Sotomayor, Obama, and the Looming Republican Race Problem

The nation's first African American president celebrated the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice at a reception yesterday in the East Room of the White House.

Is it a long-term problem for Republicans that they are largely diametrically opposed to the first black president and first brown Supreme Court justice? You bet.

What struck me while watching yesterday's White House reception for President Barack Obama's first apppointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is how far out of sync with the future of America that the Republican Party is positioning itself. Lily white is hardly the color of America's future, but that is how the Republican Party has chosen to play it (notwithstanding the hapless Michael Steele at the Republican National Committee).

First, the party brushed aside the post-partisan offerings of Obama, keeping to the same hyper-partisan hostilities of the 2008 election. Then it turned on Sotomayor, who was actually appointed a federal judge by none other than the first President Bush, branding her a "racist," pounding away for months on the theme that she's a dangerous radical.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor clarified but refused to renounce her statement that "a wise Latina" can reach a better decision.

Mainstream Republicanism is essentially dominated by its Talk Radio Wing, a melange of radio reactionaries, cable chatterers, and blogospheric blowhards providing an echo chamber for the Republican base. Even John McCain, who actually defeated the Talk Radio Wing of the party in winning the Republican presidential nomination last year, adopted much of its demonizing approach in the general election against Obama.

Nine Republican senators voted to confirm Sotomayor, out of 40. But that total included four of the six retiring senators, who no longer have to worry about kow-towing to the Talk Radio Wing.

Of the 34 continuing Republican senators, only five voted to confirm the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Only one Republican senator from a state with a large Hispanic population, Florida's Mel Martinez, voted to confirm Sotomayor. And he's resigning from the Senate.

So we see that two-thirds of the Republican senators who no longer have to kow-tow to the Talk Radio Wing voted to confirm her. But only one-seventh of those who do have to live in Limbaugh Land approved the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.

Right-wing radio host and convicted Watergate conspirator G. Gordon LIddy claims that President Barack Obama was really born in Kenya.

As striking, and politically stupid for the Republican Party in the long run, as that is, the refusal of mainstream Republicans to denounce the "birther" nonsense is even more so.

Why do Republicans nurture the birther nonsense about Obama? Because most of their voters, dependent on the Talk Radio Wing for their "news," may believe it.

The "Manchurian Candidate" fantasy, which I wrote about at length last year, is alive and well in Republican ranks.

A Research 2000 poll last month for the Daily Kos showed the breadth of the belief in the cockeyed notion that Barack Obama was not born in America. It's concentrated in the Republican Party, amongst conservatives and older voters, and in the South.

Perhaps racism isn't dead after all, and irrationality is loose in the Republican mainstream.

58% of Republicans believe that Obama isn't really an American or say they're not sure if he really is. 28% of Republicans say that the president is not an American, while 30% say they aren't sure if he is. Only 42% of Republicans say they believe that the president of the United States is an American.

With respect to all Americans, 77% believe that Obama is an American, 11% say he is not, and 12% aren't sure.

The breakdowns of Democrats and independents more than makes up for the crackpot Republican view. 93% of Democats and 83% of independents believe that Obama was born in the US, with only 4% and 8% believing he was not.

The regional breakdown is fascinating. 93% in the Northeast, 90% in the Midwest (which Obama represented in the Senate), and 87% in the West believe that Obama is really an American. But only 47% in the South say they believe what has repeatedly been shown to be the case.

First Lady Michelle Obama, who takes a real pounding from the Republicans' Talk Radio Wing, called Sotomayor "more than ready" to serve on the Supreme Court.

The "birther" nonsense movement is an iteration of what I wrote about here on the Huffington Post last year, calling it "the Manchurian candidate fantasy," the notion that Obama is really a secret agent of a foreign power.

As that poor, benighted white woman sputtered to John McCain at an October town hall: "He's ... an Arab!"

If Obama were not black, with a "foreign"-sounding name, this dangerously irrational notion would not be so pernicious and insistent.

Ironically, the McCain campaign checked out the claim that Obama wasn't born in Hawaii and found it to be ridiculous. Of course they would check it out. What easier way to win the White House than to show that Obama is disqualified from the office?

"Raymond, why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?" Many indulge themselves in the fantasy that Obama is really a foreign agent a la The Manchurian Candidate.

