The mayor of a small town in California, a guy named Dean Grose, decided to share an Email with some of his coworkers. The Email was certainly in poor taste, was racist, and the ensuing ruckus has prompted the mayor to announce that he is resigning.
What I can’t figure out is which party the mayor belongs to. There is no mention of his political affiliations anywhere.
Recent history has taught us that this is usually a sign that the troubled politician is a Democrat. It seems that the news media will try to avoid mentioning that a politician in trouble belongs to that particular party, while repeatedly pounding home the affiliation of any Republican that is going through a rough patch. It appears to be an attempt to deliberately associate all Republicans with bad behavior, while at the same time distancing the journalist’s favorite party from any link with corruption or poor judgment.
Don’t believe me? Ace of Spades has been documenting this particular form of bias for some time now. It is amazing how often it crops up.
But I’m not sure that such shenanigans is the case in this case, mainly because I can’t find any mention of Mayor Grose’s political party anywhere. It could be that no one really knows, so the media decided to keep quiet until they found out.
It’s the same in Britain. The state propaganda machine (the BBC, paid for with an annual mandatory licence fee) can seldom bring itself to report on malfeasance on the political left, and if it’s national news and it has no choice but to address it, it doesn’t mention the words Labour Party.
It is also possible in this case that the mayor simply doesn’t have any party affiliation, which is not unheard of in small towns. My town is around a quarter of that size, and a number of elected positions, including the mayor which is largely a ceremonial title, are basically filled by any person who will actually agree to do the work. Certainly if the same thing happened here (and our current mayor is a bit of a clown, so he could be stupid enough to do something like this) I wouldn’t consider a lack of party ID in the story significant of much of anything. If you google his campaign website you will see no mention of party on it at all, nor in any of the pass-through links (LOWV for example), or the election results posting (this was for council in 2006, and none of the candidate listed have a party affiliation shown). And if you look at his background (Chamber of Commerce leader, etc) he’s more likely a Republican than Democrat anyway.
Not that “Guess My Party” isn’t a fun game, but not in this case I think.
Actually, he’s Republican. Not surprising, considering this was a joke about watermelons and the current White House. Also this is Orange County, one of the few remaining GOP bastions in CA (although maybe not for long).
http://wonkette.com/406562/406562
I don’t think the vast majority of Republicans in general are any more (or less) racist than Democrats. Northern California prides itself on being liberal and Democratic, but the region is divided on socioeconomic lines which effectively results in a lot more racial segregration than you might think. Having said that, Republicans do tend to attract more than their fair share of. Nixon’s Southern Strategy did work very well after all.
Politics and Racism….When I was a teenager, my southern Father, during a conversation in which I asked about the differences in political parties, once told me, with complete seriousness, “If you ever vote other than Democrat, you will no longer be welcomed in my house.” Now, let me make it clear that at that time, my Father was the most hate filled racists I knew. He was not violent or anything like that, but he had no shame in viewing his complete contempt for black people. He has since passed on, but I have to wonder what his opinion would be today with Mayor Ray Negin having won Mayoral election more than once and now, a BLACK PRESIDENT!!!…As Arsenio Hall used to say…”Things that make you say…Hmmmm???”
Let me take a stab at deconstructing the “guess the party” phenomenon. I think most people would concede that journalists/editors are left-liberal in political/cultural orientation. Republicans are the public defenders of the traditional values of hearth and home. Thus, in the journalist’s mind, a Republican is ipso facto guilty of hypocrisy when a news story can be themed to illustrate the transgression of a Republican against his/her own value system. A Democrat “scandal” is not a moral transgression because the individual involved, probably, and the Democrat Party, certainly, is not seen to be violating any accepted code of conduct. Thus, the “scandal” only gains a Democrat party label when the act which provoked it develops political “legs,” i.e. the actual or threatened loss of political power, voter support or administrative leverage. Just an idea.
I’m going to take a stab at Dean Grose’s party affiliation – REPBULICAN. I base this on 3 of his endorsements for mayor -Ed Royce, Tom Harmon, and Jim Silva, all Republicans. I, too, thought he must be a dem since there was no mention of party affiliation…
Hoping I’m wrong!
Seanf,
Having said that, Republicans do tend to attract more than their fair share of [racist].”
