Mitt Romney
chalked up his loss to Obama giving gifts to certain people, the 47% he
infamously spoke about, effectively buying their votes. These gifts included
health care coverage on parents’ plans for individuals up to age 26; amnesty
for the children of illegal immigrants who call themselves the Dreamers; partial
forgiveness of student loans; and access to contraceptives. It’s nothing that
Republicans haven’t been saying all along in one way or another, but Romney
quickly found out that his GOP peers distanced themselves as if he were a
pariah.
Newt Gingrich
said, “I just think it’s nuts. I mean, first of all, it's insulting. The job of
a political leader in part is to understand the people. If we can't offer a
better future that is believable to more people, we're not going to win.”
Was his statement
a revelation or the first step to hoodwinking the populace with a different
approach? I don’t consider much of what Gingrich says as even close to the
truth, so, of course, I suspect the latter. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be
open to the GOP changing course, but at this moment, it seems unfeasible.
I was traveling
for work last week and left my red swing state to arrive in a northeast blue
state, so I had some time off from politics other than tuning into MSNBC in the
evening back at the hotel. One night Ronald and I watched Chris Matthews
together by telephone.
Ronald, on the
other hand, continued his daily trek to the golf range where the white guys on
the porch also talked about how Obama stole the election. I realize that 49% of
America might not be happy with the election results, but, then again, many of
us spent 8 years unhappy with President Bush, and there was a good deal more
evidence of a stolen election back in 2000 than the skimpy evidence Republicans
are holding up as proof today that the 2012 election was stolen from them. I’m
finding difficulty in believing that it is something other than racism that is
causing the backlash.
One very strange
accusation came from Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster a week ago. He said, “dozens
[and] dozens of Black people [came] in and voted on Election Day. Everybody has
a right to vote but nobody in [these] towns knows anyone who's Black. How did
that happen? We’re going to find out.”
He later issued an
apology. I guess he was like a social studies teacher I worked with when I
student taught in the Syracuse City Schools back in 1978.
“The invisible
poor,” she exclaimed in the faculty lunchroom one day. “I’ve never met a poor
person. Do they exist?”
Yes, Virginia,
they exist, and a lot of them are your students. Not only do poor people exist
in America, but also blacks and Hispanics and Asians and Native Americans and mixed race people and
gays and lots of others of all races, ethnicities, and socio-economic status.
America is not just a country full of wealthy, heterosexual, white people.
Ronald discovered
once again that he does not matter the way the white guys, who hang out on the
porch at the golf range, matter. They had all taken out pictures of their wives
to show one another. Ronald, trying to prove that he is just another American guy
despite his dark skin, wandered over to the CRV to dig into his man bag for a
photo of me.
A black guy,
someone Ronald has spoken to on prior occasions at the golf range, stood next
to his car loading his clubs into the trunk. Ronald showed him my photo and
said he was going to show it to the white guys on the porch.
“You do realize
where we live,” the other black guy counseled. “It’s not accepted down here.”
(Note for new readers of my blog – I’m white and Ronald is black.)
“I know where I
live,” Ronald said. “That’s why I’m showing it to them.”
He stepped back up
on the porch and displayed the photo, taken at work for my ID card a few years
ago. Two white guys stood up and left without so much as an acknowledgment.
Another said, “I’ve seen that photo already.”
True, he had.
Ronald had shown it to him and a couple of the other white guys on the porch before.
“You also met my
wife,” he reminded him. The white guy and his white wife were dining one
evening as we entered the restaurant and were seated at the booth directly
behind them. Introductions were made, and, when they finished dining, they
stopped at our table for another ten minutes of small talk.
“I don’t recall
that,” the white guy said. Ah, the invisible interracial couple!
Sunday night
Ronald, our daughter Mackenzie, and I went out for pizza and wings at our
favorite pizza shop (okay, the ONLY pizza shop we patronize down here). The
young white woman, who usually works behind the counter and who always hands
Ronald’s debit card back to me, was off that night. The white guy behind the
counter was friendly, called Ronald “boss,” and even gave us a discount card
because he knows we eat there a couple of times a month.
One of the white
guys from the golf range was sitting at the counter behind us waiting for his
order to be completed. Ronald turned to acknowledge him but the white guy
dropped his head. He later walked by our table to go to the men’s restroom, and
he dropped his head then, too. Ronald had spoken to him often over the course
of three years. They had shared bowling plaques and awards they had each won,
like Ronald’s 299 ring, and they had spoken about golf.
Ronald told the white
owner of the golf range about being ignored by the white guy when he went
Monday to hit balls.
“Well, he probably
didn’t recognize you out of context,” the white golf range owner told him.
“Why not? He’s
seen me for over three years, and we’ve had lengthy conversations. I recognized
him,” Ronald said.
“But he’s never
really looked at you,” I told Ronald when he related his conversation with the
white golf range owner.
The invisible
black guy!
So I agree with
Romney on a certain level that Obama gave us gifts. He gave us the gift of
acknowledgement, the gift of mattering, and the gift of visibility. We
are not invisible. We exist. Some people just don’t see us.
Ronald and Dianne in 1976
