Who gave Dean the idea to put Repuke bigots on the defensive about

stickdog

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Thu Jun-09-05 08:34 PM
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Who gave Dean the idea to put Repuke bigots on the defensive about

their lack of diversity?

What made him feel confident that there wasn't any right answer for the Repukes when it comes to calling the a monolithic bunch of insular white Christians?

From the Dem & Dean hating Nation Review, Jan 2004: http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200401120838.asp

But on Sunday night, at the minority-oriented debate sponsored by the Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum, Dean himself came in for a little educating. His teacher was the Rev. Al Sharpton, who came to Iowa ready to scold Dean for not showing up last Friday at a candidates' debate for the Washington, D.C. primary. absence gave Sharpton an opening.

Sharpton began, "You keep talking about talking about race. In the state of Vermont — where you were governor '97, '99, 2001 — not one black or brown held a senior policy position, not one. You yourself said we must do something about it. Nothing was done. Can you explain — since now you want to convene everyone and talk about race, it seems as though you have discovered blacks and browns during this campaign."

The audience began to laugh and applaud, and Sharpton asked again: "How you can explain not one black or brown working for your administration as governor?"

Sharpton's final charge was, of course, a ludicrous and unfounded overstatement. Furthermore, the lack of "black or brown" minorities in Dean's top cabinet positions (a charge that was true) was almost certainly a reflection of the fact that Vermont's population is less than 2% black or brown. However, how was Dean supposed to answer this charge? He wasn't about to trumpet the fact that the only state he'd ever governed has basically zero diversity, so all he could do was back off and take the hit -- much like the Repukes are doing this week.

The only difference was that Dean was careful to phrase his statement in such a way that it couldn't be considered a "gotcha" low blow unless you contend that calling someone a "white Christian" is an insult. So even the Repukes and closet Repukes screaming "how could he say that?" look like imbeciles. How could he say what? The obvious and indisputable truth?

Dean poked the Repukes in one of their sorest spots. As our country becomes more and more diverse, Repukes look more and more the same. They use xenophobia, jingoism, bigotry and pastor pressure to keep a bunch of bamboozled poor white Christians voting for the economic benefit of huge corporations, defense contractors and the hyperweathy in general. And Repukes can't diversify their base without risking alienating the poor ignorant xenophobic nutcases they've cultivated by bashing gays, blacks, Muslims, immigrants and anybody else who doesn't mount a born again fish on the car.

But even irredeemable bigots don't like being called on their bigotry. And that's why Dean's newest little piece of corporate media jujitsu is so delicious. When the corporate media sharks circled him smelling blood, he tossed them what seemed like a few pounds of his flesh and, like clockwork, their ever predictable "gotcha gaffe" feeding frenzy ensued.

But this time it was Dean who did the getting, because he'd framed the "controversy" in such a way that his "charge" (otherwise known as the truth) simply couldn't be answered without making Republicans look like bigots -- and even further, like bigots who are so out of touch that they're actually proud of their bigotry.