Depends on your definition of racist. If you, as most leftist do, restrict racism to merely white people who hate minorities, then that is probably true since more white people vote Republican now. However, if you define racism as holding negative stereotypes about individuals based on their race, then the distribution probably tilts towards Democrats.
White leftist routinely stereotype African-Americans and other minorities as listless, helpless people who cannot fend for themselves without the benevolent protection of upper-class, white leftist. They believe that African-Americans cannot be trusted with guns. Leftist academics organize the liberal-arts departments of universities around racial categories. African-Americans themselves harbor large numbers of anti-semites and foster perennial conflict with hispanics and asians which is often returned in full. All leftist, especially in academia, advance a world view in which white people and European culture in general are inherently evil and the ultimate source for virtually all the suffering in the world.
Racism is alive an well on the left and actively encouraged as means of dividing the population into mutually suspicious groups who look to the government to protect them from their evil neighbors. They’ve just convinced people like you that racist can only be white people.
[Comment deleted by Jonathan.]
Mayor’s a Republican. You’re a whiny loser b1tch!
Every time someone points out malfeasance on the part of the MSM it hastens the day of their demise. Say one for this depression- a lot of journalists will have plenty of time to meditate on what the proper role of a journalist is.
More suitable for employment at Mickey D’s than what they are doing now.
SeanF left a comment….
“Actually, he’s Republican.”
The only proof you provide is a link to a Wonkette post, where the whole sorry mess is discussed without anyone mentioning how they managed to find out the mayor’s political affiliation. If all they have is the same sources I do, then there is simply no way to tell for sure.
He might very well be a Republican, I just want to know how they found that out.
“Having said that, Republicans do tend to attract more than their fair share of.”
I find this to be an amazing statement, although certainly a common one from the Left.
The most avid racists in recent US history have largely been Dems, while the majority of legislation passed to aid minorities has largely been sponsored and supported by Republicans.
So why would someone actually believe something that runs counter to the facts, let alone state their mistaken impression as an accepted fact? I suspect the invisible hand of the media has struck once again!
James
At least officially, local offices in California are non-partisan, although we had a court case a few years ago that lets the parties now endorse and financially support candidates running for them.
OC was very conservative and Republican for many years. It is less so now, and a fair number of the residents that don’t like the change have moved north to the Grass Valley area around Sacramento (about 500 miles to the North). Some of the politicians that formerly held office in OC have also moved North and gotten elected from districts up there – carpetbagger is such an ugly word, but it is accurate IMHO.
I have no idea what the affiliation of this specific guy is.
Racist (noun): A person who holds racially bigoted views, beliefs, or philosophy *and* who wields or desires to wield the power of government to enforce said views, beliefs, or philosophy.
When the dinosaur/drive-by media cover a political scandal, if the political party affiliation *is not mentioned*; said politician is almost always a Democrat. My first guess is that this one is a Democrat. Second guess, a RINO.
James,
Wonkette isn’t exactly dispositive, sure. Here’s a link to a voter guide, endorsing Gross for mayor as part of the “OC Republican Team.”
http://www.landslidecommunications.com/landslide/images/oc_rep_mailer1_a.pdf
I do stand by my previous statement saying that Republicans attract more than their fair share of racists, unfortunately for them. The links you provide actually support that statement – the ideological descendants of southerners like Wallace joined the Republican party in the wake of the Civil Rights Act, turning the South into the Republican stronghold that it currently is.
Johnson knew that was the price to pay for that bill. To his credit, he paid it.
Also, it strains credulity to believe that Reagan didn’t know what he was doing when he used dog-whistles like “state’s rights” in kicking off his 1980 presidential campaign in Philadelphia, MS – where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964, and feelings were still raw. The Republicans I know personally don’t have a racist bone in their bodies. But to deny that the party has benefited from the backlash against the Democrats in the South – I’m not sure even many of them would support that.
dog-whistles like “state’s rights”
What Reagan should have done was to call for the abolition of state and local governments and for Mississippi to be expelled from the union. Any politician who crosses the Mason-Dixon line is clearly a segregationist.
to deny that the party has benefited from the backlash against the Democrats in the South
Cleverly disguised with “dog whistles” like “out of control spending”, “soft on Communism”, and “right to life”, all of which really mean “we hate black people”. Shrewd analysis, sean.