Talk of the Town - Fakest show on Earth August 12 2000

GOP denies everything it claims to stand for

Oh, those hip, compassionate Republicans. For the first time ever, the stage at their national convention last week in Philadelphia was loaded to the breaking point with Latinos, African-Americans, and gays and lesbians. There were persons of color, with physical disabilities, and any number of “different” individuals never before seen on the dais of a GOP convention.

The irony was intense. The Republican Party, America’s last bastion of paranoid racist exclusion, was holding a convention in which genuine political correctness was taken to its most absurd extreme.

Never mind that the audience of delegates was almost 100 percent white, male, and extremely right-wing. Or that lightning rod conservatives like Bob Barr, Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay were seemingly banished from the face of the earth. Or that special-interest money was flowing so freely that a $5,000 lobbyist check was found lying on the street outside the convention center.

No, this was the Republicans’ chance to pretend as if their long and sordid history of keeping non-middle-class whites at arm’s length never existed.

Gen. Colin Powell, the war hero widely considered one of the most popular Republicans in America, apparently got a little too caught up in the touchy-feely showbiz scam, and was met with near silence as he castigated Republicans for their blind opposition to affirmative action and their historical rejection of any attempt to level the governmental playing field for minorities. The message from the crowd was clear: It’s OK for you to be here, Gen. Powell, but don’t go getting uppity.

When openly gay Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona gave a brief speech on the subject of international trade (he never mentioned gay rights), most members of the Texas Republican delegation closed their eyes and bowed their heads in silent prayer that Jesus would somehow magically eliminate Kolbe’s homosexuality. One delegate even held up a crudely fashioned banner that read: “There is a way out.”

Vice Presidential candidate Dick Cheney came closest to dishing out the hateful red meat Republicans are famous for, but the best he could muster past the GOP’s P.C. censors was a lame shot at the Clintons in the form of a rehash of Al Gore’s “it’s time for them to go” speech (from 1992’s Democratic convention).

In the end, Texas Gov. George W. Bush furrowed his brow and sniped at the Clinton administration by repeating the cultish mantra “they have not led, we will.” Then he immediately contradicted himself by pointing out that America now has a record economic surplus and the strongest economy in history — a pair of leadership feats neither his father nor Ronald Reagan were able to accomplish during their terms as president.

To be sure, George W. Bush and his handlers are expert image crafters, but they are better described as insidious liars. It is one thing to try and make your message palatable to the masses — it is a different thing entirely to cynically exploit those you plan to betray for political gain. In doing so, the GOP is adding insult to a long tradition of injury to minorities.

Republicans have a lot of gall in claiming that they are sensitive to America’s minority communities. Their record is a shameful and sinful one, and it is now highlighted by their display before the entire country of just how wide the gulf is between rank-and-file Republicans and their new, bussed-in guests. In Philadelphia, the gap was at least a couple of hundred feet.

To be fair, it is nice to see that the Republicans are at least pretending to reach out to minorities. To know that they have entered the 20th century is encouraging.

Too bad the rest of us are in the 21st.