Jewish World Review May 3, 1999 /17 Iyar 5759
Don Feder
Gore race-baits with impunity
(JWR) ---- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com)
IT WAS A VINTAGE AL GORE PERFORMANCE. Speaking at the annual dinner of the
Detroit chapter of the NAACP last week, the vice president drew fangs and
horns on opponents of racial preferences.
"I hear the critics of affirmative action. They talk about a colorblind
society. Give me a break!" Gore growled. "They use their 'colorblind' the
way duck hunters use their duck blind. They hide behind it and hope the
ducks won't figure out what they're up to." It's hard to miss the imagery --
quota opponents are gunning for minorities.
Gore's legendary hyperbole was also conspicuous. The man who invented the
Internet disclosed that his father, the late Albert Gore Sr., lost his
Senate seat due to his support for civil rights legislation.
In reality, Gore Sr., who voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, had a
mixed record on race. But the vice president is constantly reinventing
himself and his family. Soon, Gore will claim he signed the Emancipation
Proclamation.
Race baiting isn't a tactic Gore suddenly seized on in preparation for the
2000 campaign but a strategy he and his party have been perfecting for
years.
In December 1997, after mounting criticism that his race-relations panel is
an echo chamber, Bill Clinton met with critics of same, including Ward
Connerly, the California regent who led that state's anti-quota initiative,
and Linda Chavez, staff director of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission under
Ronald Reagan.
In his book "Gore: A Political Life," Bob Zelnick notes that at the
meeting, "Gore's reputation for stiff-necked condescension was very much in
evidence." The princeling who was raised in a D.C. hotel suite lectured
black and Hispanic proponents of merit on the reality of racism in America.
"I think it is naive in the extreme to assert that there is no persistent
vulnerability to prejudice," the veep pontificated.
But no one claims racial prejudice is extinct. When a man can be dragged to
death because he's black, and Louis Farrakhan can draw nearly a million men
to a hate fest in the shadow of the Washington Monument, it's clear that
we've yet to banish bigotry.
Still, as Linda Chavez explained to Clinton and Junior, "So long as you've
got government picking winners and losers on the basis of the color of their
skin ... you can't get beyond racism."
If the vice president was bad at the White House meeting, he was wicked a
month later at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church. Speaking from the pulpit
once held by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Gore rhetorically wondered
where quota opponents "stood" on atrocities like the murder in Jasper,
Texas.
Sane people have no position on lynchings, other than
to abhor them. It is evil to imply that opposition to the injustice of
apportioning opportunities on the basis of race calls into question one's
basic humanity.
At the Rose Garden press conference following Clinton's impeachment, Gore
hailed his boss as "one of our greatest presidents." In light of Juanita
Broaddrick's charge that Clinton raped her in 1978, I wonder where the vice
president stands on sexual assault.
When it comes to playing the race card, some in his party put Gore to
shame. In last year's Missouri Senate race, Democrats ran commercials on
black radio stations warning: "When you don't vote, you let another church
explode. When you don't vote, you allow another cross to burn. ... Vote
smart. Vote Democratic." Before slavery returns?
Democrats engage in such slander because they know they can get away with
it. Quotas is an issue Republicans could win but dare not touch.
Clearly, the public understands what Gore does not. In 1996, Californians
voted to abolish racial preferences in state employment and higher
education. Last year, voters in Washington state approved a similar
initiative by a vote of 58 percent.
So, why don't Republicans run with the issue? Their timidity is based on
bitter experience. Those who tackle preferences can count on being maligned
by the media.
If a GOP candidate attacks quotas, the headlines will read "Republican
Against Affirmative Action." For most readers, affirmative action means
voluntary outreach. The spin will be that here is another callous Republican
who's unconcerned about the plight of the less fortunate.
Democrats like Gore are thus free to pander and stereotype to their hearts'
content, knowing their opponents have been cowed to silence.
Clinton says he wants to "get people together across all the racial ...
lines that divide America." He could start by muzzling his
understudy.
4/29/99: Why Kosovo? Oh, just because
4/27/99: The president's pro-parent claptrap
4/22/99: McCain plays to the media
4/19/99: NATO would have favored the confederacy
4/14/99: Before we march into Kosovo
4/12/99: Taiwan more worthy of U.S. support
4/09/99: Bauer and Forbes --- Main Street vs. Wall Street
4/05/99: Bubba and Maddy lit Kosovo's fire
3/29/99: At Passover, Egypt is a state of mind
3/29/99: Could the GOP stand Pat in 2000?
3/17/99: Hollywood's party line in 1999
3/15/99: All bow, the court is in session
3/11/99: In praise of negative campaigning
3/09/99: Day-care study defies common sense
3/04/99: Starship Clinton orbits Kosovo
3/01/99: Public will blot out Broaddrick's accusation
2/25/99: Slick Hillie for Senate would be fun
2/23/99: Fascism in the name of fighting fascism
2/16/99: Was anything learned from the impeachment trial?
2/12/99: Educating the democratic voters of tomorrow
2/10/99: First Amendment doesn't apply to pro-life cause
2/08/99: Dems' triumph over Constitution complete
2/03/99: Blood of victims will drown out breakfast prayers
2/01/99: Without a home the heart knows no rest
1/29/99: Poster boy for term-limits
1/27/99: The 'so-what' defense in the City of Saints
1/25/99: Whose choice?
1/21/99: Censure worse than nothing
1/18/99: Words can`t dignify a dishonored presidency
1/13/99: Conservatism "with a heart" is conservatism without a head
1/11/99: If he isn't removed, watch out for Bill!
