So, I have started watching the Daily Show and The Colbert Report quite often now that I am out of school and I don't have much else to do (aside from CLEANING MY ROOM...AHHHH!) but watch Comedy Central and my USA Network shows (Monk, The Dead Zone and Psych). I have really enjoyed getting back into the groove with watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, especially after watching both in Maryland with my oldest brother, his family and my Mom and Dad on our recent trip after I was at Montreat.
The other night is where I first saw the recent embarassing (but very true and revealing) incident for my adoptive home state of Virginia and my Grandaddy's Republican Party.
See, I'm a very liberal Democrat in the mold of Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, Eugene McCarthy, RFK, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Ted Kennedy, Paul Wellstone, Bill Bradley, Dennis Kucinich, John Kerry, Howard Dean and John Edwards. However, I have great respect for a few number of Republicans on the other side of the divide. Sen. John McCain, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Gov. Thomas Kean of New Jersey, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut (OOPS...:-p) are all fine examples of people to the right of me that I greatly respect in many ways. I used to have a respect for the elder President Bush, in light of his resemblance to my Grandaddy, who I think is a very fine human being! The more I learn about him, the less respect I have for George H. W. Bush. However, he still is leaps and bounds above his son...and Senator George Allen of Virginia, for example.
At a recent fundraiser gathering in Virginia, a representative for Senatorial Candidate Jim Webb was there videotaping Sen. Allen for reference, I would imagine. It's a free country, after all.
After saying that he would run his re-election campaign on positive and constructive ideas, Senator Allen introduced S.R. Sidarth, the representative for Jim Webb, in his own revealing way.
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Below I will include a quoted section from the Washington Post article on the incident (that can be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081400589.html), written by staff writers Tim Craig and Michael D. Shear :
...At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia on Friday, Allen repeatedly called a volunteer for Democrat James Webb "macaca." During the speech in Breaks, near the Kentucky border, Allen began by saying that he was "going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas" and then pointed at S.R. Sidarth in the crowd.
"This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great," Allen said, as his supporters began to laugh. After saying that Webb was raising money in California with a "bunch of Hollywood movie moguls," Allen said, "Let's give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." Allen then began talking about the "war on terror."
Depending on how it is spelled, the word macaca could mean either a monkey that inhabits the Eastern Hemisphere or a town in South Africa. In some European cultures, macaca is also considered a racial slur against African immigrants, according to several Web sites that track ethnic slurs...
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This incident resonates the arrogance and the nonchalance that many Republicans demonstrate toward the people they claim to serve. S. R. Sidarth, a Virginia resident, voter and volunteer for the Webb campaign was reduced to a throw away foreigner by Senator Allen through his comments and the subsequent laughing from his supporters. These people do not represent the Republican Party of the nineteenth century.
The Republican Party, at its inception in the 1850s, was founded on ideas such as abolition, containment of slavery, a commitment to the Federal government and a general rejection of the xenophobia (or hatred) that was represented by Allen's "macaca" comments.
The Republican Party of today does not represent the party of Senator Charles Sumner, President Abraham Lincoln, Abolitionist and Great American Frederick Douglass or Rough Rider and Environmentalist Progressive President Theodore Roosevelt.
Senator George Allen, and others like him, represent the cancer that is eating out what's left of the heart of the Republican Party. Seeing people like Senator McCain endorsing and campaigning for Senator Allen only confirms my view.
I am an outsider to the party and I have, as I mentioned before, a great deal of respect for several Republicans. If the Republican Party values the views of outsiders like me and citizens of the United States of America in general, then they should pull support for idiots and biggots like Allen.
The arrogance of those Republicans grows, and their delusion is a cancer to their party, our nation and ultimately the world. As an outsider, DEMAND that the Republican Party value all Americans, including S. R. Sidarth! As a Republican, you should want more for your party. You should want to stand on better ideas and better solutions than racial slurs and falsely justified wars. As any citizen, we should ALL demand better from most of our politicians! Believe me, I'm watching the Democrats and the Greens and the Libertarians too!
In Peace Always,
Asa A. Gregory
