Well, it wouldn't be okay if the group you said it to had a problem with your words.


I've cracked a million stereotypical jokes when hanging out with black friends. Comments I would never make in a million years to a non-black crowd. Now, I'm not a politician so things are different for me. I will concede that Dean should not have made these comments. But, yeah, it's a non-issue.

The Dean comment may be a non-issue, the fact that it would have been blown up into a major issue had a conservative republican said it, is not. There is a clear double standard, and it's insulting and wrong.

You know this for a fact, do you?

yep- given historical behavior and events it is blatantly clear there are different standards and acceptable behaviors for liberals/dems vs conservatives/repubs.


Yes.

During Bush's Privatize Social Security World Tour 2005 he told a black crowd that Social Security was inherently unfair to black men because their expected life span was shorter than that of white men.

Now this was intentionally misleading because Bush knows just as well as I do that the shorter life expectancy data of black men is skewed by the disproportionately high murder rate of black males under 30. Bush also knows that there is nothing he could do to Social Security that would allow black men under 30 to start receiving benefits.

This gibberish, this playing the race card when there is no issue (With regards to retirement. The high murder rate of black men is most certainly an issue.) is offensive to me. I find intentional deceit to be worse than an ill-advised joke. But I don't have the morals and values of our friends on the extreme right (Actually I do. I just refuse to play the whole "do whatever I want to my fellow man and repent to my lord and I'll be okay" game) so what do I know?

yeah- when Bush says something- it is offensive and inherently misleading and deceitful- when a dem does it.....it is not offensive, it's a statement of fact, either true or an honest mistake.

After all- the statements made by dems are never deceitful or just outright lies.

The failure to be able to admit the double standard is infuriating, but hardly surprising.

The double standard does still exist. But I just don't think these comments, out of a republicans mouth to a receptive black crowd, would have created a firestorm. Sure, there would be a few partisan shots lobbed at the other side (like what happened here) but I think the stir would have been minor.

and I think, strongly suspect, no, I know, some partisan dem would have demanded their head.

Agreed (that's what happened to Dean, isn't it). But I say reaction from the public would be a collective yawn.