes that make them sadists?
Okay then, JD,
Sadists!
“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room?,” Dean asked to laughter. “Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”
Heh. Because people of color are menial laborers.
Nice party you’ve got there, David.
Pablo (99243e) — 8/17/2008 @ 6:44 pm#33 – David Ehrenstein
Obama’s very existence is reference to race, and therefore – by Icy’s standards — should not be alllowed.
— In the same sense that the existence of every human being is a reference to their particular race? or are you saying that because he’s black it is impossible not to mention it?
For referring to race is something only a racist would do. Isn’t that right, Icy?
Icy Truth (9e6f2a) — 8/17/2008 @ 10:28 pm— Public references to race are pretty much unnecessary unless you’re providing an accurate description of a criminal suspect.
Calling the electorate racist is a brilliant campaign strategy.
SPQR (26be8b) — 8/17/2008 @ 10:31 pmAnd for someone named Michelle it will be her post-campaign strategy, except that no one will characterize it as brilliant — not even sarcastically. Pathetic, more like it.
Icy Truth (9e6f2a) — 8/17/2008 @ 10:34 pm