Cutting off one's own nose to spite the party's face

[thatcrazycajun]

So apparently, African-Americans in Maryland are feeling taken for granted by the Democratic Party. And to show it, they're going to support the Republican opponent of the Dem's candidate to replace retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D) of Sarbanes-Oxley fame. The Los Angeles Times reports on the story here.

African-American candidates are also running as Repubs in two other states. What kind of self-hating, Stepin-Fetchit-Uncle-Tom-Aunt-Jemima messed-up fuck do you have to be to actively work for the party whose policies have been proven time and again to be inimical to your own group? And that goes for not just black Repubs, but also female, gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, Asian, Hispanic, working-class, pagan, Jewish, atheist/agnostic and any other type of self-avowed GOP supporter who isn't a rich white Anglo-Saxon Christian heterosexual male. Can't these people see they are working against their own best interests, socially, economically and politically? Or are at least some of them counting on an "in" with the party in power once it wins with their turncoat help? (Yes, Ward Connerly, Armstrong Williams, Rich Tafel, Michelle Malkin, Linda Chavez, Jeff Gannon, Mona Charen and Colin Powell, I'm talking to you.)

And if you wanna flame me for this, bring it. I'm sick and tired of seeing people who damned well ought to know better throwing in with the conservative movement and against their own communities. Stipulated that the Democrats aren't perfect; at least they're not actively working against the non-WASP minorities the way the GOP is (or at least allows its wingnuts to). Bad enough we have to fight the enemy without also fighting some of our own.

Comments

[billroper]

You are aware, I'm guessing, that there are many conservatives who are arguing that the Republicans need to lose this election in order to "teach them a lesson"? One possible motivation for African-Americans in Maryland to vote for Steele would be exactly that: to teach the Democratic Party that they can't take their votes for granted. And that would be assuming that there were no other good reasons for voting for Steele.

It's certainly debatable whether the policies advocated by the Republicans are better for minorities in the long run than the policies that are advocated by the Democrats. Yes, I understand which position you'd be taking in such a debate, but it's exactly that sort of thing that needs to be examined if voters are going to make intelligent choices.

For example, there's an argument (made by some Democrats as well as Republicans) that restricting illegal immigration will have the effect of driving up wages for low-skilled minority workers who are U.S. citizens. While the "top of the ticket" President Bush resisted efforts to pass an "enforcement first" bill on illegal immigration, the Republican-controlled House managed to push one through and get it signed into law.

Now you may think that's bunk, or you may say the Republicans are doing it for bad reasons (since -- as an acquaintance of mine used to say -- you've got a summer home inside their head and know what they're thinking), or something else that I can't forecast (since I lack that summer home in your head). But it strikes me as the kind of thing that might appeal to minority voters.

I could be wrong.

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

Well, you are certainly right on why these particular political leaders are going as they are going. Their pick to replace Sarbanes, Kwesei Mfume, lost the primary.

I'd be more sympathetic to the complaints of these particular political leaders if they were actually representative of the African American constituency rather than the African American political machine. These are the same people who endorsed the sellout incumbent Al Wynn against progressive (and African American and female) Donna Edwards.

As someone following both the local politics and the more general political fights in the Dems/Communities of Color/Progressive world, I can say that whether the politicians endorsing Steele really represent their communities remains an open question. As in the rest of the Democratic party, there is considerable conflict and tension between traditional and incumbent segments and a new generation that feels itself ill served by the traditional leadership and institutions.

Makes for a fun election.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I may not know what these fuckheads are thinking (no, I don't have that summer home in their heads), but I know enough about the issues and the effects of their policies that they either can't or won't acknowledge (frex, welfare "reform"; yes, it got thousands off the dole rolls, but how many of them were actually able to get decent jobs that paid enough to support themselves and their families?) to know that their stated arguments for wanting the policies enacted are sheerest bullshit.

And as for immigration, I happen to be what some on the right epithetically call an "open borders" type. I believe that unless you have either a criminal record or a communicable disease, there should be no damn reason you can't come into the US and work to earn a living...especially if this is not possible or remunerative enough in your nation of origin. Yes, there should be border inspections for weapons, wild animals and other dangerous items; but the current procedures for legal immigration set an almost impossible number and complexity of hoops for would-be immigrants to jump through. That statue standing in New York Harbor and the poem at its base ain't there just to look pretty...or at least it didn't used to be.

[billroper]

I hesitate to ask, but if an "open borders" policy such as you advocate were adopted, what would you expect would be the result?

If someone came here and was unable to find a job, what would our responsibility be to them? If they had a job briefly and lost it, same question?

Would you expect that this would increase the unemployment rate, especially among unskilled and low-skilled workers? Would you expect that it would depress wages in those same groups?

If not, why not?

I'm not trying to be snide here, but what I know about economics suggests that this might not be the best course to follow. Just to pick on one example, a friend forwarded me a newspaper article about how a small town in (I believe) Georgia had cracked down on the illegal immigrant population, which greatly depleted the workforce at the local chicken processing plant. As a result, they had to raise the pay rate there to attract replacement workers.

I don't have the article handy, unfortunately, but if you really want to see it, I can probably turn it up.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

This is why I voted for Mfume in the primary, and tried to talk my fellow Dems into doing the same. A Mfume/Steele match-up would have energized African American Democratic base AND moved this race into national consciousness. We're long overdue for an African American at a state level office, and now we're paying for it. (But Steele is a pretty poor excuse for a politician.)

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Four percent of the Macaca vote is going for George Allen according to a recent poll.
I don't understand it.
Or maybe they are simply self-hating.