A.E. THORNTON: Mischaracterization of whites could help determine election

James Carville, the mastermind behind Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, recently said — and I’m paraphrasing — the biggest problem the Democratic Party has now is that they’re more interested in changing the dictionary (meaning “woke” terminology) than in changing lives. As usual, he cut to the chase. I witnessed an example of this on the news network MSNBC in which there was an exchange between Stephanie Ruhle and Ali Velshi, both of whom work for the network. Velshi used the word “mankind” and was chastised by Ruhle, so he changed the phrase to “humankind.”

Several years ago, I noticed there were a number of people who were changing their gender identity. I thought they were getting what we used to call a sex-change operation, or “gender alteration surgery,” or whatever it’s supposed to be called now. Instead, I learned there are a few people who have suddenly decided to start identifying as the opposite sex. Republicans, seeing an opportunity for a meaningless hot-button cultural issue, started proposing “bathroom bills” to protect young girls from gender-altering men, as they feared they were identifying as women so they could molest children in public restrooms. If someone wants to molest a child, there are easier ways of doing it than using the wrong restroom at Cracker Barrel.

Instead of ignoring it, Democrats pounced, decrying the fact that the bills were “a solution in search of a problem,” and these gender-benders are now considered part of the LGBTQ community in need of protection. The proper response would have been total silence, or, “No comment. We’re concerned about real issues.” Instead, they took the bait and made fools of themselves by defending a small handful of silly people who aren’t worthy of anyone’s time.

Project 2025 should scare anyone but Republican-supporting millionaires, billionaires and politicians, but within 10 minutes I found two articles about how it would adversely affect the black community, ignoring the negative impact it would have on nearly all citizens, regardless of race. J.D. Vance has made numerous comments about “childless people,” including something to the effect that they have a tendency to be more sociopathic and should have less say in our democracy. However, the only thing he said that the news media and the Democrats seem to remember is something he said about “childless cat ladies,” referring to professional women who choose to have cats rather than children.

White males are now the only people in our society who are fair game for stereotyping. Someone — I can’t remember who — said a few years ago that if a giant asteroid crashed into earth, the headline would read, “Millions Killed. Women and Minorities Hit the Hardest.” And yet the hosts of a TV newstalk show and the guest pundits were all scratching their heads recently, trying to figure out why white males are not responding to the platform of Kamala Harris and the Democrats.

The news media and the Democratic Party need to realize that not every white man, with or without children, supports Trump, but many are not enthusiastic about voting for any candidate from a party that mostly ignores or maligns them. Some will vote for Trump despite the lies and far-fetched things he says about immigrants eating pets and states that supposedly allow abortions after birth.

Others will just stay home or vote for a write-in or third-party candidate. Democrats and the news media need to heed what James Carville said and start realizing most white men are not successful billionaires, nor are we all a bunch of bumpkins who put Confederate bumper stickers on our vehicles. It’s more important than ever, as our democracy, the Constitution and our freedom are at stake in this election.