And if the Talk Radio Wing weren't constantly spreading vicious disinformation, inciting a state of near hysteria and keeping those contributions rolling in.

Just last week came more confirmation that the "birther" nonsense is mainstream thinking for Republicans today, especially in the South. A new Public Policy Polling survey shows that only 54% of North Carolina voters say with certainty that they believe President Barack Obama was born in the United States, with 26% saying they think he was not, and 20% unsure. Amongst Republicans, 47% think Obama was not born in America, with 29% unsure, and just 24% stating that they think he was.

Obama won North Carolina last November.

That was an incredible breakthrough for a black man. But the old ways die hard, and the Confederacy still lives on in many hearts. Better for some, a great many as it turns out, to tell themselves -- or, more accurately, be told -- that it's all the result of a fantastic plot, a massive anti-American trick, and that a Manchurian candidate is in the White House.

You can check things during the day on my site, New West Notes ... www.newwestnotes.com.

Comments

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Again, strange deletions, days after the fact, not approved here.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

I've noticed on my monitor that quite a few comments suddenly disappeared this weekend.

Apologies to anyone who falls in that inexplicable category.

[JusticeGKR]

“The wise crack” applies to other ethnic groups and circumstances also. When Tim Russert, of Meet the Press, met his untimely demise last year, his biography was recited at great length on the air. Everyone knew that he was very proud of his hometown and their football team—the Buffalo Bills; as well as his ethnicity--Irish Catholic, and his working-class family history. Big Russ and Me, a book about his sanitation worker father was a best-seller. Before coming to television, Russert had worked for Senator Pat Moynihan as his chief of staff. Reportedly, he took the job with some reservation because Moynihan had been a distinguished Harvard sociologist of great notoriety, and his staff was replete with Ivy-leaguers. Russert’s law degree was from Cleveland-Marshall, and his undergrad from the Jesuit school, John Carroll University, so Russert was initially somewhat intimidated by his boss and colleagues. But Moynihan assured him by saying: “What they know, you can learn. What you know, they can’t learn.”

[oet]

being 51 and of italian/french decent i find these racial remarks very unsettleling. in a country where anyone has a chance to make it...... it only takes a few works from the limbaugh,b­eck,hannit­y,bachmann­,coulter, crowd to stir the hatred that this counrty is still trying to get away from. these mindless right wing extremmists need to be called to task by the FCC, oposition the president is not a bad thing.... but if your goin to do it .... get your facts straight. the FCC should come down on these types for telling lies and for their video croping(hannity and beck are great at this). after imus made his remarks he was fined and off the air.. come on FCC grow a pair and do something.

[medici]

On a different, but I think related, topic - at the town hall meetings, a lot of the Republican protesters are yelling "I want my country back". What in the country has changed? Could it be that the President is non-white?

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

We saw the same sentiments at Sarah Palin rallies during the campaign.

[IWillCallYouOut]

I only want to respond to the comment "Perhaps racism is not dead after all" and state for the record that NO BLACK PERSON ANYWHERE HAS EVER THOUGHT THIS EVER EVER EVER WHY ARE WHITE PEOPLE SURPRISED BY THIS PLEASE PAY CLOSER ATTENTION TO THINGS THAT MAY NOT INITIALLY SEEM TO PERTAIN TO YOU.

I'm 23 years old. I work and went to school in predominately white circles (I'm black). I have white best friends and family members. Racist stuff still happens to me at least once a week I would say. And the institutional racism seen easily by taking a look at who is imprisoned and impoverished is not changing quickly at all. I am a privileged person with a great education - so mainly things that happen to me are people saying rude stuff or assuming I am going to steal from L'Occitane en Provence, small potatoes compared to many of different socioeconomic backgrounds, But certainly yes, the world is changing for the better.

[Winning09]

Shout much?

[medici]

But it's just not changing fast enough, IWillCallYouOut. Thanks for your comment.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

If you read the piece, and if you look at the Manchurian candidate piece I wrote in the height of the campaign, you know that I'm not surprised.

[BLBass]

I hope more comes out of this line of thought. I can't think of a serious Republican, nor even a serious movement conservative, who privately wouldn't at least recognize the long-term demographic danger these stands pose to their party. The question I come back to is, what are the effects in the short term, and among those without a demographic predisposition (young, black, Hispanic, etc) to notice and recoil at this treatment of Obama/Soto­mayor/whom­ever comes next? I'm not at all convinced that this is even a good tactic for them in the short term.

