John McCain’s Lukewarm Support for Anti-Preferences Initiatives
Ward Connerly is right. John McCain, Republican presidential nominee, “tepidly endorsed” the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative (AzCRI), a measure that would have barred state and local governments from discriminating or granting preferences in hiring, contracting, and admissions in his home state.
“Although he supports the initiatives,” Connerly told the Associated Press, “I believe he would just as soon that it go away. He doesn’t want to come across as hostile to black people and Hispanics.”
Last summer, McCain reluctantly answered a direct question about whether he supported the AzCRI. “Yes, I do…I’ve always opposed quotas.”
Barack Obama, on the other hand, believes the government should be allowed to discriminate and grant preferential treatment based on skin color.
“I think in the past [McCain had] been opposed to these Ward Connerly initiatives as divisive,” he told the Associated Press. “And I think he’s right. These are not designed to solve a big problem, but they’re all too often designed to drive a wedge between people.”
Preferring one group of people over another based on race isn’t divisive, but advocating equal treatment for all is divisive? And this man may be our next president.
Unfortunately, AzCRI will not appear on the November ballot, but director Max McPhail said he’ll begin a new campaign for 2010. Residents of Colorado and Nebraska, do what the majority of voters in California, Washington, and Michigan did. Choose fairness and equality over political double-talk. And remember this, black voters: A government with the power to discriminate in favor of you has the power to discriminate against you.