1/07/99: We can learn a lot from Teddy
1/05/99: Monica and a call to modesty
12/30/98: Will Bubba get away with it again?
12/28/98: Zionist dream alive and well on West Bank
12/18/98: Impeach or abandon the Rule of Law
12/16/98: Clinton moves Middle East closer to war
12/14/98: Why we lost interest in the homeless
12/10/98: No place at table for conservatives
12/07/98: The day America lost its innocence
12/02/98: Pilgrims Pilloried in streets of Plymouth
11/30/98: Caribbean dogpatch not a good candidate for statehood
11/25/98: Will Vermont force gay marriage on the nation?
11/23/98: The ACLU wants your kids to get a love life
11/18/98: Why liberals hate tobacco and guns more than drugs and crime
11/16/98: "Pleasantville" a countercultural morality play
11/13/98: Ads are a tough sell for abortion
11/09/98: Why gutless Republicans lost
11/06/98: Historians against the Constitution
11/02/98: Loving response to a hateful conference
10/28/98: Professor Death will fit right in at Princeton
10/26/98: Plymouth caves to Pilgrim foes
10/21/98: On '98 election, keep a critical eye on polls
10/19/98: Clinton could yet be 'prosperity president'
10/16/98: Working families -- Dems love 'em (stuffed)
10/09/98: Majoring in 'weirdness'
10/07/98: Friends of Billy Clinton
9/29/98: Letter from ex-soldier highlights defense peril
9/28/98: Answering arguments against impeachment
9/18/98: The nation that doesn't exist
9/14/98: Bubba isn't the only one who should be ashamed
9/11/98: Resolution of Clinton crisis will define national character
9/09/98: We're still just wild about Harry
9/07/98: Mexican banditry didn't end with Pancho Villa
9/02/98: Clinton forgives us!
8/31/98: Ashcroft's plain talking touches responsive chord
8/26/98: Public opinion be damned
8/24/98: Why liberals condone Clinton's lies
8/20/98: Time to move on -- to impeachment
8/12/98: With Bubba in the sexual privacy zone
8/10/98: The truth won't set Clinton free
8/06/98: Truth about Hiroshima is incontrovertible
8/04/98: Clinton not the first hollow president
7/30/98: "Small Soldiers" -- a fractured Vietnam allegory
7/27/98: Crime wave hits hometown
7/22/98: Love in an Internet fishbowl
7/20/98: Ads bring ex-gay movement out of closet
7/15/98: Brian and Amy -- the children of Roe
7/13/98: Why are we scared of obnoxious 'activists?'
7/6/98: Fonda still resists reality
7/1/98: New York blesses domestic partnerships
6/29/98: Teddy and Calvin stood for virtue
6/24/98: Will Clinton betray Taiwan?
6/22/98: Big tobacco? What about big casinos?
6/15/98: Religion -- God for what ails you
6/10/98: Planning Clinton's China itinery
6/8/98: Republicans' Custer offers advice
6/4/98: Oh, Dems Christian-bashers!
6/2/98: Goldwater did conservatives more harm than good
5/27/98: A Clinton-hater confesses
5/15/98: Giuliani's assault on marriage
5/13/98: Hillary knows what's best for everyone
5/11/98: To honor her would not be honorable
5/6/98: Conservative chasm: pragmatism vs. worship of marketplace
5/4/98: Anglo-saxon me
4/29/98:
Needle exchange programs are assisted-suicide
4/27/98: Chretien's mission of mercy to Fidel
4/22/98: School-choice is a religious freedom issue
4/20/98: Corporate execs deliver body parts to Beijing
4/14/98: National sales tax --- looks better all the time
4/13/98: The U.N. sinister? Hey, where did that idea come from?
4/8/98: Unions fight workers rights in 226 campaign
3/30/98: Africa's leaders should apologize
3/25/98: GOP shouldn't look to media for advice
3/22/98: You should care about Clinton's 'private life'
3/19/98: Color-coded reading, product of obsessive minds
3/16/98: Amendment will end exile of G-d from our public lives
3/9/98: Havana will break your heart
3/2/98: Vouchers Terrify Teachers' Union
2/25/98: Presidential politics starts at a resort hotel
2/23/98: Hillary's support comes at a price
2/18/98: How many times must we say "no" to gay rights?
2/16/98: Enoch Powell spoke the truth on immigration
2/11/98: Bubba behaving badly
2/9/98: A conservative dissent on the flag-burning amendment
2/5/98: We get the leaders we deserve
2/2/98: Send a signal that could penetrate boardroom doors
1/27/98: State of the president: hollow rhetoric
1/25/98: For Monica's playmate, we have no one to blame but ourselves
1/22/98: At Yale, bet on yarmulke over gown
1/19/98: Commission tackles America's fastest-growing addiction, gambling
1/15/98: Capital punishment and the hard case: no exceptions for Karla Faye Tucker
1/12/98: Partial-birth abortion and the GOP's future: the "big tent" meets truth in advertising
1/8/98: IOLTA: the Left's latest scam to crawl into our pockets
1/5/98: Connect the dots to create a terrorist state
1/1/98: The Unacceptables of 1997: Long may they rave
12/28/97: Hypocrisy is a liberal survival mechanism
12/23/97: Chanukah is no laughing matter
12/22/97: No merry Christmas for persecuted Christians around the world
12/18/97: Bosnia, Haiti, and how not to conduct a foreign policy
©1999, Creators Syndicate
|