A commenter points out that the Democratic Convention's "European and Mediterranean Americans" innovation has yet to percolate to BarackObama.com, where we read:
Groups are made up of supporters
Organizing around the issues they care about
As a member of a group, you’ll be connected with an online and offline community of people passionate about re-electing President Obama. Pick one (or a few) to join today.
AFRICAN AMERICANS
ASIAN AMERICANS & PACIFIC ISLANDERS
CATHOLICS
EDUCATORS
ENVIRONMENTALISTS
JEWISH AMERICANS
LATINOS
LGBT AMERICANS
NATIVE AMERICANS
NURSES
PARENTS
PEOPLE OF FAITH
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
RURAL AMERICANS
SENIORS
SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
VETERANS & MILITARY FAMILIES
WOMEN
YOUNG AMERICANS
Meanwhile, at MittRomney.com, we find the following list of "Communities:"
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Romney
Black Leadership Council
Catholics for Romney
Energy Voters for Romney
Farmers and Ranchers for Romney
Former Obama Supporters for Romney
Jewish Americans for Romney
Juntos con Romney
Lawyers for Romney
Polish Americans for Romney
Public Safety Professionals for Romney
Romney Voters for Free Enterprise
Veterans and Military Families for Romney
Women for Mitt
Young Americans for Romney
Obama is great.
ReplyDeleteAmerigo Vespucci qualifies as a Med I would suppose. Today, we are all Meds.
ReplyDeleteI say it again:
ReplyDeleteDivide and rule. Rinse and repeat until dissolved.
Romney has "farmers and ranchers", names of actual occupations, where Obama has "rural Americans", which can easily include layabouts.
ReplyDeleteAmerigo Vespucci qualifies as a Med I would suppose. Today, we are all Meds.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if the "Mediterranean" in "European and Mediterranean Americans" is supposed to refer to Italians.
On the one hand, Italians (and other Southern Europeans) are sometimes referred to as "Mediterranean".
On the other hand, Italy is obviously geographically European, and the Democratic staffers who came up with "European and Mediterranean Americans" may have been thinking of people like the Lebanese, not Italians, by the term "Mediterranean".
See, Truth, there are no "White Supremacists for Romney" or "Poor White Trash for Lining Romney's Pockets with the Fruits of their Labor" in that list. All a figment of your imagination.
ReplyDeleteNot only does Obama fail to have a group for "European and Mediterranean Americans" - he also fails to have a group for Protestants, though he has groups for "Catholics" and "Jewish Americans," unless that group for "People of Faith" is - like the DNC's title of its group for white people - a way of getting around directly referencing Protestants as such.
ReplyDeleteQuery: why is the group for Catholics simply called "Catholics," but the group for Jews called "Jewish Americans"? Is this an acknowledgement that Jews are basically more of a poor, powerless race than a religious group?
The race that dare not speak its name! (Apologies to Oscar Wilde.)
ReplyDelete"Query: why is the group for Catholics simply called "Catholics," but the group for Jews called "Jewish Americans"? Is this an acknowledgement that Jews are basically more of a poor, powerless race than a religious group?"
ReplyDeleteBecause Jews have been hated for so long that the term "Jew" itself is used as an epithet ("filthy Jew", for example. You never hear "filthy Catholic") and is considered rude.
Wouldn't it be awesome if you clicked "Young Americans" and it took you to the Bowie song?
ReplyDeleteHaha...On Romney's why is it all "Group X for Romney, Group X for Romney, then Women for Mitt?
ReplyDeleteWhy not just women for Romney?
I think a lot of white Americans are rightly suspicious of the "European American" label. After all, many of us are descended from those who quite consciously distanced themselves from old Europe, whether they came 100 or 400 years ago.
ReplyDeleteDavid Duke uses the term "European-American".
He's actually the only person I've seen use the term regularly and consistently.
Placing "European" immediately prior to "American" is too radioactive. The "and Mediterranean" provides a safety buffer.
ReplyDelete"Placing "European" immediately prior to "American" is too radioactive. The "and Mediterranean" provides a safety buffer."
ReplyDeleteIt gives them cover against the charge that they do not represent Americans, while at the same time providing plausible deniability.
An Australian, for example, reading a category like that would think, 'ah, Wogs.'
How about:
ReplyDeleteBlue Collar workers for Obama/Romney
Two earner families
Factory workers
Unemployed workers
etc.
What, they couldn't even bring themselves to create a NASCAR Dads for Romney group?
ReplyDeleteI tell ya, Romney's not looking good for Nov. Like McSame, he doesn't want it bad enough.
"See, Truth, there are no.... "Poor White Trash for Lining Romney's Pockets with the Fruits of their Labor" in that list."
ReplyDeleteThat's not what they call themselves anyway, they call themselves "Isteve bloggers against Obama."