A fun image just popped into my head while I was writing: the younger, less-white, "next" America as a plow turning over the depleted soil of the Republican party, with figures like Obama and Sotomayor at the sharpest edge of the blade. There's some potential for regrowth and renewal there, and I think it's looking ahead to that which keeps the right's commentators outwardly positive about prospects for the political maneuver they're attempting. But I can't envision the "after" Republican party as one which would welcome much if any of the thought being pumped into its current constituents. I can foresee them being a far more constructive presence in our public debate than the "before" picture would lead us to believe possible. This is not about "throwing granny from the train", rather about a broader and more-inclusive generation becoming the next grannies and influencing their peers.

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

Any of the 31 Republicans who voted against Justice Sotomayor and wondering about Latino reaction.
Watch George Lopez's HBO comedy special TALL, DARK, AND CHICANO.
He rips you to shreads, and names you, and the states where Latino/a voters are huge voting blocks, TX, NV, AZ.
The gist is...".F*CK YOU, and you'll never get ONE Latino/a vote.....ever again."

[dct1999]

They are incapable of understanding this. Bewteen the hate-filled anti-immigration comments, and the racist attacks on Justice Sotomayor the republicans have managed to ruin their chances with the fastest growing demographic in the country.

They think that crying about being called racits is some sort of effective strategy. They see themselves as victims. They can't seem to grasp that their wounds are totally self-induced.

[Steve28273]

There might have been a few who would have voted for General Powell or Secretary Rice, neither would have been acceptable to the base. Back in 1996 Powell was considering running for the presidency against Bill Clinton. Pat Buchanan said Powell was Bill Clinton with medals. Shortly after that Powell decided not to run. I cannot say that a gutless, blowhard chickenhawk like Buchanan convinced Powell that it was not worth it to run. I do know that the GOP missed a golden opportunity. The republicans always like to talk about opening the tent and reaching out to minorities, but then they revert back to their old standy of race baiting.
Senator McCain is a prime example of talking about bringing in more minorities then doing the exact opposite. On CNN he was talking about the need for Latinos in the republican party. Then he turns around and votes against the confirmation of Latin American for the Supreme Court.
All they have left is their uneducated, tin foil hat wearing base to pander and exploit their worst fears.

[HPdevotee]

Agreed. Nice post!

And it would seem (from what I've witnessed) that the old guard Cubans are turning from the Republican party to the Democratic party in droves. In my own extended family there are members who have voted democrat for the first time in their life. And the racist way in which the Repubs. went after Justice Sotomayor was just more evidence that they had made the right decision.

[BLBass]

That's an exciting development. (I know my grandmother voted for Obama, which was probably her first Democratic vote in decades. We're not Cuban though.) But the impression I had gathered was that it is the younger generation, the opposite of the old guard Cubans, who are straying from hard-line embargo support and thus starting to enter the Democratic party. I bet you're right, though. Mel Martinez is retiring so he was freed from the radio-wing loyalty trap on her nomination, but I'd be curious to find out how his vote in favor of Sotomayor played among the Cuban population of Florida, with careful attention to age distribution.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Rush Limbaugh has already read Colin Powell out of the Republican Party.

[hansulrichrudel]

Even if Obama wouldn't visit his native country of Kenya on his recent trip to Africa at least he sent Hillary there. Maybe she even found a copy of his long lost birth certificate in Nairobi.

[Winning09]

Crank.

[medici]

The birth certificate did turn up. It was a phony printed up by one of your fellow racists, though, hans.

[demigod]

Birther troll alert. Think of what you're saying. This just proves that Obama is a natural born American. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton most certainly would have pursued this issue, if it were real, when she herself was running for President. She never mentioned it. Only the stupid Republicans keep bringing it up. Sigh...

[despin]

I don't think the GOP cares about winning elections anymore. They've likely thrown in the towel.

All math ends at the same place: whites alone can't carry them. The base will continue shrinking by attrition.

Fox/Limbau­gh/churche­s are certainly infecting younger white minds daily, but whether it'll be in sufficient numbers to override Latinos, seems doubtful.

Bottom line- why bother winning elections when you can fear-monger/ intimidate from the opposition stance. It's the perfect place to be-- sufficient Senate representation to gum things up, control the agenda and duck the blame. Healthcare is just a preview of this new GOP MO.

