Terry Moran Stirs Up Quite the Controversy

Terry Moran of ABC News let loose with some very incendiary comments, on his blog:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/terrymoran/2007/02/is_giuliani_whi.html

As an Italian American, I am OFFENDED, big time. Not for being considered a black person, I’m OK with that. I’m offended that he thinks being an Italian American precludes me from being a Republican, or a Republican nominee for national office.

What’s more he brings up the ugly specter of miscegenation, an antique term defined here http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/miscegenation. I don’t think that this word has any meaning in America and no place in debate. It is as foul as to use the N-word in print. Moreover, it cannot stand up as a claim against Republicans.

Mr. Moran is being incendiary AND fallacious.

Moran’s entire case is based on the fact that Republicans have not nominated any non-Anglo-Saxon candidate for national office, except for Spiro Agnew, in it’s history. This is a truth, but also an irrelevancy.

The flaw is that he attempts a connection between historic and current behavior of a political party. The beauty of political parties is that they are made up of people, and in a diverse population, the Party is, by needs, also diverse.

The second flaw is that he suggests alienation on behalf of Italian Americans to the Republicans. (I wonder indeed, whether he seeks to inspire alienation).

How could Italian Americans vote for a party that won’t reflect them on the national ticket?
I have an answer: We are patient people; that’s why we are Conservative. In fact, patience is one of the chief virtues of Conservatism.

Although I cannot find the citation, I speculate (from family history) that Italian-Americans have voted with the Republicans during all of our history of participation in national elections.
(Voting Habits in the United States, by Ethnicity, 1900-2006, citation coming)

The idea that we have never been accepted into the mainstream of American political life as Republicans is nonsense. It is also inflammatory. He raises this discussion by citing a 90-year old case here regarding miscegenation, itself an antique and inflammatory term, defined here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/miscegenation

In 1922, the great majority of Italian-Americans had recently been “boat people,” like the Vietnamese in the 80s and had not been fully assimilated.

Years later, we are very much among the firmament of the Republican Party, from Frank Carlucci in the Reagan Administration to Tom Tancredo, Rick Santorum, Peter Pace, to Colonel Ray Odierno fighting on the front lines in Baghdad. And hundreds more since and before.
I concede that parts of Moran’s arguments are valid and certainly provocative. But there is a distinct difference between validity and value.

Racism in America is eroding and bigotry based on ethnicity is waning as well. But, America is not perfect and it is evolving. While America is evolving, the principles of Conservatism are not. And, Italian-Americans overwhelming support the Conservative position.

So, by alleging it in mainstream conversation, his intent, or at least non-intention could have be to arouse racial and ethnic division in the Republican Party.

Also, what could have inspired a television “personality” reporter, presumable Irish Catholic to think so deeply about an ethno-demographic? Such intense research into ethnic voting behavior is common among campaign strategists, Mr. Moran’s deep thoughts about race, miscengenation and Italian Americans can only have been inspired by a political operative familiar with this type of election research.