One of the most interesting videos out there right now is the spat Pat and Rachel had recently around affirmative action, Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and the “discrimination against white working class Americans” (per Buchanan).
The video is below, but a few things pop up as holes in Buchanan’s and Maddow’s argument.
Buchanan says this country was “built by white men.” Yes, but no. While 100% of the Founding Fathers and signatories of the Declaration of Independence were white, and while 99% of all presidents were white, and while most companies in the Army, Navy, and Air Force in all the major wars were made up of white men, his point is illogical in its assumption. He assumes that all races were given a fair or equal chance to fill any of these history- and nation-making roles. They were not, and neither were women or landless men for most of our nation’s history.
If we had the progress in breaking down barriers we have today 100 years ago, our history books would have included many more non-white and non-male faces, that is for certain. Buchanan assumes there are no barriers for minorities or women, so that anyone can achieve the same merits if they try hard enough. But the barriers are there, and trying has been tried and led to fruitless outcomes.
As for Maddow, she labels Buchanan’s view that the GOP should focus on the white working class no longer being discriminated against as “outdated.” Hardly. If the McCain/Palin ticket taught us anything is that there is a lot of white anger out there, aimed primarily at the “others,” be them minorities, the elite, or the coasts. The GOP is and will continue to ferment this sentiment, it is its bread and butter–it is just good at keeping at innocent face while pouring the gasoline.
And now, a good old fashioned, bare knuckled, political brawl.
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Tags: affirmative action · pat buchanan · race · rachel maddow · sonia sotomayorNo Comments
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