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A White Christian Party

Given the amount of horror some Democrats and nearly all Republicans have displayed at DNC Chairman Howard Dean’s remark that the GOP is “…a white Christian party”, one might assume that nothing could be farther from the truth. Unfortunately, Dean was right on the money.

The US Senate: 11 members of the Senate are Jewish. Two are Republican (Norm Coleman and Arlen Specter). The only black and Asian American delegates happen to be Democrats too. However, Ben Nighthorse Campbell (a person largely of Native American descent) was Senator from Colorado until 2004. He had switched parties though to become a Republican. Ken Salazar went on to replace him. Even so, the Democrat’s level of diversity with 44 members is 13. That’s over a quarter of (D) Senators who are either nonwhite or Non-Christian. With 55 members, the Republican Senate has a diversity level of 3/55. (Florida sending Mel Martinez in 2005.) That is something akin to 8%.

The US House: There are 26 Jewish members of the House. Only one, Eric Cantor, is a Republican. Of the 25 Hispanic members, just five are in the GOP. All 39 black Representatives are Democrats, along with five Asian American representatives. One of the two Native American House members is a Republican. Figuring again that Democrats have just over 200 Represenatives, the diversity level of 90/202 equals around 45%. The Republicans with 229 members have seven non-Christian and non-white members total, leaving their contingent with 3% diversity.

Governorships: Until Gary Locke retired in Washington State, the Democrat was the nation’s only Asian American governor. Hawaii’s Ben Cayetano had termed out in 2002. New Mexico’s Bill Richardson stands firm as the only Latino governor. Pennsylvania’s first man, Ed Rendell is Jewish along with Linda Lingle in Hawaii. However, only Lingle is the only Republican among them. While Democrats do lead in the number of State houses, being 2/30 is marginally better than 1/20 in terms of diversity level.

State Legislatures: According to Retro v. Metro, 99% of all Republican legislators at the state level are white. (No mention how many are not Christian.) Democrats are not much better at 80%. However the book points out that in 25 states the Republicans have no minority representation at all, whereas its only five for Democrats.

Members of the Administration: RNC Chair Ken Mehlman yukked up Dean’s comment, pointing out that a lot of people at his bar mitzvah would have been surprised to know the GOP was a white Christian party. But then again, Republican ridiculed Clinton for having a Cabinet that “looked like America”. Two members are Jewish, Gale Norton and Michael Chertoff. Two members are black, Condi Rice and Alphonsus Jackson. Two are Asian-American, Elaine Chao and Norman Mineta. And there is also a pair of Latinos: Alberto Gonazales and Carlos Guiterrez. But even with all this diversity, half of the Administration are Christian whites.

So go ahead and laugh Ken. The President has shown he is willing to appoint minorities to positions of power. Now it would be up to you, as head of the Republican National Committee to help minority candidates win both for state and national office. Because while the members of his local Temple might be chuckling…minority Republican candidates starved out of national help from the RNC are not.
posted by Thomas at 12:16 AM 0 comments