TW: I have opined that the Republicans need some new blood in order to re-gain electoral strength. This piece by Pat Buchanan helps validate my perspectives. He makes a couple of points: 1) the Hispanic (and presumably African-American and Asian votes etc.) are not that important electorally and 2) Sotomayor will be a horrible judge compared to stars such as Clarence Thomas, Scalia and Roberts.
His math with the Hispanic vote is dubious given the growth rates for Hispanics but more importantly he fails to understand whites are not a monolithic bloc (just like Hispanics are not either). And in fact diatribes like his help many whites realize the Republicans need to adapt and embrace the 21st century rather than merely wish for an allegedly terrific bygone era. He apparently buys into the notion that McCain VP pick was brilliant and McCain only been rougher and more devisive he would have won.
His attempt to portray Sotomayor as some sort of uppity Latina may cause a tingle to run down the leg of a part of the Republican base but will do little to expand the base whilst suffering from a dearth of actual factual basis.
Buchanan pines for the days of Justice Douglas, Ramsey Clark and Jocelyn Elders but alas Pat few if any remember those oldie but goodies. I actually like Buchanan's directness at times but he is not the future of the Republican or any party.
From Pat Buchanan at Human Events:
"...In 2008, Hispanics, according to the latest figures, were 7.4 percent of the total vote. White folks were 74 percent, 10 times as large. Adding just 1 percent to the white vote is thus the same as adding 10 percent to the candidate's Hispanic vote.
If John McCain, instead of getting 55 percent of the white vote, got the 58 percent George W. Bush got in 2004, that would have had the same impact as lifting his share of the Hispanic vote from 32 percent to 62 percent.
...Why did McCain fail to win the white conservative Democrats Hillary Clinton swept in the primaries? He never addressed or cared about their issues.
These are the folks whose jobs have been outsourced to China and Asia, who pay the price of affirmative action when their sons and daughters are pushed aside to make room for the Sonia Sotomayors. These are the folks who want the borders secured and the illegals sent back.
Had McCain been willing to drape Jeremiah Wright around the neck of Barack Obama, as Lee Atwater draped Willie Horton around the neck of Michael Dukakis, the mainstream media might have howled.
And McCain might be president.
McCain soared a dozen points when he picked Palin, who seemed to Reagan Democrats to be "one of us." They came roaring back, but left for good when McCain declared the economy fundamentally sound and rushed to D.C. to persuade Republicans to vote for a huge bank bailout opposed by Americans 100 to 1.
...And if Republicans, in 2010 and 2012, can point to the court and say Sotomayor is their kind of justice, and Scalia, Roberts, Alito and Thomas are our kind of justices, that will not be all bad. Justice Douglas, Ramsey Clark and Jocelyn Elders, after all, did a whale of a lot of good for the Republican Party in days gone by"
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32699
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