Sotomayor As “Racist” Emerging As GOP Talking Point?
First, talk show host Rush Limbaugh responds to the news that President Barack Obama picked Sonia Sotomayor as his Supreme Court nominee by calling her a reverse racist for some comments she made — ASAP…without waiting for even a few hours to pass after the announcement. It’s instant negativity and name calling.
Then former Speaker Newt Gingrich follows suit.
In fact, according to CNN, Gingrich is even demanding she withdraw her nomination:
Rush Limbaugh isn’t the only one calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist. Newt Gingrich is, too — and he’s demanding that Obama’s pick to the Supreme Court withdraw her nomination.
On Twitter, Gingrich pointed to a line in Sotomayor’s 2001 speech to a Hispanic group in Berkeley that has drawn fire from some conservatives.
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” Sotomayor said in that speech, describing how life experience can inform judicial opinions.
On Wednesday, Gingrich tweeted: “Imagine a judicial nominee said ‘my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman.’ new racism is no better than old racism.”
But Gingrich and Rush aren’t alone:
Last night on MSNBC, former Republican House member Tom Tancredo declared that Judge Sonia Sotomayor “appears to be a racist” and indicated she would only be confirmed because she’s a Hispanic woman:
Now the White House has responded to Gingrich. Details here.
You have to watch this unfold and wonder: is James Carville or Paul Begala setting GOP strategy on this?
One statement acccusing her of racism is “Oh, well…”
Two is: “Hmmm. Is this a coincidence?
Three means it will be perceived, rightfully or wrongfully, as emerging as a talking point — that will become identified with the party, whether some party bigwigs want it to be one or not.
In instance after instance since Obama’s 2008 election and the Democratic sweep of Congress, the GOP is proving itself to be not so much “stuck on stupid” as much as “stuck on preaching to its (already convinced) choir.” It seems oblivious to the fact that OTHER voters — from critically important ethnic and age demographics — need to be courted which means being at least partially on the same cultural wavelength. Today’s Republican party is seemingly Super-glued to the slash-and-burn, characterize and demonize conservative talk radio political culture.
It’s hard to imagine that a party that has problems with independent voters and Latino voters so going out of its way to repel voters it needs, unless there is a Democratic mole inside the GOP instigating these comments.
Calling her a racist will get lots of publicity but it’s going to drive many Hispanic voters away in droves. And so will the faces delivering this message: the well-fed, sizeable face of multi-millionaire private- jet-owner Limbaugh, sitting in front of his mike, and the very familiar face of Gingrich. Many Americans (who are not millionaires or who aren’t conservative Republicans) will look at and compare the two GOPers’ life narratives with that of Sotomayor.
Even worse: many independent voters, Democrats who may not be enamored with Obama, and moderate Republicans have already distanced themselves from the GOP. This latest barrage at Sotomayor now clearly is part of a pattern: no matter what the issue, the GOP is responding now with demonization in attempts to stir up hot button resentments and/or political rage.
And even worse for the GOP: its unlikely to resonate among the younger voters the GOP will need to regain footing in the 21st century.
So, except for getting nods of approval and cries of “That’s the way, go get ‘em!” from Republicans, what gains will Republicans (via talk shows, Gingrich and weblogs) make in accusing Sotomayor of being a racist — except, rightfully or wrongfully, causing some on the fence to conclude that those Republicans raising the racism issue could perhaps be mistakenly talking about what they are seeing when they look in the mirror?
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27 Responses to “Sotomayor As “Racist” Emerging As GOP Talking Point?”
[...] First, talk show host Rush Limbaugh responds to the news that President Barack Obama picked Sonia Sotomayor as his Supreme Court nominee by calling her a reverse racist for some comments she made — ASAP…without waiting for even a few hours to … Read Full Post: Sotomayor As “Racist” Emerging As GOP Talking Point? – The Moderate Voice [...]
[...] First, talk show host Rush Limbaugh responds to the news that President Barack Obama picked Sonia Sotomayor as his Supreme Court nominee by calling her a reverse racist for some comments she made — ASAP…without waiting for even a few hours to … Read Full Post: Sotomayor As “Racist” Emerging As GOP Talking Point? – The Moderate Voice [...]