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Romney
ReplyDeleteJewish Americans for Romney
Polish Americans for Romney
What about Anglo-Americans for Romney?
After all, they do form his core support base. Just saying.
Placing "European" immediately prior to "American" is too radioactive. The "and Mediterranean" provides a safety buffer.
ReplyDeleteYes, a bit like "That's gay!...not that there's anything wrong with that."
It gives them cover against the charge that they do not represent Americans, while at the same time providing plausible deniability.
Also, though, it takes racial reality into account by recognizing that "racial units" are not so much individuals as they are "constellations." That's to say that racial identity isn't always decided merely at the individual level, rather it's formed by taking into account who one is related to and how closely. The simple fact is there has been quite substantial mixing between northern Europeans and these "Mediterraneans" we've been hearing so much about such that the attempt to enforce blanket exclusion on the latter is quite likely to alienate large numbers of the former. You can be as racialistic as you like, but I can't see how you're going to escape acknowledging that your relationship with your racial next-of-kin is more subtle, more nuanced, requiring greater finesse, than your relationship with more distant racial others.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteSomeone has finally admitted that your theories about President Obama are correct.
http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&id=903&fulltext=1&media=
The "Juntos con Romney" is a joke, right? I mean, they know that a "juntos" is defined as a small, usually secret group united for a common interest, right?
ReplyDeleteBiggest difference I see is that the Romney bunch doesn't SHOUT when they write their list of supporters.
ReplyDelete"What about Anglo-Americans for Romney?"
ReplyDeleteNo "Anglo-American" worth a damn ever refers to himself as an "Anglo-American" - British-American, Scottish-American, Scots-Irish, or WASP are fine, but never, never, ever "Anglo-American." Anglo is a term Messicans would use, except when it appears in Anglo-Saxon or Anglosphere which, of course, are acceptable.
Yeah, David Duke, there's a winner right there. The stunning electoral and cultural success of David Duke just begs to be imitated.
ReplyDeleteThe only group that matters is WOMEN. They are not tied into either party. They are very junior in the spoils parade for Dems, but don't really share in the entrepreneurial options of the Republicans (really, how many women will start the next Facebook?)
Thus they are between, and the strategic electoral AND cultural high ground fought over. Hence "War on Women" and Sandra Fluke as slut-heroine for Women. Which has been effective, Obama's bounce has been his embrace of "Fifty Shades of Grey" domination which women eat up like chocolate ice cream. Women don't really care about the economy if they get their domination.
The only kicker is that Obama's weakness abroad practically begs the Egyptians to say, scale the Embassy and burn the flags in Cairo (which happened today) and maybe take diplomats hostage -- women abhor weakness in a man, and will not forgive it. Obama is personally weak, but his being Black has helped (hence the "Once you Vote Black, you never go Back" slogans/buttons designed to appeal to women).
Romney cannot win women, but if he picks off enough high ground (say 40%) and takes 70% of White men he wins. Simple as that.
The "Juntos con Romney" is a joke, right? I mean, they know that a "juntos" is defined as a small, usually secret group united for a common interest, right?
ReplyDeleteJuntos just means "together" in Spanish. Perhaps you're thinking of "junta."
No "Anglo-American" worth a damn ever refers to himself as an "Anglo-American" - British-American, Scottish-American, Scots-Irish, or WASP are fine
ReplyDeleteNo Anglo-Saxon worth a damn refers to himself as a "WASP."
They left out:
ReplyDeleteROMNEY FAMILY FOR ROMNEY
and
MORMONS FOR ROMNEY.
He might just carry Utah.
Anon.
"It's about time we officially recognized ethnic Americans, i.e. American Americans, as a real nationality, just the same as Indians, Mexicans and black Americans (who are not really "African" Americans, and they will tell you why if you ask)."
ReplyDeleteThis was the original idea, but having all these disparate groups is a way the dems split up and reunite through various 'who, whom?' schemes to get votes and power, and the groups are rewarded, for now anyway, with various handouts they never had to work for. Neither the various minority groups nor the dems proper will ever go along with it.
In addition, the blacks I've talked to about the tag 'African American' have tended to support the idea of calling blacks 'African Americans' even when you point out the absurdity of applying that term when they have never even been to Africa before.
Anyway, jokes on them. The dems and minority groups are screwing up the US so badly at this point, compared to how great it was when real whites controlled it and when we referred to ourselves as 'Americans'... let them all call themselves XXXX-Americans. I'll stick with 'Caucasian' or 'White' at this point. All the baggage of the f'd-up modern state of America rightfully belongs in their title.
"No Anglo-Saxon worth a damn refers to himself as a 'WASP.'"
ReplyDeleteOh Svigor, quite a few Anglo-Saxons worth a damn - plus myself - refer to ourselves as such.
The friend who taught me the term in high school is quite brilliant, and extremely successful, and has always called himself a WASP. He is an uber-WASP - Mayflower descendant and all that.