The affluent populist PAC that assumes melanin makes people think just alike

I thought this release interesting:

PAC+ Launches the New American Majority PAC 3-21-12
PAC+, a new national network of leaders focused on democratizing money and politics to give voice to America’s New Majority, launched today at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Recognizing that People of Color and progressive Whites are the New American Majority of people in the United States, PAC+ will combine the resources of its members and direct them to strategic races in states where the demographic revolution can change the political balance of power. In 2012, PAC+ is focusing on six strategic states — Texas, Arizona, Georgia, New Mexico, Ohio, and California.
Led by the team that in 2007 created Vote Hope, the country’s first Democratic SuperPAC, PAC+ is an innovative approach to politics that weaves together demographic developments, technological tools, and network theory into a powerful force for change. “Currently a handful of billionaires are hijacking our democracy and advancing policies that are harmful to the majority of the American people. PAC+ is piloting a new model of SuperPAC that is focused on many donors, not mega-donors,” said Steve Phillips, Chairman of PAC+.
PAC+ is being launched by a National Board of over 70 community and political leaders in 16 states and is “powered by” PowerPAC.org, a social justice advocacy organization that coordinated the country’s first independent expenditure for Obama in 2007 and conducted a $10 million, 18 state electoral program targeting African American and Latino voters in key states. “Democrats spend tens of millions of dollars pursuing a strategy based on an outdated and inaccurate picture of the American electorate,” said Dr. Julie Martínez Ortega, President of PAC+. “The census data make clear that People of Color and progressive Whites are a majority of the U.S. population now, and our strategies need to shift accordingly,” added Dr. Martínez Ortega.
There are twelve million U.S. households of People of Color and progressive Whites with a household income of more than $100,000, and PAC+ is targeting less than 1% of that market, 100,000 people. “Many of us who benefited from the struggles that opened up the doors of higher education and corporate America are now in a position to give back,” said Maria Echaveste, Executive Committee member of the Democratic National Committee and the former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Clinton.
“Rather than get into a battle with the billionaires on the Right, major donors on the Left should invest their money in institutions and organizations that can unleash the power of the country’s demographic revolution, and PAC+ is just such an organization” said Susan Sandler, a philanthropist and private investor.
PAC+ will pool money from members across the country and direct those resources to strategic races in its six 2012 priority states. PAC+ is a federal political action committee and SuperPAC incubated by PowerPAC, a nonprofit advocacy and political organization. PowerPAC was organized to champion democracy and social justice in states and communities across the country and conducted the 2008 Obama independent expenditure campaign and a successful 2010 independent effort to help Kamala Harris win election as California’s Attorney General.

I found it interesting for its assumptions. First, the big one — that the portion of the electorate it claims as its own is indeed the New American Majority.

But it gets worse the more you dig into it. The most offensive is the assumption (or should I say “presumption”) that, in this group’s stilted phrase, “People of Color” are a group in which all the individuals want the same things, believe the same things and have the same interests. Apparently, melanin eliminates individuals’ ability to think for themselves. It gets worse when in presumes that those in this group who make six figures will, or at least should, feel they owe something specifically to other “People of Color,” simply for having succeeded in life.

That emphasis on affluence highlights the fact that this group assumes that mere dark skin alone — and nothing having to do with income or education or other indications of social class — predestines one to think a certain way.

At least with the whites who are shanghaied into this coalition, there is an ideological qualification — that they be “progressive,” however this group defines that. The whites are allowed to make up their own minds, to a limited extent (you know the contempt in which I hold the notion that people on the “left” or “right” can actually have identical positions on all issues — the notion upon which most political rhetoric in this country is based, tragically). But not the “People of Color.” Their attitudes are assigned, and they have no choice.

I do have to admit to being intrigued by this group’s combination of populism and affluence. That seems like a new wrinkle.

But we really don’t need any more efforts to herd groups of people together and assume they all think alike. The Democrats and Republicans are doing all they can on that score already.

4 thoughts on “The affluent populist PAC that assumes melanin makes people think just alike”

  1. Silence

    I only filled out the Census’ short form this year, but I’m pretty certain that political ideology, “progressive” or otherwise was not a choice on the 2010 Census.

  3. `Kathryn Fenner

    There are certainly conservatives of color–Clarence Thomas, Herman Cain, and Cuban Americans. However, the vast majority are not friends of the GOP.

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