Remember, The Ricci decision could be announced before the vote on Sotomayor. How will the Democrats feel about voting for a judge that ruled that discirmination was legal when the U.S. Supreme Court could be deciding that no, New Haven, Conn really was discriminating against whites and that separate and unequal is still not constitutional.
Conservative writer Rod Dreher was honest enough to admit that he was wrong about Sotomayor's speech, even though he originally complained about it yesterday.
Quoting Dreher:
I wonder how many Republican talking heads (Rush, Newt, various other voices or bloggers) have actually read any of these opinions/decisions/speeches in their entirety… I'd be willing to bet that on many instances, people merely adopt a position simply because they support or oppose the letter in front of the politician making the recommendation/nomination.
I do think the talking heads on the right are overblowing things, that the remark is explainable.
However I do also think it is true that if this were a white male conservative who made the same kind of comment in the same context, that he would already have been forced out with no chance to explain.
In both cases its wrong to not take things in context.
It is silly to go down this path. Even if the quote was not taken out of context, one statement does not a racist make. I have always objected to the efforts of many to try and use single events as proof of hidden bias or character flaw.
Of course, taken in context, the comment, as others have said, is not racist at all.
Patrick – of course that is what would happen. But let's try and not muddy the waters.
Former House Speaker And Admitted Adulterer Newton “Newt” Leroy Gingrich Obama SCOTUS Pick Sonia Sotomayor A “Racist”…
Question — Why Does Anybody Care About Anything “Leroy” Has To Say Anyway?
Newt Leroy Gingrich has been quite the mainstream media (”MSM”) darling over the last few months, hasn’t he? The man who holds the record fo…
Ms. Sotomayor is a racist. She believes that Hispanic women make better decisions than white men. That is racist. She refused to consider a challenge to a racist decision in New Haven that deprived deserving white firefighters a promotion. That was racist. She is not qualified to serve on our nation's highest court and must withdraw her nomination.
Anyone interested in the firefighter case might start with this report from Slate. Here's a quote:
There's plenty of coverage of this topic out there, including at The Volokh Conspiracy and SCOTUSblog.
Talk about racism when white conservatives have Brooks Brothers Riots( Zoot Suit Riots ) or the children of Pat Buchanan or Newt Gringrich are forced into separtae but unequal schools. Of course Viginia law forbid the marriage of a conservative and liberal couple(different sex) until Loving v. Virginia.
Joe seems to believe that Republicans taking on Sotomayor for reverse discrimination is a looser politically.
Newt, Rush and various others see an opportunity to use Obama’s pick as a poster girl for bypassing working class whites for minorities in hiring and promotions.
During the upcoming midterm elections, with unemployment reaching record levels and employment security at record low levels, the perception of Democrats tossing regular working people out into the street in order to give jobs to illegal aliens would be a powerful one.
The Hispanic vote is important, but not anywhere near as important as the suburbs.
Rudi,
Not only did Obama send his kids to private school, he eliminated vouchers so that his kids wouldn’t have to associate with few poor children that were fortunate enough to have been there.
I wonder if they clear the streets of any poor kids before driving the First Children to school? You certainly wouldn’t want to offend their senses by the sight of some D.C. waif walking the gauntlet of crack whores and dealers every day.
Someone really needs to step up and take control of the Rep party. If Newt, Rush, and Cheney remain the faces of the party and their words the platform of the party, the Reps are going to be in serious trouble for considerably longer than need be. Is there anyone out there that can reel these guys in??
Jwest–
Sotomayor is not an illegal alien.
George,
Ah…….OK. That’s good to know.
Please let in on any other news you come upon.
Jwest–
I don't see the world the way you do, so sorry if I messed up on one of your details. But aren't you up there in the comments to this very thread talking about her like she's an illegal alien?
To quote you: “the perception of Democrats tossing regular working people out into the street in order to give jobs to illegal aliens would be a powerful one.”
Or is it just the fact that she's Hispanic that's supposed to scare all those working class white people? (And if so, do you think that will work on all the working class white people who voted for the black guy to be president?)
George,
Apparently I wasn’t too clear with my comment.
