CommentsBELL VIEW--Republicans and their mouthpieces in the mainstream and fringe media have long sought to make the case that Republicans serve the interests of minority voters better than Democrats because they believe in the core dignity of all people -- without regard to color.
The core of the argument paints Democrats as bent on keeping people of color down so their communities remain dependent upon government programs, and, thus, vote for Democrats, who promise to deliver the very programs they have worked so hard to create minority dependence upon.
The essence of the argument revolves around Republican claims that Republicans respect minority voters, while Democrats simply exploit them. The effort to convince black and brown voters of the truth of this argument has largely fallen flat because minority voters have long seen how Republicans work to de-humanize them at every turn.
So, when Republican stooges in the media mock the concerns of Black Lives Matter, when Republican voters support policies that separate immigrant children from their parents in an effort to deter other desperate immigrants from coming to America, when Republicans respond to the election of the first African-American president by electing a petty, bigoted fool to replace him, minority voters see right through the BS and reject Republican candidates at every opportunity.
Appealing solely to the interests of bigoted, white men can only result in the continued viability of the Republican party if the good ole boys in the GOP get a decent helping hand from white women.
I have been utterly perplexed by the persistence of large segments of the white female voting population's failure to wise up to the appalling de-humanization of women by the guys running the Republican Party. What will it take for women -- white women -- to abandon this misogynistic cult once and for all the way people of color have done?
I'm beginning to think that the continued push by the Republican Party to seat Brett Kavanaugh on the highest court in the land might just be the thumb on the scale that tips the balance for a generation.
If Republicans in the Senate ignore the evidence against Judge Kavanaugh, if Republican operatives on Fox News and right-wing talk radio continue to trash Professor Ford, if people's die-hard Republican uncles and neighbors let their true colors show as they mock this victim of the type of crime every woman in America is all too familiar with, maybe -- just maybe -- white women might just begin to wander out of the GOP tent.
And maybe, after they walk out into the light of day, they'll finally realize ther never was a place for them. All we can do now is hope.
(David Bell is a writer, attorney, former president of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council and writes for CityWatch.)
-cw
