Thursday, November 1st, 2007...10:52 am
Youth Hostile
Years ago, when I was running for the exalted positon of Pima County Charter Committee, I was invited to speak at a Republican club meeting in Green Valley. I was invited because the office was non-partisan. This was during the race between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. At the meeting, a State Representative who was coordinating Dole’s campaign in Pima county spoke about the race, which was already looking like a sure victory for Clinton.
Things don’t look very good for Senator Dole right now. But if you look at who is not supporting him, it’s the young women. So, if any of you know any young women, ask them why they are voting for Mr. Clinton.
“If any of you know any young women,” just the phrase showed a big part of the problem right there.
I thought about this the other day when I read an article in the Star about younger Republican activists who are supporting Ron Paul. This paragraph stuck out to me:
“They’re not about the Republican Party; they’re candidate-specific,” said Judi White, chair of the Pima County GOP. “It seems to me that the majority of them, in Tucson, they are young and they are enthusiastic. But they haven’t been around before, and I think when Ron Paul is gone, you won’t see them anymore.”
I’m not going to pretend for a moment that me or my cohorts weren’t met with a level of suspicion of even contempt by some older Democratic party activists when we became active, but to have the party chair deliver a message like this to the press? White ought to be happy that despite George Bush’s plummeting poll numbers, there are young people who are excited to be involved. No wonder why the Pima County Republican party is in such a mess.
10 Comments
November 1st, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Tedski,
I had the same reaction.
She’s an idiot.
Paul’s university people were active today as well.
November 1st, 2007 at 6:44 pm
You’re moderating comments? What happened?
November 1st, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Interesting contrast.
Five years ago I was passing around a petition for Roger Hartstone, who was running for Congress (in fact he ended up finishing last that year with less than 2% of the vote– but in my precinct he got one more vote than George Cordova, who won the primary district-wide). I met Claudia Maestas, who I didn’t know at all, and she talked to me about running for Precinct Committeeman (which I didn’t even know what that was or what would be expected.) So I went ahead and ran, and within two years was vice chair of my county party and a member of the state committee. So tomorrow, I will be very happy to watch Claudia get inducted into the Hall of Fame.
And it’s a bit like the ‘Deaniacs.’ They certainly upset the apple cart four years ago, coming in from the outside, but the Democratic party came to embrace them (not always without friction, but we have embraced them) and just a few months later Howard Dean was elected chair of the DNC (where he’s done a spectacular job.)
A sharp contrast, especially in Arizona. However, Ms. White’s statement makes it clear how a completely rigid, doctrinally strict inquisitor like Randy Pullen could have gotten elected chair of the state GOP. Somebody must have voted for him, and my guess (based purely on speculation) is that Judi White was one of his supporters.
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:46 am
I’ll stand with my young republicans on this issue. That bitch should go. And go now. she probably caught the menopause. Nasty bug going around…
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I had the same reaction when I read Ms. White’s remarks. Just on the supposition that she’s right though, wouldn’t it be a good idea for Dems to have a plan for recruiting their energy on the basis of civil liberties and international de-militarization ad non-intervention? Surely they are this enthusiastic about a return to the gold standard.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:20 pm
“She probably caught the menopause.”
Do you have something against middle aged women, Tom-AZ?
I guess I should look at this way. If a middle aged woman says something arrogant and condescending and dumb, we can blame it on the diminishing hormones and the hot flashes and the lack of sleep and the night sweats. When a man of any age is condescending and arrogant and ignorant then that’s just the way he is. And there is no shortage of them, either.
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Randall– you’re right.
Last night I went to the Hall of Fame dinner in Phoenix, and on the way out of town (I went north from downtown) I drove through what looked like a two or three block long block party full of young people. Then I noticed all the ‘Ron Paul r(evo)lution’ signs and realized it was a Paul rally. There looked like there were several hundred people there, all under thirty.
There are a lot of reasons I’m not personally enamored of Paul, but I think that the number one issue for a lot of those people (like most young people) is Iraq, and we should be reaching out to them. For that matter, the recent college aid bill that Congress passed is a great place to start when explaining to young people that Government can make a positive difference in the lives of people.
I’m also sure that those aren’t the people who get called by pollsters (for one thing very few probably have a land line) so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Paul surprises a lot of people with how strong he is in a caucus state (Iowa, in particular). Now I don’t think he will beat the well-lubricated Iowa machine of Mitt ($$$) Romney, but can you imagine what kind of heartburn would be going on in GOP headquarters the day after the Iowa caucus if the order of finish was:
1. Romney
2. Paul (surprisingly close)
3. Huckabee
4. Thompson
5. Giuliani (winning no delegates)
Dang, I’d love to see how they would start tearing their hair out.
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Eli, - That was not a Ron Paul rally - it was First Friday. There were a number of Ron Paul supporters, as well as Obama, the ACLU, PDA, various artsy vendors, musicians, food vendors, even the Communist Party USA was passing out literature. It’s a street party that occurs every month first Fridays.
November 4th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
So then my first impression was correct.
November 11th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
[…] August 31. It was about happenings in Phoenix so I did not pay much attention. Tedski covered the Tucson angle on November 1. We had a more controversial story on November 6 but I still did not personally see the […]
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