I’ve watched with much interest as the Republican Party candidates vie for a position in next year’s presidential election. The one thing I can’t help but notice is the incredible diversity within this group. Considering Republicans, and certainly Tea Party members, have been labeled “racist” by some media sources, it seems odd to me that so many facets of the population are represented among these nine candidates. I thought perhaps the intolerance label was attributable to the baseline theory that individuals should be responsible for themselves and not look to the government to resolve their problems; as if somehow this was a brand new idea. In fact, this concept was heartily embraced by John F. Kennedy, one of our most beloved democratic presidents who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” How is this any different from what the republican candidates are saying today?
I find this whole concept of discrimination very curious as I sit and watch the debates. The panel before me is made up of one woman, two Mormons, two men over the age of 65 (one over 75!), a black man; and yes, I said “black” – he’s a fellow American who happens to have darker skin than mine – that’s all. Hell, I was born in England, of Scottish decent, and no one refers to me as a British-American. Lest I digress however, we also have among this group, three middle—aged white guys from very different backgrounds, each with very different ideas. Isn’t that what democracy is all about? And those are just the presidential candidates. If I look at the up and coming stars of the Republican Party, they include Senator Marco Rubio, a Latino whose parents escaped from Cuba’s dictatorship, Bobby Jindal, of East Indian heritage, who’s done an incredible job of rebuilding Louisiana. Then there’s Chris Christy, the gruff, slightly overweight bull dog from New Jersey who has rocked the house in Trenton and put that State back on its feet after hovering on the brink of bankruptcy.
And for those on the “tax the rich” bandwagon, I won’t go into my thoughts on that ridiculous banter, however, I will point out that the majority of these candidates came from very modest beginnings before their tenacity and hard work paid off. I can also tell you that among them they’ve given tens of millions of dollars to the underprivileged. In fact, as a percentage republicans far outweigh democrats in charitable donations, even though democrats reportedly have greater incomes.
So who exactly are the racist Republicans/Tea Party discriminating against? Well it’s certainly not women, minorities, religion, race, the poor, the obese or the elderly. So if someone can answer this question for me, I’m all ears…
