Repeat Irish America post for I. Explorer users
Blog. August 21st, 2009[There appears to have been a formatting issue with today's post about Irish America for Internet Explorer users. This version below, which is exactly the same, should (the tech experts tell me) work better for you. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.]
THE IRISH AMERICA DEBATE
As some of you may know, a fairly heated debate has erupted in recent days, primarily between me and Niall O’Dowd, the publisher of the Irish Voice newspaper.
Prompted by what I considered to be Mr. O’Dowd’s gross over-selling of a story regarding Hillary Clinton, the debate has also focused more broadly on the the importance, or lack thereof, of Irish America to mainstream American politics. Stella O’Leary, the chair of the Irish American Democrats organization, has also recently joined the fray.
The main ‘episodes’ in the debate to date have been, in chronological order:
1. An article by me in the Irish Times.
2. An editorial in the Irish Voice and on its associated website, irishcentral.com.
3. An article by Mr. O’Dowd in the Irish Times, which was reprinted on Irish Central.
4. A letter from me in the Irish Times.
5. An article by Mr. O’Dowd on Irish Central.
6. An article by Ms. O’Leary on Irish Central.
I cannot honestly imagine that there are hordes of people out there with an appetite for more of this, but for those few who do have such a hunger, here are some (hopefully final) points.
My ‘Unionism’
1) Irish Central and the Irish Voice have referred to me as belonging to “the unionist tradition”, having “a unionist background” and, more recently, as a “neo-unionist”. Indeed, Mr. O’Dowd builds his criticism in his latest article almost entirely around this “neo-unionist” label. All of these phrases are rather curious if, as seems plausible, the writers are trying to convey the more straightforward idea that I am a unionist.
2) Anyone who wants to get a flavor of my views on the North of Ireland can do so by having a look at articles like this…or this…or this.
3) As the above links make abundantly clear, I am not a unionist. Furthermore, I have stated at least twice in print - once in a 2003 Magill interview with Gerry Adams and once as an addendum to a 2000 Hot Press interview with journalist and author Susan McKay - that I am in favor of a United Ireland.
It seems reasonable to wonder why Irish Central and the Irish Voice have repeatedly used language that serves to distort my position regarding the North of Ireland. Does the use of that language have anything to do with the fact that I am from a Protestant background, a point that has been raised as an implicit criticism of me in the Irish Voice before?
I was reluctant to get into this whole topic because it is, in my view, irrelevant: If I were a unionist, would that render my views of Irish America invalid? However, the repeated propagation of misleading information eventually led me to respond.
Stella O’Leary, the Irish Vote and PAC Receipts
Naturally, I disagree with almost all of Ms. O’Leary’s article. But I am also cognizant that most people (including me) do not have the time or patience for a line-by-line rebuttal. Instead, here are three significant points relating only to the first half of her piece. Quotes from her article appear in italics; my responses follow in plain font:
1. The Irish vote is now part of what politicians and American political parties refer to as the “Catholic vote.” This vote is primarily Irish American, with the Italians a close second.
This proves my point about the fading significance of the Irish vote, and quashes the case Ms. O’Leary is trying to make. These voters are counted and categorized as white Catholic Americans, and rightly so. If there is no difference between the Irish-American and Italian-American vote, it is axiomatic that Irishness is not the determinative factor in voting behavior.
Ms. O’Leary also misses one key element in all of this, which is that the “Catholic vote” often splits along color lines, with Hispanic Catholics generally more inclined to vote for the Democratic Party than their white co-religionists. Exit polling from the most recent presidential election is a good example of this. It shows that, among all Catholics, Barack Obama won 54%-45%. But when it came to white Catholics, he lost 47%-52%.
To refer to “the Catholic vote” without mentioning this fault-line gives an incomplete picture, at best.
2. Stanage’s claim that the Irish vote “does not matter very much” would come as a surprise to Congressman Joseph Crowley of Queens, New York. He has less than 20% Irish in his district and yet they account for 45% of his vote. The other ethnic groups in his district are reluctant to vote.
With the margins of victory getting narrower, particularly in local elections, the constituent who can be relied on to vote is the one most wooed.
Governor Martin O’Malley was elected mayor of Baltimore which has a 70% black population. These are just two of many congressional members who rely on the Irish vote to provide the winning margin.
