Neocons Play the Race Card

Gee. It only took them half a day to play the race card on Sophia Sotomayor.

Newt Gingrich, neocon extraordinaire, is Twittering now that because of a comment Judge Sotomayor made 8 years ago, she should withdraw from her Supreme Court Justice nomination.

Gingrich claims that Judge Sotomayor is unacceptable because she is, and I quote, “a racist.” because she made a comment that he claims is racist.

Not only is this ludicrous on its face, but Gingrich took the whole comment out of its context.

First, here is the comment, uttered by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor that Judge Sotomayor was commenting on:

“…a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases.”

To which Judge Sotomayor responded:

“I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.”

That is the statement that offends the gentle sensibilities of Newt Gingrich so that he said this:

“Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a Latina woman' new racism is no better than old racism.”

So it seems, according to Gingrich, that Judge Sotomayor is of the opinion that a person’s life experiences in some way makes them a better judge who is able to deliver better decisions.

Does Newt Gingrich agree with that? Who knows? Where it gets him is that the life experiences of a Latina woman will be different than an angry old white guy.

But isn’t that a no-brainer?

After all, what kinds of life experiences do you think Judge Sotomayor was referring to? Riding on the New York subway system?

Hardly. The life experiences I think she was referring to was what it is like being a woman in a world that puts women in second place, and being Hispanic in a society that hates and discriminates against Hispanics.

So because a Latina woman would have more of a personal experience with sexism, racism and discrimination that goes hand in hand with both, and would be wiser than an old white man because of it, that makes her a racist.

Newt Gingrich has it a little wrong. It is the racists who gave Judge Sotomayor her life experiences, not the other way around.

Newt Gingrich has it a little wrong. Racist people are in the driver’s seat. They are the ones running things that makes life so uncomfortable for the discriminated.

How can he get it so upside down, backwards, and turned around?

Could it be because Newt Gingrich is . . . racist?