[Toughy]

Anybody watching the Republican convention.....I'm gonna try. Interesting blog in The Nation

http://www.thenation.com/blog/169595...xtraordinaire#

RNC Schedule: Tokenism Extraordinaire

Ben Adler on August 28, 2012 - 1:36 PM ET

Tampa—Most Republicans oppose affirmative action, but their national convention is the apotheosis of the practice at its most tokenistic and least substantive. Whereas Democrats and liberals support policies that are meant to actually assist disadvantaged groups as a whole and to protect them from discrimination, Republicans have no interest in women or minorities except as window dressing for their discriminatory policies. It would be insulting for them to think it will actually work. In fairness, Republicans probably know they will not actually move many African-American or Latino votes by putting a handful of non-white speakers on the dais in Tampa. Rather, it is part of Mitt Romney’s general election strategy of the ricochet pander. Like his speech at the NAACP, the purpose is not to appeal to minorities but to socially moderate white suburban swing voters who want to be reassured that pulling the lever for the GOP does not make them bigots.
<snip>