I first saw the story about President Obama's appeal to African-Americans, Latinos, and young voters when David Bernstein petulantly called it a "blatant appeal to racial demography". I'm not entirely sure what that means, nor am I sure why it's a bad thing to ask young folks or people of color to vote. But I figured it was anomalous.
Apparently not, as the conservative Washington Examiner is also calling it a "diss" to "White guys". And again, I'm not sure what the problem is supposed to be, beyond the ongoing conservative misunderstanding that anytime someone mentions a racial category, it's an example of racism in one form or another. Maybe the issue is supposedly that one couldn't issue an appeal to White voters in the same way. But aside from that not necessarily being true, it's also quite clear that politicians (of all parties) appeal to White voters all the time (even if they sometimes mask the language -- barely).
Why are they acting like it's only White guys who are getting dissed by this? My cousin (who migrated from Republican to libertarian to voting for Obama in 2008) is not young, African-American, Latino or female. But he's "dissed" by this too!
ReplyDeleteOh, because only conservative White guys are whinybabies about every time Obama opens his mouth and doesn't give them a shoutout?
Well. Yes.
More seriously, obviously every politician calls out to his base. I didn't feel dissed in 2004 when Bush and Rove gave special attention to ensuring their white evangelicals showed up at the polls. I'm not their demographic; I don't expect to get mailers or mentions of my importance. But this is some pretty high-level concern trolling by Bernstein and the Washington Examiner. "Old white men who were so misguided as to vote for Obama, look now how he disregards your support!"
ReplyDelete