TANCREDO: If you belong to an organization called La Raza, in this case, which is, from my point of view anyway, nothing more than a Latino -- it's a counterpart -- a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses. If you belong to something like that in a way that's going to convince me and a lot of other people that it's got nothing to do with race. Even though the logo of La Raza is "All for the race. Nothing for the rest." What does that tell you?
Of all the stupid, hateful, racially incendiary things one might be able to say about Sonia Sotomayor, it would that Rep. DUMB@$$ Tom Tancredo has far exceeded expectations. No, I can't say that I was expecting that we should have counting on being treated to a reasoned and/or rational debate about Ms. Sotomayor's qualifications to be seated in a lifetime sinecure on the Supreme Court. Still, wouldn't it be nice to be able to have a discussion free from overt, rampant racism? Wouldn't it be refreshing to not have to listen to well-fed White racists letting their inner bigots out for a romp? Wouldn't it have been nice if Tom Tancredo had been struck dumb?
The starting point for the far-Right zealots seems to be that power should ipso facto and naturally devolve to White Folks. After all, White makes Right, no? Who built this country? White Folks. Who fought the wars that preserved our freedom? White Folks. Who created a social system in which a Black man could be lynched merely for looking at White women? White Folks. Hey, wait a minute....
Racism may no longer be fashionable, but that doesn't mean it's no longer in vogue. Nor does it mean that there's a shortage of Right-wing ideologues willing to engage in racism because they fear for their own positions of power and privilege. Tom Tancredo is hardly alone in his ignorance; he's merely the most brain-dead and least ashamed of looking like a complete jackass.
It would be nice to think that at some point we could rely on being able to have a dispassionate discussion about a person's qualifications to serve with resorting to racial stereotyping and fear-mongering. Tancredo's lunacy really only serves as clear indication that he has no real argument against her. He just wants someone who looks, thinks, and acts like he does. I can understand wanting to feel comfortable, and that it may be hard to do so who isn't White. The question, though, is whether Sotomayor's ethnicity and Tancredo's discomfort with it makes her unfit and unqualified to serve on the Supreme Court.
If you have to consider that question for more than a nanosecond, you're in the wrong place. Little Green Footballs would welcome you with open arms (and no, I'm not about to link to them).
There's still a part of me that (rather naively, it would seem) thinks that people don't necessarily want to present themselves as ignorant, fear-mongering racists. Then along comes a knuckle-dragging troglodyte like Tom Tancredo...and I realize that no matter how much I might try to see the good in some folks...well, there just might not be any.
Welcome to the 21st century, where all men (and women) are considered equal- regardless of the race, creed, religion, favorite color, or sexual preference. Or not....
WE DESERVE BETTER.
