The real forgotten Americans

Rudy Giuliani’s introductory comments at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night illustrated one of the Republican Party’s most fundamental flaws yet preeminent attributes: the appeal to what 19th century social scientist and theologian William Graham Sumner called the “forgotten man,” a middle-class worker who asks little of anyone, especially from their government. “We the people — the citizens of the United States — get to decide our next president … not the media, not Hollywood celebrities, not anyone else,” he said. Indeed, Giuliani and his party sought to assail the very class they so readily serve.

That John McCain chose Gov. Sara Palin, a self-proclaimed hockey mom from Alaska, illustrates this point plainly. The McCain-Palin duo is selling itself as bipartisan reformers with an appeal to middle class swing voters. Palin, in her speech Wednesday night, said this regarding working-class Americans: “They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America … who grow our food, run our factories and fight our wars.”

Yet Palin and other speakers did not say how they would end those wars, grow food and run factories collapsing amid one of the worst job markets since the early 1980s. Palin laughingly suggested that she will stand up to oil lobbyists but at the same time has been a fierce proponent of offshore drilling in her state, not to mention her lieutenant governor was actually a former oil lobbyist himself. The lack of diversity in the GOP convention delegates also points who the Republicans actually serve: MSNBC reported that only 36 of the 2,380 GOP conventions delegates are black — the lowest number in 40 years.

We fully support McCain and Palin’s argument that they’ll come into the White House as ethical, bipartisan reformers. But there remains a stark contrast to what Palin and fellow Republican’s have been telling voters and their actions. If they really want to appeal to the forgotten American perhaps they should have turned their attention to the mangled veterans, moms without health insurance and student activists marching outside their elitist jamboree.