I am not quite clear what the initial statements pertaining to the two politicians are meant to signify. I also don’t know where the figures for Crowley come from, nor do I know what the Congressman would make of the assertion that “the other ethnic groups in his district are reluctant to vote”. If he indeed has made such a statement, however - or if some credible source has produced evidence to back up this assertion - I am more than willing to be corrected on this point.
As a side issue, Martin O’Malley is not now, nor has he ever been, a “congressional member”.
In any case, the clearest claim by Ms. O’Leary in this passage is that these two politicians “rely on the Irish vote to provide a winning margin”.
Martin O’Malley twice won the mayoralty of Baltimore, in 1999 and 2004. The results of those elections were:
1999: O’Malley (D): 87,607 (90.5%)
David Tufaro (R): 9,207 (9.5%)
*
2004: O’Malley (D): 173, 030 (87.2%)
Elbert R Henderson (R): 24,445 (12.3%)
Charles U Smith (D, write-in): 4 (n/a)
Frank M Conaway (D, write-in): 926 (0.5%)
Exactly how do these results bear out the idea of Irish-Americans “providing the winning margin”? Such a claim is patently absurd. (Nor does it make any sense in the context of the Democratic mayoral primary: in ‘99, O’Malley received more than 50% of the vote in a 16-person field.)
Joe Crowley has compiled a similar record of landslide victories. He was first elected to Congress in 1998 and has been there ever since. The results of elections he has contested are given below:
2008: Crowley (D): 118,459 (84.7%)
William E Britt, Jr. (R): 21,477 (15.3%)
*
2006: Crowley (D): 63,997 (84.0%)
Kevin Brawley (R): 12,220 (16.0%)
*
2004: Crowley (D): 104, 275 (80.9%)
Joseph Cinquemain (R): 24,548 (19.1%)
*
2002: Crowley (D): 50,967 (73.3%)
Kevin Brawley (R): 18,572 (26.7%)
*
2000: Crowley (D): 78,207 (71.7 %)
Rose Robles Birtley (R): 24,592 (22.5 %)
Robert Hurley (Conservative): 3,131 (2.9%)
Paul Gilman (Green): 1,999 (1.8%)
Garafalia Christea (Right to Life): 1,172 (1.1%)
*
1998: Crowley (D) 50,924 (69.0%)
James J Dillon (R): 18,896 (25.6%)
Richard Retcho (Conservative): 3,960 (5.4%)
3. To what extent do crucial Irish American voters “consciously think of themselves as Irish?” Obviously the thousands of Irish Americans in 50 states who have contributed millions of dollars through Irish American Democrats’ Political Action Committee over the past 13 years consciously think of themselves as Irish.
I have not yet had time to search through all records for the Irish American Democrats’ PAC for the past 13 years, but those with sufficient interest can do so at the website of the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
However, I did have time to look at the FEC reports from the most recent election cycle (2007-2008). Those records show that Barack Obama raised $778,642,047 and John McCain raised $399,826,076 for their respective presidential campaigns.
During that cycle, the FEC records indicate that the Irish American Democrats’ PAC raised $35,840. Of this total, $10,840 came from individual contributors and $20,000 from “other committee contributions”. (The additional $5,000, if I am reading this correctly, may have come from refunded contributions to other candidates or committees [page 3, col B, item 16].)
The FEC does not publish the names of individuals who donate less than $200. However, its records do show that of the $10,840 this PAC raised from individuals, $8,550 - almost 80 per cent - came from six people.
It is also worth noting that the non-partisan Open Secrets project compiles a list of the Top 20 PACs in various categories. During the 2007-2008 cycle, the lowest PAC on this list in terms of receipts was that of the American Medical Association (AMA). It raised $7,751,121.
Assuming the FEC reports are accurate, the amount raised by the AMA PAC is roughly 216 times greater than the sum raised by the Irish American Democrats’ PAC. This brings some perspective to Ms. O’Leary’s portrayal of her organization as a fundraising behemoth.
I KNOW IT’S ONLY ROCK’N’ROLL BUT…
One final, lighter point: Mr. O’Dowd’s most recent Irish Central article makes reference to me as “a part-time musician”. This is flat-out weird but also fairly amusing. I’d be the last one to denigrate the importance or power of music in general. However, on a point of information, I have not played music publicly since around 1996 or 1997, at which time I was 22 or 23 years old. Does this qualify as being a “part-time musician”? Would Mr. O’Dowd describe Bill Clinton as a “part-time saxophonist”?
Curiouser and curiouser…