I want to thank Paul Giarmo of Carle Place for mentioning me in his Letter to the Editor which appeared on Jan. 11. I realize that it wasn’t a complimentary reference since to quote Giarmo: “Liberal Hal Sobel refers to Republicans as the party of old white men.”
First, let me respond to the use of “liberal” as a pejorative. The best argument I can make is to quote Aaron Sorkin who penned the following in a script for the brilliant TV show, “The West Wing.”
Republicans have tried to turn liberal into a bad word. Well, liberals ended slavery. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.
What did conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of these things. So when you hurl that label at my feet, I will pick it up and wear it as a badge of honor.
I will attempt to refute Giarmo’s other charge that the Republican party is not the party of old white men.
I wish I could claim credit for introducing that phrase into our political lexicon, but someone beat me to it. He was the Republican senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul.
He stated that his party ran the risk of turning into “the old white man’s party.” He went on to say: “If anything, one of the faults of the Republican party is we’re not diverse enough.”
In a similar vein, Ed Rollins, a senior Republican strategist, is quoted in the Guardian pointing out that his party “is made up of old white guys who are ignoring the way the country is heading… We need to basically broaden the base. We need to have more women, we need to have more Latinos, we need to have more African-Americans.”
For further proof, one need only to look at the results of the recent off-year elections.
The Democrats won a majority of seats in the House and elected Nancy Pelosi Speaker. What is important for my argument is that among the victors were 89 women, 51 blacks, 13 Latinos, two Native Americans and eight LGBTQ members.
The Republican numbers in each of these categories are paltry; 89 percent of House Republicans are precisely “old white men.”
Three cheers for diversity!
Dr. Hal Sobel
Great Neck
