Several posts below I observed that the Democrats’ offended outrage at being called anti-Catholic “might elicit a more sympathetic hearing if Democrats had not made a habit of charging racism at every opportunity (and then some).”
Now they’re at it again. Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party, says that Schwarzenegger’s vote in favor of Proposition 187, which would have curtailed certain state services for illegal immigrants, “was full of hate against the Latino community.”
The inability of Democrats to control these accusations of racism and hatred is beginning to resemble Dr. Strangelove with a bad case of Tourette Syndrome (“involuntary, rapid, sudden movements or vocalizations that occur repeatedly in the same way.”)
But is Torres wrong? Leaving aside the question of whether 187 was good policy (on balance I don’t think so), its real purpose was to energize the bigot vote for Pete Wilson, and simultaneously to fracture and confuse the Democrats. And it worked perfectly.
Before you say, what bigot vote: I voted against Ron Unz’s anti-bilingual initiative even though I supported it as a matter of educational policy because most of its high-profile backers other than Unz were not very nice in their motives. Basically, they didn’t want José to learn English; they hoped that no more Spanish schooling would persuade his destitute parents not to hop the border.
Andy – You’re far too sophisticated for me. I tend to vote for things I agree with and against those I oppose. I find that if I start worrying too much about the implications of things succeeding or failing, or about the reputations or motives of others who may be on my side on an issue I’d get hopelessly bolloxed. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the “real purpose” of 187 was what you say. Then surely the “real purpose” of opponents, or at least many of them, was to gain points with immigrants, not a sincere belief that the state should provide services to illegals. Similarly, there is no reason to suppose that support of bilingual education is based more on belief about educational policy than you say opposition was. Anxiety about fellow travelers with whom you might be thought to be in sympathetic association is not a healthy way to make political choices.