What I was alluding to was using Sotomayer’s position in the Ricci case (where she sided against the white and Hispanic firefighters) as part of a campaign that exploits reverse racism while regular working class people are afraid of loosing their jobs.
Democrats are touting how Republicans will loose Latino votes if they oppose Sotomayer, but intelligent strategists know that McCain’s pro illegal immigration policy resulted in the lowest Hispanic vote total ever.
Choosing between a slightly higher Hispanic vote or regaining masses of lower-middle class working whites, the answer is clear.
Jwest–
A bit farther up this thread I quoted something from Slate about the firefighters case:
I'm sure you're right that this will be a source of controversy.
Nobody says it better than my girl Ann.
http://www.anncoulter.com/
shannonlee, you are buying into Joe Gandelman's unsupported hypothesis too much. This aggregated poll trend refutes what Gandelman has been preaching over the same time period.
http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/party-id.php
Since Obama's inauguration, Republican identification has increased and is outpacing Democrat.
Even Joe's usually reliable propaganda source, Gallup, has R and D most recently in a dead heat.
GS – How much of a controversy New Haven will turn out to be will rest on SCOTUS' pending decision.
The idea that actual racists like Gingrich and Limbaugh are calling Sotomayor “racist” is pretty dang hilarious.
A lot of folks are talking about her quote and saying that she didn't mean it like it came out, etc — I think she meant it; I think she should mean it; I think the statement is pretty right on.
It angers me to no end that it is just assumed that, effectively, a white man has no race and has no gender, and does not come to the bench/job/whatever with any preconceived notions about gender and race. This is obviously untrue. A white man comes into his experiences — in whatever context — as a person with white skin, and as a person of the male gender. Their decisions as judges, their decisions and actions as workers, managers, social beings, is all affected by their experiences as white people, and their experiences as male people. Since the birth of this country, being a white male means having the privilege associated with whiteness and maleness, as well as an inherent interest in keeping themselves as the privileged class. Somehow this obvious fact has not kept any of them from serving as judges for time immesurable. If Sotomayor also has an inherent interest in making sure there's a path for people of color or women to enter that realm of the priviledged according to their abilities, quite frankly, I don't have any problem with that.
If Sotomayor's experiences, many of which would be literally impossible for a white male to have, color her judicial philosophy, allow her to look at a situation or a law from a different perspective than a while man might, how is that any different than what white male judges have been doing for the last 200 years? Why should the judgment of the white male be the standard to which all others must be measured?
Roro80,
As a typical liberal, you see people by their skin color, ethnic group or some other “victim” status.
Conservatives see only a person who either has character or lacks it.
One day, people like you will look beyond your prejudices and stereotypes to see the actual person behind the façade of the category you put them in. The world will be a better place once you change your racist views.
jwest –
As a typical conservative, you say you don't see color, but do, and think that people of all races need to be exactly like white people to have “character”. (Did you steal your first sentence from Stephen Colbert…?) I said nothing whatsoever about being a victim. I certainly don't think Sotomayor thinks of herself as a victim. Implying that somehow I'm racist because I acknowledge that people of different races have different experiences than white people — and that those experiences should be just as shapers of judicial philosophy as the white male experiences — is ridiculous. And saying that the world would be a better place without people who think that white and male shouldn't be the only acceptable status is, well, racist. But we both know that — cute talking point, though.
I wonder if they clear the streets of any poor kids before driving the First Children to school? You certainly wouldn’t want to offend their senses by the sight of some D.C. waif walking the gauntlet of crack whores and dealers every day.
JW – Your KKK hood is showing on this one. Guess which drugs are most prevalent and killing white kids – hillbilly heroin or oxycodone and hydrocodone. Drug overdoses are from prescription drugs, not the 'ghetto drugs, like heroin or crack. In the Pasco county area in Florida, of duty sheriffs are guarding pharmacies because 'white hillbillies' are robbing elderly customers and the drug counter for Oxycontin.
http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/govpubs/prevalert/v6/4….
Todays 'crack whores' are your neighbors lilly white daughter or son strung out on prescription opiates. They steal freom your house or car to by prescription drugs on the black market…