Something You Didn’t See Last Week…

…Was diversity. If you watched any of the convention last week you saw a mainly white audience.

Tale of two conventions: Dems tout diversity
Inquirer
By Matt Katz   
Sept 3, 2012

Led by a president with a black father and a white mother, Democrats will tout diversity and sell themselves as inclusionary, sensitive to the most marginalized, and hip to the nation's changing demographics. Of their delegates, one study found, 26 percent are black.

The same study found that 2.1 percent of this year's GOP delegates are black. Republican activists see themselves as defenders of hard work and merit without regard to creed or color - their presidential nominee, after all, is a Mormon - and they recoil at Democrats' use of an affirmative-action system to pick some delegates based on race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

The lack of diversity in the Republican Party I believe is from the core philosophy of the party. In a news article on KABC in Tampa they said,

Tea Party median age, lack of diversity puts GOP at disadvantage?
KNBC
August 30, 2012

TAMPA, Fla. (KABC) -- The Tea Party's passion has driven conservatives to the polls. What began as a grass-roots movement in 2009 has become a force. With Tea Party support, some candidates have had resounding victories. That power has pushed the Republican Party further to the right.

Tea Party members oppose abortion, demand lower taxes and support smaller government and tougher immigration laws. To many on the outside, the Tea Party can appear as exclusionary. The Tea Party's numbers are largely male and white, with weak support from women and minorities.

I believe the Republican Party is the party of the status quo and the party of “I got mine.” They want to go back to the happier times of “Father Knows Best,” a time of the father was the bread winner and the mother was the homemaker and everyone know their place… “In the closet, out of site” if you were non-white or LGBT. Let’s all go back to before the Civil Rights, the Women’s Rights movements and before the Stonewall Uprising, which is solidly reflected in their party platform this year.

While the Democratic convention is that of inclusion not only is the convention 26% of the delegates this year black but there are 13 trans delegates to the convention this year. One of the problems that I think that the Democrats have is the result of their diversity, it is like a coalition rather than a monolithic block like the Republicans Where a decree comes on down from up high and everyone nods their heads and the loyal followers fall into lock step behind them. While the Democrats have to build a coalition with a little give and take from everyone. Right now a number of Gays and Lesbians are mad because President Obama didn’t propose a legislation to repeal DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) and they are not supporting him, even though his administration has refused to defend the law in court.