Peter Beinart begins his Daily Beast rant, “Insulting Comments at Fox News Debate Show Newt Clueless on Black Americans,” by instructing his readers: “If you want to understand why the GOP is so ill prepared to compete in an increasingly nonwhite America, just look at the exchange between Fox News questioner Juan Williams and Newt Gingrich halfway through last night’s Republican presidential debate.”
I second his suggestion; you should watch that video. And if you want to understand why liberals are so ill prepared to deal with our increasingly dysfunctional economy, so clueless about values nearly all Republicans and indeed most Americans hold and thus so willing to insult them — “Gingrich’s problem isn’t racism; it’s ignorance…. Gingrich inhabits a cultural and intellectual bubble. It’s called the Republican Party” — then read the rest of Beinart’s piece.
Beinart thinks Newt is ignorant, to pick just one example, for saying poor and minority people should demand jobs, not food stamps, when everyone who is not racist or ignorant knows that “[i]f you look at the budgets proposed by the Congressional Black Caucus over the years, you’ll see that they often include huge, FDR-style government jobs programs.”
To the liberal mind, such as it is, the only difference between demanding a jobs program and demanding a job is that the former is better … and that it’s racist or clueless and ignorant to deny its superiority.
FACT #1
The single largest employer of African-American men is government.
FACT #2
The second largest employer of African-American women is government.
Princeton Sociologist Devah Pager’s study on race at work clearly shows that a White man straight out of prison fares as well or BETTER in the entry level job market as a Black man with no criminal record.
John, I would wager that conservatives who don’t recognize these clues are the ones that are truly clueless.
–Cobra
I’ve not read Pager’s paper, but I also know people in academia, and all tell me you first decide your result, then collect data – otherwise you might get something unexpected, and then that makes it look like you don’t know what your doing, which results in reduced grants.
So – the answer to claimed racism by Liberalism is:
a) subsidize people into unqualified jobs (which then really does make them look like idiots, justifying the racists and frustrating the rest)
b) prevent creation of schools which will give good education (charters)
c) prevent kids from learning good work ethics BEFORE they go into the real workplace. [this is what Newt was attacked for]
And the answer by Conservatives is:
a) create schools which will give outstanding education
b) teach kids work ethics and practices, so they can succeed
Which of these two looks like it’ll actually solve the problem in the long term, vs. sustain it forever?
And in practice, which of these has been in effect for several decades?
I think the fact that there is still a problem proves that the Liberal approach has been tried and failed. Time to try something different.
Ken,
What does “education” and “work ethic” have to do with racial discrimination in private sector hiring?
You’re deliberately looking past peer-reviewed research to construct a simplistic narrative that suits a conservative agenda.
–Cobra