Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

The Referendum Continues

The day after the election I posted an snippet of an article refering to this past election as a referendum on Neo-conservatism:


A second Bush administration will take office having had ample opportunity to learn from mistakes. But not only from mistakes. Also from its largely successful reorientation of security strategy to deal with a very serious new threat. George W. Bush may or may not win the election. If he does, it seems unlikely in the extreme that his critics, especially the most vociferous critics of the neoconservatives, will declare that they erred and that Bush's reelection constitutes vindication for the neoconservative position. They are too in love with their fear of monsters. But win or lose, the vindication of neoconservatism has already taken place, in that the Democratic candidate in 2004 has found it impossible to run for the Oval Office on a platform of its repudiation, but rather has embraced its central strategic insights.


As said by the author, now Nicholas Kristoff is basically walking dead into that trap:
quote:
So Democrats need to give a more prominent voice to Middle American, wheat-hugging, gun-shooting, Spanish-speaking, beer-guzzling, Bible-toting centrists. (They can tote The Times, too, in a plain brown wrapper.) For a nominee who could lead the Democrats to victory, think of John Edwards, Bill Richardson or Evan Bayh, or anyone who knows the difference between straw and hay.

I wish that winning were just a matter of presentation. But it's not. It involves compromising on principles. Bill Clinton won his credibility in the heartland partly by going home to Little Rock during the 1992 campaign to preside over the execution of a mentally disabled convict named Ricky Ray Rector...


For those of you who do not know who Ricky Ray Rector is, He was a mentaly ill Black inmate who when taking his "last mile" walk asked the guards to save his pie for when he was done.

So Kristoff advocates the death penalty and specifically thinks the killing of black mentaly ill inmates is a path that Democrats should take to "appeal" to "middle America." Oh yes Kristoff also believes that challenging states like Miss. And Ga. on their racist monuments is a no-no also. Now I'm not big on the confederae flag issue, but in this case Kristoff's statements are basically along the lines of "return of the Klan" mentality.

Oh how the true nature of our "friends" come to light.

Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/opinion/06kristof.html?hp