The GOP - Party of the Red (necked), White (skinned), and Blue (blooded)
Well, there ’s yet another another party “debate” tonight, this time for the GOP field. These silly, pointless forums this year - with too many candidates, too few serious questions and answers, Jack Bauer, a few fringe candidates, and one too many puppets - seem to have been developed by the parties to obfuscate the positions of the leading contenders. The idea is simple: clutter the stage with so many candidates and clutter the questions with so many questioners that the questions are quick and vague and the answers quicker and vaguer, in other words; keep the contenders safely lost in the noisy crowd. These pseudo-debates are a series of mechanical, repressed events, useless to the voters, and telling of little but the candidates’ ability to time prepared quips and soundbites.
What should be the telling is where, and when, and what forums the candidates do not appear. It seems that if the audience or the hosts may be a little hostile, or the forum may be a little too personal or open, or represents something a particular base dislikes, certain candidates lack the courage to show up. This is especially true of the GOP. On the flip-side, if the forum is hosted by groups with radical agendas, from theocrats to gun-nuts, the GOP team comes ready to play. One would think that a President of the United States of America should be a President of ALL THE PEOPLE of the the United States of America, not just fringe groups and the red-necked, white-skinned, and blue-blooded.
But just as George W. Bush promised to be a “uniter not a divider,” and the country is more divided than ever, this crop of candidates may exhort “unity” but you can be sure that division is their ultimate goal. If you can’t get more people to like you, get the people that do like you to really hate those that do not. Divide and conquer comes in many flavors. In these cases, the GOP field divides the country with aversion and subscription - avoid some constituents, play to others. So much for “unity.”
Who are the the constituents being avoided?
The NEA, Teachers…
Of all the GOP candidates, only former Arkansas governor and preacher Mike Huckabee showed his face at the NEA convention in July. Said Huckabee, “I’m astonished there are not more Republican candidates here. Do they not think education is important? Or are they just afraid of the NEA? I don’t know.” Try both an more.
The NAACP, African Americans…
Only one GOP candidate showed up - Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, there to remind African American voters that immigrants, the bane of his existence, are taking their jobs. Said Tancredo, “Do you think we should wait a few minutes and see if these other guys show up?” Waiting, he’d be there for twenty Septembers.
PBS, Tavis Smiley, All-American Presidential Forums, and again, African Americans…
There were four conspicuous no-shows for this October event - oh, and they happened to be the four GOP front-runners! Who’d'a’thunk’it? Said Tom Joyner, co-moderator and radio show host, “Let me take a moment right here and now to say hello to those of you viewing from home. Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senator John McCain, Governor Mitt Romney, and Senator Fred Thompson. Well, you know, I had to call them out… I can only assume that Republican candidates who hope to become the president of all the people are here tonight.” He got that right.
So teachers and African Americans know where they stand with the GOP, and it’s not in the room. Just who is in the room?
The NRA, of course, the Values Voters, a fanatical Religious-Right group, and the rabidly anti-government AFP. Not that the Democrats are lining up for these folks though, or Fox for that matter. So it cuts both ways. But no one is trying to take away your guns or religion, and no one can seem to touch ridiculous, unearned, unthankful wealth. Hopefully there are enough teachers and African Americans out there to tip the scale away from the moot-issue gun-nuts, theocrats, and the selfishly wealthy. The GOP is betting on the opposite. Let’s hope they place their bets as well as Bill Bennett.
JMJ