Ruminations of a Chicago Young Republican

1. Janine Garofalo recently called me a redneck racist with neurological malfunctions on national television. Me! Can you believe that? I was shocked. Needless to say, I have never faced such venomous accusations. Of course, Ms. Garofalo didn’t mention me by name, but she flippantly advised Keith Olbermann that any participant in the April 15th Tax Day Protests was assuredly a white racist who couldn’t stand having a black president.

Obviously Garofalo is a Hollywood dolt of no intellectual accomplishment. Her foolishness is undisputable. But one important question remains: why hasn’t the mainstream media denounced and alienated this nincompoop? (And yes, I actually wrote “nincompoop”) I wonder what would happen to Dennis Miller, Kelsey Grammer, or Tom Selick if they publicly called Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton “evil bigots.” I suspect the result might be different.

2. Why are residents here in Chicago not angrier with their political leadership? It always amazes me that there is little palpable indignation among Chicagoans. We have governors actively promoting pay-to-play, senators playing along, and scandal seeping its way into nearly all levels of county, city, and state politics. All this while we have the highest total sales tax of all major U.S. cities. But absent editorial pages denouncing the corruption and incompetence, you never see normal residents holding rallies or staging protests (save our April 15th events). I marvel at how Chicago residents are utterly desensitized to political scandal, corruption, and ineptitude. We’re almost more amused by the theatrical impact than we are affronted by the inherent insult. I wish this were different.

3. A prominent Democratic activist, and a friend of mine, recently insisted that I delete my involvement and support of the Chicago Young Republicans from my resume. And he was serious. He wrote me via email, and advised me that, “In Chicago, politically active Democrats all know each other, and many have a thing against Republicans. Obama people are especially petty and nasty…I can speak from experience that Democrats, especially liberal Dems, hold grudges, and may not consider someone who is Republican to be a ‘good fit’ to be part of their office.”

I have since followed his advice. I still wonder if I did the right thing. Now I’m beginning to wonder who’s reading these ruminations.

4. “Identity politics” has taken over how the mainstream media reports the news. When President Obama announced his appointment of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, nearly every major mainstream newspaper hailed in its headlines that the “First Latina” or “First Hispanic” was chosen for the High Court. The fact that the nominee was an actual person--Sonia Sotomayor, came later. It was secondary.

Is the same true for recent Republican-appointed judges and cabinet members? Did the newspapers heap praise over George H.W. Bush’s choice of Clarence Thomas as the “Second African-American” chosen for the Court? How about Albert Gonzales, the first Latino nominated for Attorney General by President George W. Bush? Or, instead, did the word “Conservative” come first? I certainly suspect the latter. I wonder what accounts for this disparity.

Kyle Stone
Membership Director, Chicago Young Republican