Thursday, September 03, 2009

On Race and Republicans and YouTube: Jenkins and Steele

Over at Cleveland.com I found this little gem:
TOPEKA, Kan. — A freshman Republican congresswoman apologized today for telling a gathering in her district that the GOP was still searching for a "great white hope" to stop President Barack Obama's political agenda.

Rep. Lynn Jenkins used the phrase during an Aug. 19 forum as she discussed the Republican Party's future and tried to reassure members that the GOP has promising young leaders.
Oh, shit man. Olbermann can toss some commentary on this mess better than I:



And if you don't yet believe this freshman representative is an ignorant automaton towing the party line, check out this bit where she berates a single mother and her child because she (like so many other Republicans) cannot engage in dialogue when faced with how the reality of their rhetoric is harming real people and retreats into a "You're not making sense" posture.



And this brings us to Michael Steele, who also berated an audience member concerning health care. This young man talked of his mother who died of cancer because she couldn't afford her chemo meds. Steele flapped his arms and said that makes great teevee. Watch it:



And that cycles back around to race. Also reported in the above article:
On the Huffington Post, Dave Zirin also notes that Steele’s “effort to connect with young black students got off to a rather cringe-worthy start when right before the billed ’student dialogue’ two dozen white members of area young Republicans arrived to sit in the reserved first two rows of the packed room.”

Between ignoring the issue of the uninsured - even when they're standing right in front of them - and failing miserably, as they always have, at connecting with minorities - even with a minority leading your party - is there any reason to believe Republicans will be much of a threat in 2010? There are many things I'm not thrilled about with the Democratic Party right now, but I still wouldn't trust the Republicans with a potato gun, let alone Congress.

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