So George Allen made an apparantely racist comment. As if the noose in his office, his love of the confederate flag, and his opposition to MLK day weren't hints too begin with. Still, we may be getting lost a little too much in the details here and not focusing on the larger picture regarding Allen
I took the liberty of examining a few aspects of George Allen's political carreer and voting record. Turns out there are some other things for minorities to be concerned about other than his exceptionally stupid recent comment.
Consider this
-Allen opposes the minimum wage increase, which stands to benifit minority workers in low wage jobs.
-Allen supports vouchers and voted no on a shift of $11B from corporate loopholes to public education (source:
http://www.ontheissues.org/...). Many minorities rest their hope in public education. Allen has been no friend of the system.
-Allen strongly favors 3 strikes laws and tougher drug enforcement. At a time when drugs are an increasing problem in minority areas, Allen looks not to prevent, but to punish.
-Allen supports the privitization of social security. For low wage workers, many of whom work multiple jobs, the promise of a retirement is an incentive to keep working. Privitizing social security is a giveaway to the financial industry which only makes the goal of retirement more difficult to accomplish for low wage workers.
These are only a few examples of issues where George Allen has taken a stance which is unfriendly towards minorities and working class individuals. He has continually appeased a far right/special interest base at the expense of the people he is supposed to represent.
I don't really know the degree to which George Allen is a racist. Some say not at all, others say most definitely. I do know that his comment was offensive, misguided, and politically idiotic. I hope it sheds some light on what Allen's true beliefs about race are.
Personally, I think he is fairly indifferent about the issue. I don't think he hates minorities, but I certainly don't think he cares about them or understands what their lives may be like. If he did, he would realize how incredibly inappropriate his "Macaca" comment was. Jim Webb needs to make this clear to the voters, but he cannot merely focus on Allen's comment. He needs to focus on Allen's record; a record which tells the voters that Allen is a friend to special interests, not to the people of his commonwealth.