Figuring Out the Hubris of Democrats
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
During the coverage of Yasser Arafat’s funeral, I watched a poor Palestinian woman from one of the refugee camps weeping in grief at the loss of her leader. I found that scene amazing, in that news reports were indicating that Arafat’s widow, Suha, would be getting $2 million a month to keep her in the Parisian style she’s been enjoying these past few years. Is it possible that the poor, malnourished refugees don’t know that while they’ve been starving, Arafat’s squirreled away billions in Swiss banks? Where is that fortune that Suha Arafat will receive coming from, and why isn’t it going to the refugees? Why isn’t it clear to these people that they’ve been had?
In much the same way, I find it hard to understand how so many Democrats from minority groups, especially those in the black community, fail to see that their leaders rarely practice what they preach.
Just about every Democratic politician who rails about how the Republicans cater to the needs of their rich buddies has very little to do anymore with the poor man on the street. Most are millionaires, or at least very well off, who travel in comfort to rallies in the inner cities only during election years. How does one explain the hubris, the complete lack of integrity, of those who support or form the backbone of the liberal wing of the party?
Sunday’s Page Six gossip column in the New York Post reported that the Wollman Skating Rink at Central Park was closed to the public so that Democratic supporter Steven Spielberg and eight family members and friends, along with superstar Tom Cruise, could skate in private for three hours. We’re told that Mr. Cruise is a very fine skater. How nice.
It’s not unusual for stores to shut their doors to the public so that uber-celebrities can shop undisturbed. But I’ve never heard of a public facility shuttered to entertain one. The rink is one of the few places where city kids can skate for a reasonable fee. Imagine their disappointment when they were refused entry to the public rink because the stars needed their privacy.
These are the Hollywood super-heavyweights who throw fund-raising parties for politicians and rail against the Republican tax-cutters socking it to the middle class. Apparently, mingling with the cherished middle class on an ice rink is taboo for exalted Hollywood celebs.
Somehow I don’t recall any Republican tycoon pulling such an aristocratic snub.
President Bush has just nominated Condoleezza Rice to replace the departing Secretary of State Powell. She is the most powerful black woman in the world, yet Garry Trudeau felt free to draw a “Doonesbury” comic strip showing Mr. Bush calling her “brown sugar.”
The most powerful black man and woman in America have achieved their prominence within the Republican Party – the party of Abraham Lincoln. Clearly, Mr. Bush has not used blacks as token appointments and there is no glass ceiling in his administration where women are concerned.
In a column I wrote about the chairman of Core, Roy Innis, I mentioned the Bush family’s longtime connection with the United Negro College Fund. Many readers had never heard of this, and I, in turn, was surprised to learn from one reader the identity of the family friend pictured sharing the glow of Mr. Bush’s re-election victory with his family at the White House. Lois Betts is the wife of Bush’s Yale roommate, Roland Betts, chairman of Chelsea Piers, and a Democrat. The interracial couple have been longtime friends of the Bushes but have never been trotted out by Mr. Bush to exploit a political point.
Yet the Democrats think nothing of blurring the lines between church and state by holding political rallies in black churches. Time and time again, the blacks and other minority groups give their votes to the Democratic Party, even though it’s done nothing but block legislation that would provide positive change for these communities. Vouchers, tax cuts, bans on gay marriage – these all are things that resonate with blacks but are offered by a GOP that has been demonized by a complicit liberal press.
In an attempt to defend his cousin Michael Skakel, Robert Kennedy Jr., son of the slain New York senator, tried to implicate two black strangers who were in the vicinity of the place where Martha Moxley was murdered in Connecticut. I didn’t hear a word of complaint from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Nor did the New York Times suggest this accusation was unseemly.
Looks like the Palestinians and American minorities get their news from the same sources.