I don’t know a lot about Tim Kaine, but I find this speech a little on the sleazy side:
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine suggested on Tuesday that opposition from Republican senators to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor — along with the Republican National Committee’s failure to attend a major Latino-issue forum — will seriously hurt the party with Hispanic voters.
“I find it puzzling that a group with the great credentials of the Council of La Raza would invite both parties to send their chairmen and that the RNC didn’t send their chair,” Kaine told the Huffington Post in a brief phone interview. “They could have had somebody else here. And with the vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, with the exception of Senator Graham, every Republican voting against Judge Sotomayor, I just don’t get that as well.”
Of course, really everything he is saying is true, but why bring it up in this particular way in this forum? As a minority, this comes across to me as pandering. I want to hear actual content. Okay, so your a Democrat. What are you going to do for me other than talk? Give me your views of Latinos beyond how significant their votes are.
It has been argued in the past that the Democratic Party has taken advantage of the Black vote. Sure they talk the talk, but when it comes to actually creating noticeable change in our society, any programs that the Democrats have fostered don’t seem to be having a real affect. Look at the numbers of young black men in prison. I just don’t think Affirmative Action while pretty scarce these days is really having an affect, but it is a bone that the Democrats throw at the black community nonetheless.
Once again I have to say that as a minority, I just want we want to be treated equally. End of story. One of the most frustrating things is having people tell you how easy everything is for you because of your race. If the Republicans keep highlighting this falsehood, then the Democrats may never have to worry about losing the Latino vote. But nonetheless, I wish these guys highlighted our similarities more. How we are the same. How our needs are the same. And maybe one day we’ll get to the point when people aren’t just a vote. They’re just people.
I agree. The GOP makes it so easy for the Democrats to just sit back and make token efforts to actually improve people’s lives, and chatter on about how awesome Democrats are at not hating non-white people.
If the Republicans were less racist (sorry for the broad generalization), and genuinely tried to make government and society colorblind, Democrats would have to work harder to earn nonwhite votes.
I’m not a huge fan of affirmative action, but I do see a role for it in some cases. I’m a fan of meritocracy; I wish that smart poor kids got a fair chance at getting out of poverty, and that jackass dumb rich kids had a real risk of falling into the (gasp!) middle class. Sigh.
Anyway… nice to meet you last night! I should have come over and said Hi to Jake, too, but was too distracted. Anyway, glad you came. š
Well I’m not especially a fan of Affirmative Action myself because it gives the the nutjobs fodder for the life is so easy if you’re a minority mentality (think Sotomayor.) On the other hand, I have to be honest. I’m half Asian and half white. I can’t really compare my experiences with racial prejudice with black Americans. And my experience is what leads me to say I’d rather not have AA. So I have to say all in all I’m undecided.
On another note, that quiz was great. Great variety of questions. I suppose I’m biased because we won, but it was really was good. And Jake got to flex his geography trivia muscles too.