[MED1025]

68% of voters under the age of 35 of all races voted for Obama in the last election.. Fresh recruits will be harder and harder to come by in a few years.

[JEP57]

I believe a lot of white conservatives would have voted for Condoleeza Rice or Colin Powell if they had been nominated for president by the Republicans. Their problem with Obama is more about his ideology than his heritage.

[Winning09]

You are forgetting that Saint Rush Limbaugh says that Colin Powell isn't really a Republican, he's a dangerous socialist sympathizer.

[medici]

You're just kidding yourself, JEP. Racism is alive and well in the Repubican party. Any black Republicans are just tokens.

[Dosadi]

How long are we going to tolerate these ignorant, mentally challenged racists? They are going to ruin a perfectly good country because of their small minded fears. Do we Americans have the guts to stand up to these racists are do we just wait for the shooting to start?

[Tyler-Durden]

RELAX. we WILL take our country back. i will not stop until we do. there will be no shooting, except by crazy extremists.

i have a plan, and we will win. hang in there.

[Eykis]

The two-party system as it now stands in America, is either you are a racist or you are not a racist. Conservatives prove every time they open their mouths they are racists and bigots.

[SILVANUS]

We need AT LEAST a TWO PARTY system, and it pains me to see the GOP degrade itself into this grabbag of racists and plunderers who cater to dogmatism, hate and fear of ambiguity. A lot of them are over 50s who grew up in ShagLdancing to neutered soul music (somehow they managed to ignore the singers were black) while cultivating their alcoholism. They are now old before their time and very, very bitter that "Give Me Just a Little More Time" is their uncanny theme song.

[Tyler-Durden]

we need a WORKING CLASS PARTY. a labor party like Britain has. one that represents the people that get up every day, go to work, bust their arse, and come home.

i am not aiming for equal, that is socialism. i am aiming for FAIR. there is a huge difference.

there will always be elite. but they shouldn't be allowed to enslave us. NOT IN AMERICA. we will take our country back.

[Eykis]

Tyler, I stand beside you. We WILL get these lunatics off the news soon. Talk radio will kill itself as will ClusterFaux Noise channel.

[SILVANUS]

Agreed, Tyler

[JayDubs]

Yeah, the degredation of the Republican Party is sad to watch. I wonder nowadays if the Grand Old Party is in its death throes, soon to become a permanent regional party.

If you want a say about what happens in the next election, I recommend taking part in the Democratic primaries. That's my plan anyway. The bright side is, there is actually a good spectrum of opinions in the Democratic Party. Candidates can range from center-right to far-left. Take your pick.

[Cool-headed]

Older people were raised with very few openings to the world, with no internet, not many newspapers, or contact with foreigners, few TV programs, travelling by air was very expensive, etc. So many of them naturally became very provincial and narrow-minded. For them the country is changing too fast and the election of a black Prez. was the straw that broke the camel's back. They seem really lost and desperate.

Ideally, we should reach out to them rather than alienate them.More conversation, less confrontation.

At a time like this, how could we use the lessons from great pacifists like Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King? Does anyone have a drop of their patience, their gift for peace?

[Eykis]

Cool, that is a good story, however, these "old people" we are seeing are not but a few years older than I am at age 55. My 79 yro Mother has been on the Internet for 12 years and believes non of these Rethug lies. Ignorance remains because people choose ignorance over information. The people you mention would now be older than my Mother.

There is no excuse for racism - these "old people" were in their 30s when the Civil Rights and Medicare bills were passed 40 years ago. Yes, we need to gather the "Peaceniks" like us together to educate the masses if they choose to be educated.

[ricmarc]

I am still trying to figure out that whole "Manchurian Candidate" thing. Evidently none of the right have actually seen the original film nor the remake, otherwise they would have known John McCain would have been the candidate.

This entire thing seems to be based soley on the fact a black man was in the remake. They ignore the fact he was the good guy. Denzel was not the "Manchurian Candidate" he was Frank Sinatra!

It seems to escaped them that John McCain was a prisoner of war in a Communist country just like the so called manchurian candidate.

[write2bheard]

Or perhaps -- since we are postulating conspiracy theories -- Sara Palin is the Manchurian candidate, trying to incite a civil war so Alaska she can complete her husband's dreams of secession for Alaska. I'm just saying....

[Winning09]

Exactly! :)