The (R) Does Not Stand for Racist

By Sarah Roderick

Saturday, February 08, 2014

Does the (R) after a politician’s name represent his/her views on race? It seems so, according to MSNBC and their liberal cohorts.

Recently, on the Melissa Perry-Harris show, a comment was made regarding former presidential candidate, Mitt Romney and his family. Romney’s crime, on his lap, he held the latest addition to the Romney family, an African-American grandbaby. How dare he parade an African-American child in his family portrait? He and his family are Republicans, and everyone knows Republicans are racist.

More recently, MSNBC tweeted a snide comment regarding the Cheerios ad that aired last year depicting a bi-racial family. The tweet insinuated conservatives would be appalled at a bi-racial family. Congressman Tim Huelskamp responded with a family portrait of his four African-American children.

The tweets that followed were nothing short of a cyber-lynching, accusing the congressman of “borrowing” his children for a family photo-op. It must be true that Rep. Huelskamp and his wife adopted, or rented the children for political purposes. After all, Kansas is known to be a deep purple state, right?

Time after time the left-wing establishment has concocted a negative stereo-type depicting Republicans and conservatives as racist, intolerant, narrow-minded bigots. The left-wing would like Americans to believe the (R) is an acronym for racist.

Many Americans have subscribed to the liberal school of thought that Republicans are a large group of old, fat, uneducated, white Anglo-Saxon men who sit around drinking Southern Comfort and smoking on the porch of a southern plantation. How history has been altered in the past 150 years since the days Abraham Lincoln fought to free slaves. Lincoln, a Republican, for his time was a progressive thinker and envisioned an America where people of all color could live equally. If MSNBC were around during Lincoln’s era, how would he have been portrayed?

The cowardly attacks on the Romney and Huelskamp families hit home for me. I am from a large Catholic family, who grew up in a small Midwestern town. I was raised with conservative values, and my parents made their eco footprint by producing five children. We were surrounded by liberal elitist academia in a university town. It was not uncommon for people to make comments regarding the size of our family. One retired professor even made the comment that childrens’ IQ decreased by the number of children born in a family. This was, and is a liberal logic to prevent “excessive” reproduction. How is that for open mindedness?

My parents did not stop. Other people were brought into our home. When I was eight years old my parents rescued a teen-aged Filipina who had been brought to the U.S. by Saudi Arabian students as a slave. The Saudi slave owners skipped the country before prosecution, thanks to a liberal academia who tipped them off. She lived with my family for nearly three years, and, to this day refers to my family as her own. When I was a senior in college, my parents adopted a newborn African-American girl. In 2002, this was a rarity. My parents, the ultra-conservative, middle American, white, heterosexual married couple were trendsetters even before the days of Brangelina and Madonna.

When I announced the joyous news of my long awaited baby sister, I was met with criticism. The critics were not my conservative leaning friends; no, they were academic liberal elites. The biggest concern was that she was being taken out of her “culture.” Her culture? What culture were they inferring? Her birth-mother, an alcoholic and drug abuser, lived in a poverty-stricken and gang infested neighborhood. Her birth-mother had intended on aborting her, but she could not produce $200 to pay for the abortion. Was her culture and predetermined future to live a life of poverty and hunger, surrounded by drug dealers, violence and a decaying education system? Or was she better off being scraped off an abortion clinic floor into a trash can? Who were the real racists and bigots in these two situations? My parents, the conservatives, or the liberal academia?

It is difficult for liberals to accept that conservatives and the Republican Party are the future of progressive minorities. The success of African-Americans who happen to be Republicans have been touted as Uncle Toms on parade. The (R) stands for respect and rights. It is the right for every human being strive for a brighter future. It is the respect for all human life to be given an opportunity to pursue dreams.

My family, the Romneys, the Huelskamps, and many other multi-racial families have adopted out of love, not political gain. Our families are giving these children a hope for a better future. To those who made hurtful, slandering remarks accusing our families of racism, because of our political leaning, why is the first thing they noticed, color? When I look at family photos, I don’t see color, I see love.

As a conservative Republican, am I a racist for wanting a brighter future for my sister? Success, economic stability, strong family values, deep routed faith and pride in our nation are not the foundation for bigotry, but the foundation of hope, freedom and prosperity.

I personally rather be associate with the party that idealizes the philosophies of Abraham Lincoln, than the party that idealizes the philosophies of Margaret Sanger.