Republican Racism in Montana
So I have written about racism many times, both the "Angry White Man" Republican style of racism, and the "conveniently compassionate" liberal style of racism. Joe Biden seems to be putting his foot in his mouth these days making what sure sound like racist comments about Indian-Americans and Obama, but in his case he seems to just be really stupid about the jokes he makes and he apologizes afterwards. But the "Angry White Man" Republican style of racism seems far worse to me. You get an anti-Semitic pogrom in Delaware, blatantly racist Virginia politicians Virgil Goode, Jerry Kilgore and Bob McDonnell, and recently ousted Senator George Allen, and racism so blatant in Arizona even the national Republican Party abandoned a Congressional candidate.
Racism is a problem everywhere in America, including my own nice little liberal neighborhood of Park Slope, as I have written about before. But it really seems like racism is particularly bad in the Republican Party and often is defended by the Republican Party and their media lap dogs.
The latest example is in Montana. This comes from the Indigenous Democratic Network:
Montana’s Ed Butcher, a Republican state representative, demonstrated once again the persistent racism and racial insensitivity endemic throughout the GOP rank and file. In a recent committee meeting, Butcher derided fellow legislator and a friend of INDN’s List, Democrat representative Jonathan Windy Boy (Chippewa Cree) by referring to the veteran lawmaker as “Chief Windy Boy†and inquiring whether he would wield his vice-chairman’s gavel as a “war club.â€
Rep. Butcher dismissed the complaints of lawmakers from both parties, calling the whole matter a “side issue†that represents an “absolutely absurd†attempt by Democrats to play politics. Fellow Indian lawmakers, Reps. Margarett Campbell (Assiniboine) and Shannon Augare (Blackfeet), who are also friends of INDN’s List, deplored Butcher’s insensitive remarks. “Many people in this body don’t know what it is like to feel the effects of racism,†remarked Rep. Campbell to the Native American Times.
Sadly Butcher’s comments were only one in a long line of racist Republican remarks coming out of the Montana circles of power. In 2006, voters proved that bigotry would not be tolerated anymore when they sent serial-racist Sen. Conrad Burns cleaning his D.C. desk. Write Rep. Butcher today (SENATORBUTCHER@aftco.net) and tell him we demand legislators with standards of common decency and mutual respect shared by the overwhelming majority of Americans.
We’re working hard at INDN’s List to fight the racism that pervades the halls of our state capitols by electing Indian legislators. We are building a platform from which Indian voices are heard while promoting the interaction and diversity among our leaders that fosters a spirit of cooperation and tolerance.
While President Bush thinks he’s the decision maker, we at INDN’s List know we’re difference makers. In 2006, INDN’s List endorsed two successful Montana candidates, Norma Bixby (Northern Cheyenne) to the House and Carol Juneau (Hidatsa and Mandan) became the first Indian woman to serve in the Senate. We also strongly supported the unopposed campaigns of Windy Boy, Campbell, and Augare. Our success would not have been possible without your continuing support. Help us retire racists like Rep. Butcher by giving today.
A note to the Republican Party: if you want to appeal to minorities, stop insulting them. Note to Joe Biden: see my note to the Republican Party.
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Racism | Indigenous Democratic Network | INDN List | Montana
Not all of them!
Submitted by mole333 on 8 February 2007 - 9:10pm.
Don't think I see all Montana/Idaho/Wyoming etc. people as being as stupid as this guy. Far, far from it. But this guy is a stereotype of the red neck. I was tempted to refer to inbreeding when referring to him, given his stereotyping. But truth is I am well aware of many brilliant, wondeful people from rural, red states. So I know this guy is not all that there is from such states. Jon Tester and Gary Trauner, for example, are wonderful people from these states. Comepletely different from the stereotype that Butcher fulfills. But Butcher is the kind of person who gives these states a bad name. I'd love it if he was rejected in the next election, thus proving the quality of the state. But even in great states like Montana, idiots can find followers.
How much allegiance do we owe a state?
Submitted by Margaret Bassett on 11 February 2007 - 6:20pm.
Much of the American population has lived in more than one area of the country. In the days of slow trains and scarce money, many people never left the state of their birth. It's hard, nowadays, for a lot of us to be "patriotic" over an entity which has only historical significance. Perhaps that is the reason why so many feel that the electoral college is ready for history.
To go a step further, only the truly backward-looking can be "patriotic" toward the Nation. "My country right or wrong" plays out as simplistic for many of us. Personally, I think of economic issues first when I think of the USA. Perhaps the reason I am so concerned with its present course has a lot to do with the "Almighty Dollar." My standard of living depends upon foreign policy, and it did that before global trade became so invigorated. There are little things. My nice mutual fund used to be run from a Boston bank, and then by a Swiss concern. Now Deutche Bank manages it. Same account. Same rules. Same holdings. It's ridiculous for me to believe that Bush could control inflation (or any other monetary issues) the way Bernard Baruch counselled FDR during WW11.
So! In the Rocky Mountain States, I think of minerals and energy as what changed them. Water wars are still the issue of the region. To glean all the methane gas from eastern Wyoming and Montana, the water table is being depleted. Powder River Basin coal goes along the Burlington tracks at automated speed, only because the states refused to let them slurry it to Texas.
Things are coming full circle in the misguided war department. When a few were talking impeachment during Viet Nam, Earth Day was born. Now, with the current calamity playing out, it's environment rather than dogma which many religious leaders are championing.
Indians are fine, and so are cowboys
Did you ever stop to think that the best anti-bigotry TV show had Archie Bunker? That show must have cleaned up a lot of language, and perhaps led to political correctness, which became correct to the point of being down and dirty political.
As we are being caught up with Edwards' blogger flap, I think we are in for a lot more heat and little light. It's too complicated for me to post what's on my mind to an appropriate forum, relating your take on Republicans/Montanans/AngryMen to what bloggers are doing. But I think the Jan 30 article in Salon has a lot to ponder. Here's the opening paragraph:
Jan. 30, 2007 | You, gentle and not-so-gentle readers, have been on my mind lately. You vast and invisible online throng, slouched in front of thousands of computer monitors, have done something revolutionary. You have forever altered the relationship between writer and audience. The Internet has turned what was once primarily a one-way communication into a dialogue -- or maybe a melee. From a cultural perspective, the new democracy of voices online is a wonderful thing. But writers have an odd and ambiguous relationship with their readers, and the reader revolution is having massive consequences we can't even foresee. Writers are being pulled, or lured, down from their solitary perches and into the madding throng. This has opened useful debate and made writers accountable. But it has also thrown open the gate to creeps, narcissists and wannabe Byrons who threaten to damage the fragile, half-permeable membrane writers use to keep the world from being too much with them.