To be certain, as the demographics become more diverse in the United States, relying on the white male vote for national elections is rapidly becoming a defeatist strategy.
But old habits die hard:
Especially for privileged men of a certain background and era. For no more clearer example, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was caught on mic disclosing his "presidential" focus:
“If I get to be president, white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency.”
As if the wealthy, all-white boys club members (think: top 1%) have not experienced a non-ending financial bonanza under both Bush and Obama presidencies: Lindsey, the Koch brothers and company want to portray this class as victims needing more government welfare, representation and attention. Yeah, right.
As per usual, the GOP apologist (including Graham) have all rushed out to defend these remarks as just jokes taken out of context:
"Damn can't y'all humorless and politically correct cads take a joke."
Problem is, Senator Graham's "joke" and the GOP national platform seem to mirror each other. He "jokes" about his wealthy "white male-only club" meanwhile, the Republicans -- the party that ignores the poor, working class, middle-class and non-white constituents -- have steadily morphed into the party of the 1%.
Not that Graham will ever occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Ave (nor even come close), however, the sad part is, the folks that "get his joke" are the exclusive ones laughing all the way to the bank.
Finally, as Washington Post's Nia Malika Henderson stated:
"... if you are a Southern white male senator, it's probably not the best idea to tell a joke that touches on race, gender and privilege when your party is struggling so much with people who aren't white males -- particularly in the South." source
No comments:
Post a Comment