The Carefully Crafted “Diversity” Of The Democratic Convention

The Democrats are quite proud of themselves for the “diversity” of their convention delegates.

“We could not be more proud to announce today that the 2004 Democratic National Convention will be the most diverse in our Party’s history,” said Alice Huffman, DNCC Chairwoman. “Our delegates represent the inclusiveness of the Democratic Party and the diversity of America. We look forward to gathering later this month in Boston to nominate a candidate who embraces this spirit of diversity.”

According to statistics compiled by the Democratic National Committee, nearly 40% of the delegates to this month’s Convention in Boston are minorities. More African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native-Americans, and Hispanics will attend the Convention than ever before.

In addition, approximately 50% of this year’s Democratic Convention delegates are women.

“The breadth and diversity of the delegates to our national Convention proves that Democrats from all walks of life are united in their commitment to elect John Kerry the next President of the United States,” said Alice Germond, Secretary of the Democratic National Committee.

This warm and fuzzy delegate “diversity” might prove (or at least be evidence of) a broad pan-ethnic, multi-racial appeal if it were natural, but since it in fact results from both hard (gender) and soft (race/ethnic/sexual orientation) quotas/”goals,” the Democrats’ quadrennial self-congratulation always strikes me as somewhere between humorous and bizarre. It’s as if you decided to create a committee to be made up of a Protestant, a Catholic, a Jew, and a Muslim; called for Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim volunteers for it; appointed a Protestant, Catholic, Jew, and Muslim; and then congratulated yourself for creating a committee that appeals to Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and Muslims. What it really shows is that you are dedicated to pigeon-holing people by race and ethnicity.

In short, the Democrats’ “diversity” is based on the same sort of social engineering that they would like to apply to the society as a whole. As an article in the Chicago Tribune pointed out,

The diversity is no accident. While Democratic conventions have long attracted large numbers of African-Americans–the party’s most reliable constituents–the representation of other groups has increased, largely due to diversity goals set at the state level, according to Pasquil. Each state is required to have a diverse delegate selection plan that is approved by the Democratic National Committee.

“Pasquil” is Mona Pasquil, “director of community outreach” for Kerry’s campaign. Pasquil is one of a growing number of Democratic operatives who has built a successful career promoting ethnic interests. According to a feature article in Filipinas Magazine before the 2000 convention, “When it comes to people representing Asian Americans and Pinoys in national politics, Mona Pasquil is at the top of a very short list.”

And she was at the top of the list despite the fact that in the 1996 campaign she had come uncomfortably close to the Asian fundraising scandals that marred the Democrats’ effort. Maria Hsia, you may recall, was convicted for, among other things, her role in what the Guardian, hardly a Republican paper, called

one of the most embarrassing episodes in Mr Gore’s career, his 1996 visit to a Los Angeles Buddhist temple at which dozens of monks and nuns were asked to sign cheques to the Democratic national committee – for which they were later reimbursed — to disguise the fact that the donations came from the Hsi Lai temple itself, whose charitable status precluded it from making political payments.

Mona Pasquil was also involved in what Gore later referred to as the “finance related” affair at the Buddhist temple, but she claims to have seen nothing wrong. According to the Minority Report of the Senate investigation,

Mona Pasquil, DNC Western States political director and former director of Asian- Pacific affairs, testified that she saw no signs of fundraising, such as a table at the door, name tags, checks being exchanged, or solicitations for money.

I have pointed out before (here) that Kerry is surrounding himself with hard-line preferentialists. Pasquil is another one. In her capacity as Political Director of the 2000 Gore-Lieberman campaign in California, she signed a petition circulated by the radical group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) to reverse the ban on racial preferences in the University of California system.

A vote for Kerry — and the Pasquils he would bring into the agencies and the judges he would nominate — would be a vote to make a mockery of Justice O’Connor’s prediction (or was it merely a plaintive hope?) that racial preferences would fade away after 25 years.

Say What? (4)

  1. ThePrecinctChair July 28, 2004 at 12:31 pm | | Reply

    Well of course it is diverse — they award delegate slots based on diversity.

    My wife applied to go as a delegate. She had to disclose her age, sex, orientation, race, and handicap status. And the senatorial districts were told what gender each convention pick must be when they were voting.

  2. John S Bolton August 2, 2004 at 5:10 am | | Reply

    The court’s position that quotas will not be needed in 25 years, is a prediction and a confession. They are admitting that the first wave of the third generation of affirmative action cases is now applying to colleges, yet still requires the same score-adjustment as their grandparents’ generation did. They admit that three generations are not enough to break a cycle of this kind, but bravely predict that the fourth generation of racial-patronage seekers may be left to do without much intervention.

  3. VT Thornburgh August 31, 2004 at 4:54 pm | | Reply

    I am trying to find ACTUAL statistics showing the demographics of both the RNC and DNC conventions. Neither party can provide these numbers on their websites. Can anyone here?

    Thanks

    VT

  4. Amy October 26, 2004 at 12:29 pm | | Reply

    You people are sick! You are snakes in wolves clothing! This country was not founded on homosexuality and killing babies!

    Your agenda is straight from Hell! I hope and pray you don’t get elected to anything!

Say What?