Reflecting on Howard Dean, the GOP, and racism

I thought I'd wax political for a moment.

You've had to live in a cave to miss the media jumping all over Dean for his comments that the GOP is "pretty much a white, Christian party". Now Dean is himself white and Christian, so you can't really say he's ripping on the GOP for this commentary (although the right wing suck-up machine that is American media would have you believe that not only is Dean not Christian, he's apparently not white either). His out-of-context quote is implicating the GOP leadership of not being representative of the populace.

Dean is also right on the money. You see, 98.8% of GOP state representatives are white. Thanks to MyDD.com for pointing this out. So basically everybody is mad at Dean for stating the truth.

But let's go a bit further. The GOP provides representation that is mostly white. Does this mean that they are inherently racist? Why don't we use their own standard of racism: Affirmative Action. According to any right winger you meet on the streets, AA is inherently racist because it relies on race-based appointments to work. Fair enough. Whether you agree with this sentiment is irrelevant. For now, let's give them their definition since they're so fixated on AA being the largest force of race-driven evil ever to walk the planet.

Now what is the first thing wingers do when you dare suggest that the Republican party might be racist? They point to Colin Powell, Condi Rice, or Alberto Gonzales to demonstrate that it is actually "the liberals" who are out of touch with the American people. After all, the GOP has minorities in high positions of government. The Dems don't! They don't have Latino Attorney Generals, or Jamaican-American Secretaries of State!

See the disconnect yet? 98.8% of our GOP state representatives are white. But they have a few key appointments filled by minorities. Sounds suspiciously like AA to me; the only way to succeed in Republican politics (if your skin is darker than a watered-down latte) is to share every wingnut thought process and pray you get used hand-picked for something.