April 30, 2004

"Those" People
Posted by Jon Henke

(with the caveat that I don't think it's indicative of "racism" that a candidate from Massachussets doesn't have a lot of Hispanics in his inner circle....) Robert Tagorda links this NYT piece on John Kerry's lack of campaign diversity...

"Relegating all of your minority staff to the important but limited role of outreach only reinforces perceptions that your campaign views Hispanics as a voting constituency to be mobilized, but not as experts to be consulted in shaping policy," wrote Mr. Yzaguirre, whose group is among the oldest, largest and most influential representing Hispanics.
You don't really have to dig too deeply to figure that out. Take a look at the Democratic Party's "Issues" page...
African American Vote
APIA Vote
Children & Family
Civil Rights & Justice
Disability Vote
Economic Growth & Jobs
Education
Environmental Protection
GLBT Vote
Health Care
Hispanic Vote
Labor
Military & Veterans
National & Homeland Security
Senior Vote
Social Security & Medicare
Women's Vote Center
Young Americans
The Democratic Party: where you're not just a person, you're a voting bloc.

UPDATE: Tagorda points out that the GOP has a similar page here. Natch. As Sean comments, "Neither of the two main parties concern themselves with "individuals". Voting blocs are the only way to get elected nowadays."

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Comments

Jon,

I think you could probably same the same about the Republicans. Neither of the two main parties concern themselves with "individuals". Voting blocs are the only way to get elected nowadays. (Which is the reason half the country doesn't vote, they think their voice doesn't matter. And to an extent, they're right.)

Posted by: sean at April 30, 2004 12:25 PM

Why look at internet pages? Why not just look and see how many minorities have leadership positions in the Dem party? How many African American or Hispanics they tap to fill judicial positions? How many were in KEY positions in recent Dem. administrations?

Hey, not that the Repubs are much better, BUT they don't go around playing race cards and painting themselves as the diversity party...

Posted by: shark at April 30, 2004 01:43 PM

Does this mean that the Kerry campaign is colorblind?

Posted by: william at April 30, 2004 07:47 PM