On his May 23 program, the Rev. Al Sharpton’s PoliticsNation panel turned to the thorny issue of race in politics. As could be expected, it was not a balanced discussion as Sharpton’s panel was an Amen pew of liberal pundits: the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank and left-wing XM Radio host Joe Madison.
For his part, Milbank snarked that the GOP is made up of “a coalition of white southern men,” but even more outrageously, Madison railed that Republican leaders “really don’t know people who look different than they are.” Sharpton, a Baptist minister, did not rebuke his guests for bearing false witness.
We’ve come to expect this kind of language from MSNBC personalities, as Chris Matthews demonstrated last week on Sharpton’s program. But it’s disappointing to hear the network’s guests promulgate the same false liberal narrative – that all Republicans are racists and bigots.
Madison’s comments were perhaps the most offensive and off-the-mark, as he decried what he claimed was a “lack of socialization” in the Republican Party.
You know, you know what this is? It's a lack of socialization. This is a party that wants to talk multicultural but they lack socialization. Their leaders really don't know people who look different than they are.
“Yes sir,” Sharpton said approvingly.
Apparently Madison and Sharpton don’t consider Marco Rubio, Herman Cain, Susana Martinez, Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz, Allen West, Condoleezza Rice, Tim Scott, Brian Sandoval, and Bobby Jindal “leaders” of the Republican Party. While liberals like Sharpton will continue to dismiss the Republican Party as a bunch of “white southern men,” conservative leaders like those listed above will no doubt persist in inspiring millions of conservatives – regardless of the color of their skin, region of the country, or ethnic heritage – all over the United States.
See the relevant transcript below:
MSNBC
PoliticsNation
05/24/13
6:52 p.m. Eastern
DANA MILBANK: Right. And the irony, of course, is that one of the new non-white faces of the Republican Party is the person giving him this prominence here. I think it’s probably a good idea to put this in perspective now, because if you look at the debate that’s going on in Washington today, you see the president and Democrats back on their heels because of the various scandals that are bubbling up. But underneath all of that, you do have this very serious demographic problem that is not changing in the slightest for the Republican Party in the long term with women, with Latinos and gay Americans. You can just see that there's no coalition, that you can't have a coalition of white southern men and win elections.
AL SHARPTON: Well, I think that's why they have very serious problems and these scandals are not amounting to much. I don’t think they are scandals at the presidential level as of yet. But let me go back to you a minute, joe, when you look at Governor Corbett of Pennsylvania. Out of almost a million Latinos in his state, he can't find a Latino to put on his staff?
JOE MADISON: It reminds me of what, again, the former governor of Massachusetts, the former candidate for the Republican Party said – maybe he needs a binder of Latino names to help him. From what I understand, I may be wrong – that I think he does have Latinos on his staff. You know, you know what this is? It's a lack of socialization. This is a party that wants to talk multicultural but they lack socialization. Their leaders really don't know people who look different than they are.
AL SHARPTON: Yes sir.
