Yesterday in the thread I started about Rep. J.D. Hayworth’s (R-AZ-5th district) marvelous opinion piece on multiculturalism and assimilation, the comments section of that post got sidetracked when a commenter attacked the motivations and character of those who agreed with Hayworth’s observations by saying such talk was usually only an attempt to pander to the ‘racist element’ within the Republican party. As proof of such ‘elements’, the commenter referenced a ’study’ which was reported by the Washington Post yesterday that supposedly linked political leanings to ‘hidden biases.’ The key part of the ’study’ in question:
Another study presented at the conference, which was in Palm Springs, Calif., explored relationships between racial bias and political affiliation by analyzing self-reported beliefs, voting patterns and the results of psychological tests that measure implicit attitudes — subtle stereotypes people hold about various groups.
That study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.
My response to the citing of this ’study’ was:
If you think talk of assimiliation has to do with racism, you better think again, pal. Why is it everytime a Republican talks about anything having to do with race you guys start playing the race card? Answer: you need the votes. 92% of black people who voted for Democrats in the last election. You guys are already having a hard time winning elections as it is so anything you can do to keep the black vote stays on the table - including rampant race baiting where prominent Democrats like Charlie Rangel demagogue the hell out of racial issues while the party heads like Howard Dean let it pass without much, if any comment. Yet when a Republican even mentions the word black, there are calls from people like Howard Dean for “apologies” and the like and nine times out of ten Republicans will bend over backwards to make sure the black community knows they weren’t trying to be racist with whatever the offending comment might have been.
So don’t come here to this blog, and think you’ve got a leg up on anyone on the race issue because of a stupid survey - you might want to take a look at your own backyard before you start messing in someone else’s. Republicans have worked hard over the years to erase their image as a party of racists, yet the black Democrats in your party continue to get away with it because no one will call them on it.
Honest discussions in this country on racism and immigration are hard to have thanks to people like you, who want to perpetuate the myth that the Republican party is full of little more than Sheets Byrd types. Get a clue!
The whole discussion on assimilation was sidetracked by the discussion of racism in each party by that point (as of this writing, there are 86 comments in that thread on the issue), and I had planned on doing a full post about that ’study’ this morning as a followup - until I read the post Dafydd at Big Lizards wrote about this ’study.’ He’s dissected it brilliantly - I mean, just demolished it. Consider that post a must-read.
Oh, and about the scientists who conducted this ’study’? They have their own political biases which the Washington Post left out (mistakenly I’m sure 
). Michelle Malkin has the breakdown of their political contributions. Hint: they contributed to Democrats.
Surprise surprise.
