Santorum Mocks Liberals For Believing That Diversity Benefits America

[UCmeNdc]

Belittling diversity in America is becoming strangely en vogue among Republicans of late. On a radio show last week, for instance, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) blamed gun violence on “diversity in America.”

More broadly, attacks on immigrants and minorities have been a near-daily occurrence in the 2016 GOP presidential contest. While Donald Trump has gotten most of the attention for his vitriol, anti-immigrant rhetoric has spread to establishment candidates like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who joined Trump in questioning birthright citizenship (something he later walked back), and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who called children of undocumented immigrants “anchor babies.” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American himself, said recently, “Immigration without assimilation is invasion.”

Of course, Santorum’s latest attack on diversity isn’t terribly out of line with his penchant for controversial statements. In the past, Santorum has argued that women were ill-suited to combat because of “emotions that are involved,” said “the NBA” was corrupting American culture, and declared that consensual sex between gay people should be illegal. During his 2012 presidential bid, the Pennsylvania Republican was roundly criticized for making racist remarks about black people and welfare. Despite video evidence to the contrary, Santorum defended himself by arguing that he either said “blah people” or “plives” instead of black.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/09/03/3698263/rick-santorum-diversity/

[yuiyoshida]

1. oh wonderful...

drumming up more racist hatred for people perceived as immigrants... I can't wait, "HEY LITTLE GIRL , GO THE FUCK BACK TO CHINA!!"... this is gonna just make my day.

[pampango]

2. The Trump/Santorum plan, if there is one, seems to be to appeal to white working class populism.

The Trump campaign is emphatically about Trump, in a manner typical of populism from Huey Long to Hugo Chavez. The people are infallible, but they require someone who embodies their collective wisdom. The country — betrayed by elites, beset by foreigners, exploited and humiliated at every turn — needs more than policy papers. It needs a savior.

Trump is pressing a case against corrupt and cosmopolitan elites; against mass and illegal immigration and the dilution of American identity; and against the economic dislocations of free trade and business capitalism.

Insofar as Trump leads a movement, it is headed in the direction of a more European form of secular, nationalist, right-wing populism. Were Trump to succeed, the GOP would be an anti-immigration party of the white working class.

Trump and his supporters on immigration hope to change the demographic playing field in future elections through restrictions — essentially trying to expand the Republican appeal in the white working class while limiting the total number of Hispanic voters. But declaring war on demography is like declaring war on gravity — all your victories are temporary. A populist, right-wing, anti-immigration party would eventually be voted into irrelevance.

http://www.thecalifornian.com/story/opinion/2015/09/02/trump-declares-war-demography/71593544/

Santorum is much like Trump in many ways with the addition of religious fundamentalism thrown in.

The right has hated diversity (and multiculturalism) for a long, long time. Trump's effort to direct a RW populist appeal at white working class voters is reminiscent of Nixon's "silent majority" and George Wallace's appeal to white working class angst.

Obama said it well:

You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html

[el_bryanto]

5. Among the many problems with that formula; it's a lie

The reason the white working class, along with the black working class, and the Latino working class, are struggling is that big business wants them to. A depressed working class keeps salaries and overhead low.

Bryant

[kenfrequed]

6. Indeed.

Big business and the Republican party have been stoking up "the southern strategy" for generations. Merely claiming this to be "white working class populism" is really an unfair generalization and lets the wealthy class completely off the hook.

[Ilsa]

3. There must be a lack of diversity

in their ancestors' gene pool.

[ck4829]

4. So... uh... "Strength through unity", you really want to say that, Ricky?

[Rex]

7. Nobody cares what Frothy Mixture has to say.

I hope his daughter grows up and marries a black man! Frothy would stroke out right there in front of them! The NBA is bad? What the fuck drug is Frothy on? Hateraide?

[marmar]

8. It must be so frustrating to be so irrelevant.

But there's always wingnut welfare for an incompetent right-wing dolt with no other skills.