By Kevin Rogers
Assistant Opinion Editor
Critics have long called Republicans the party of old white men. Admittedly, it is easy to conjure up images of tired and tenured politicians like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell or Sen. John McCain, both well overdue for retirement.
Yet, if the lineup of speakers at this year’s Republican National Convention is any indication, the long-standing criticism may not be wholly accurate. Accompanying the jowly GOP stalwarts was a new generation of Republican leaders, including a number of women and minorities.
Predictably, some Democrats were perturbed by the more diverse-looking speakers and resorted to dismissing the speakers’ selection as Republican pandering to women and minorities.
In response to a series of well-received speeches from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz had plenty to say.
“I think we believe that women can see through that nice shiny packaging that the Republicans have been putting out there,” said the chairwoman, as reported in an Aug. 3 Daily Caller article.
Wasserman Schultz went on to say that the Republican platform is “a disaster for women’s future.”
Regardless of the chairwoman’s opposition to the anti-abortion-rights platform of the Republican Party, she degraded the accomplishments of the Republican women featured at the convention. Insinuating the women were selected for their gender rather than for their achievement is insulting.
Humorously enough, the chairwoman criticized former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for being “unfamiliar with the voice of a strong woman,” after the governor ribbed her in a convention speech, reported in an Aug. 30 Washington Free Beacon article.
It seems Wasserman Schultz has the same problem; that is, only if said strong woman has a “D” after her name. The chairwoman is reluctant to admit that some women don’t buy the Democratic Party line, and all she can do is reduce them to “shiny packaging.”
“She cannot get past that GOP women have advanced beyond 2008,” said Ashley Oliver, chair of St. Bonaventure’s College Republicans. “I felt proud that there were confident, competent women speakers at the RNC to properly represent the women of the party.”
Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles and Democratic National Convention chairman, also seemed venomous toward some of the new faces at the RNC. Speaking to the inclusion of Hispanic leaders including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Senate nominee Ted Cruz and Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno, Villaraigosa drew some similarly dismissive conclusions.
“You can’t just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate,” said Villaraigosa said, as reported by an Aug. 28 NBC News article.
Villaraigosa added that people vote on candidate experience, regardless of race, but the tone of his initial comment remains.
Rubio spoke out in agreement with the mayor, so long as it applies to both parties. Rubio did so to advance a discussion on what the Republican Party needed to change; namely, the GOP had to become a party of legal immigration, not solely a party of anti-illegal immigration, according to an Aug. 29 Politico article.
But Villaraigosa’s comment was not made to advance a discussion. It was made to charge the Republican Party with using minorities as a means to an end.
The comments from both Villaraigosa and Wasserman Schultz suggest some Democrats believe that if an African American, a Hispanic or a woman speak in defense of conservative values, they are merely puppets or “shiny packaging” to be trotted for all the good old white men to see.
Of course, the Republicans sought to present a more diverse party to the American people and widen the party’s appeal at this year’s convention. After all, you can’t kill the old white man stigma by sending out dozens of old white men to speak. But to say the diverse speakers were selected solely on their gender or race, rather than accomplishment, is insulting.
The party leadership made a good-faith attempt to showcase minorities and women who have been successful in the party; those leaders showcased should not be subjected to the condescending comments spewed by these high-profile Democrats.
