RNC privacy slip up reveals
something dark and disturbing about the way Republicans view culture and ethnicity (emphasis mine):
In a breach of privacy, the Republican National Committee erroneously e-mailed a list that contained the names, races, and Social Security numbers of dozens of top Republican donors -- and that identified two of the contributors as Muslim -- to this reporter.(...)
The attached spreadsheet of 76 guests included category headings with Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and "race." The race of all but three were listed as "Caucasian." One was identified as "Asian," and the race of two others, Malik and Seeme Hasan, was listed as "Muslim."
The classification drew criticism from Mrs. Hasan, who founded a group called Muslims for Bush and who, along with her husband, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican committees and candidates in recent years.
"The only word I can think of is not very nice," Mrs. Hasan said yesterday in a telephone interview from her home in Colorado. "I think that whoever wrote this obviously has no knowledge, because Muslim is not a race. It is a religion," she said.
Some people have asked, based on my posts from last night, just what it is that the progressive movement stands for. Eighteen months ago,
I laid out what I thought was the founding principle that separating the two coalitions at this time: belief in a pluralistic society versus belief a war of civilizations and cultures. That binary opposition differentiates progressivism from conservatism as well as any other binary I can think of. The bizarre and offensive classification of Muslims as a "race" by the RNC further reinforces the notion that conservatives see themselves as engaged in a battle of civilizations. Of course, their repeated election year focus on issues such as immigration, gay marriage, and "Islamo-fascism" are just some of the repeated reminders that what really motivates conservatives is a war against pluralism and a sense that "their culture" is somehow under threat from a variety of "outside" forces.
Pluralism, common good, right to privacy, open society, better future. There is some overlap there, but that is where I currently stand in my ten-word vision of progressivism.
