Racial Slur Rocks GOP Boat

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright March 29 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                         

        Limping out of the last presidential race with minorities running to the Democratic Party, the GOP promised to make a concerted attempt to bring more diversified voters under the tent.  When former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign crashed-and-burned Nov. 6, his insensitive words recorded at a campaign event earlier in the year came back to haunt him and the GOP.  Recorded as saying 47% of voters would never vote for the GOP because they expect the government to pay all their bills.  When the daggers came out after the election, 42-year-old Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ripped Romney for saying Obama offered “gifts” to racial minorities.  When you put those comments into context, hearing Alaska Rep. Don Young call migrant workers “wetbacks” added insult-to-injury to the GOP, already viewed as unfriendly to minorities.

             Calling Young’s remarks “offensive and beneath the dignity of the office,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) tried to get ahead of yet another GOP gaffe, this time shooting the Party in the foot when making overtures to Latinos.  “My father had a ranch.  We used to hire 50-60 wetbacks . . . to pick tomatoes . . . It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now.  It is all done by machine,” Young told an interviewer.  Young showed the same ignorance as Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) who insisted women’s bodies [“legitimate rape victims”] reject rapists’ genetic material to prevent pregnancy.  Saying there was “no excuse” for Young’s comments, Boehner tried to undo more damage to the GOP, seen by minority voters as the good-old-boy’s club.  Young’s denials about knowing that “wetback” was a racist term shows the extent to which the GOP is out of touch with racial politics.

             Young’s public remarks raised more of the GOP’s lingering public relations problems with non-white voters.  “I used the term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a far in Central California,” Young explained in a statement, admitting that he ran in bigoted circles.  While it’s true the some people used racial or ethnic slurs, it’s also true that they’ve always been politically inappropriate speech.  Reacting quickly to another black eye, Boehner tried to disaffiliate himself.  “Congressman Young’s remarks were offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds.  I don’t care why he said it—there’s no excuse,” Boehner said in a statement Friday.  Whether or the GOP continues to shoot itself in the foot, the Party has a real problem with its conservative platform.  Racist remarks hurt the GOP’s perception but public policy hurts even more.

             When the Conservative Political Action Conference picked Tea Party favorite Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) March 16, it signaled the growing political rift inside the GOP.  Paul’s politics share the same approach as former GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who seeks to slash the budget, tossing hundreds-of-thousands of federal workers into unemployment.  Paul subscribes to Constitutionally purist views hat the federal government isn’t responsible to pay for government entitlements, including Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, federal aid to education or other kinds of government largesse.  While the GOP makes a big deal about the need to appeal to more minorities, its platform attempts to pull the rug out from underneath families living on welfare, food stamps and other government subsidies called “gifts” by Romney.

             Racially insensitive remarks occur daily and aren’t only confined the Republican Party.  Plenty of Democrats and independents make similar stakes.  Ultimately, voters are more concerned about how the government spends hard-earned tax dollars.  In what’s contrasting budget priorities between the parties, Democrats seem more oriented toward social spending while the GOP seems more inclined toward spending on oil and defense industries.  Calling a group “wetbacks” is distasteful but not as bad as throwing minorities under the bus by cutting social spending.  Much of President Barack Obama’s recent skirmishes about the budget with the GOP revolve around spending priorities and cutbacks.  Obama wants to spend on health care while the GOP wants to spend more on military adventures.  When you consider the nearly $2 trillion spent on the Iraq War, it’s no wonder voters lean toward Democrats.

               Calling foreign farm laborers “wetbacks,” though offensive, isn’t the most onerous problem with the Republican Party.  Picking Rand Paul March 16, conservatives continue the same heartless tradition of favoring tax cuts to businesses over helping the little guy get a leg up.  As long as the GOP focuses on banning abortion and gay marriage, mainstream voters won’t be inclined to join the ranks until the platform focuses on everyday people struggling to make ends meet.  If House Budget Director Paul Ryan gives any hint of the GOP’s priorities, it certainly doesn’t lie with protecting the social safety net to help seniors, disabled and the poor.  Politically incorrect gaffes pale in comparison to misplaced budget priorities that favor the rich and ignore struggling taxpayers.  Boehner can slap Young’s wrist but ultimately the GOP must change its platform and priorities.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.