According to a new Quinnipiac University poll, most U.S. voters strongly disagree with Sonia Sotomayer’s position on the New Haven, Conn., firefighters case.
This comes as no surprise to me, and as faithful readers of this blog will attest, last week I plotted a strategy to make the most of this real GOP advantage.
Of course, that strategy was overwhelmed by the idiotic discussion, led by that brilliant Republican strategist Rush Limbaugh, who called the Hispanic Supreme Court nominee a “racist.”
As predicted, that kind of rhetoric just served to distract from the key issue of this nomination process — and to delegitimize Republicans in the minds of swing voters.
Republicans are also getting caught up in the “empathy trap,” a clever ruse used by President Obama to make conservatives look like they have no heart.
It would be amusing if it weren’t so infuriating. By condemning empathy as if empathy were a code word for communism, the GOP looks silly. My guess is that to most Americans, empathy means, well, empathy, and while empathy shouldn’t really be central to the judicial process, having empathy in life is an essential part of being a normal human.
Coming out against empathy is not very smart. Do the Republicans test out this language before they use it?
Getting back to the issue at hand: According to Quinnipiac, more than 70 percent of American voters say that diversity is not a good enough reason to give minorities preferential treatment in competition for government or private-sector jobs. By a 70-25 percent spread, American voters oppose giving some racial groups preference for government jobs to increase diversity.
By a 74-to-21 percent spread, American voters oppose giving group preferences for private-sector jobs.
My guess is that in this time of economic turmoil, people have had enough of the social engineering. I bet a lot of middle-class Americans who feel the heat of a tough job market don’t want to lose out on a job (or lose a promotion) simply because of their race.
This poll shows where the battle lines ought to be drawn on Sotomayor. Not on whether or not she is a racist. Not on her abundance of empathy. They should be drawn on her position on state-sponsored discrimination. The American people have had enough of it, according to the latest polls. That is where the GOP has an advantage, and that is where they should take the battle.
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