Stereotypes are tough. Arkansas can move right along, minding its own business with no Huckabee or Clinton (either of them) feeding the 24-hour international news cycle in at least 168 hours, when a politico from my northwestern part of the state, prominent only here, opens his yap.
State Sen. Kim Hendren, Republican of Gravette, a little town in Benton County, itself home of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, was talking to a GOP group in Little Rock, when he — and he confirmed it in his apology — referred to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., as “that Jew.”
In no time flat, it’s on Salon and many other World Wide Web sites. Never mind that The Natural State not only is usually more enlightened than that but is home to a number of Jewish congregations. Regardless, Arkansas is sluiced with the old Arkansas stereotype, thanks to Hendren. [The new Arkansas stereotype stars both Clintons and Huckabee, and it goes like this: Go ahead and presume we’re hicks because then you’ll be floored when we win.]
Bygones come and go. Hendren apologizes. Schumer accepts it. (After asking, surely, who?) But the explanations Hendren gave show he doesn’t get it.
He says:
I was attempting to explain that unlike Senator Schumer I believe in traditional values like we used to see on ‘The Andy Griffith Show.'”
Which has what to do with being Jewish?
The Associated Press quotes him as having said:
I shouldn’t have gotten into this Jewish business because it distracts from the issue.”
What issue, again?
It’s not so simple as predicting Hendren just lost whatever chance he had in his candidacy to run in 2010 for the Senate seat held by two-term incumbent Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat. What his public statement — off the cuff, granted — says about state and even national politics is key.
It might be another sign the Republican Party is imploding. And I know some Arkansas Jewish conservatives so I don’t mean “that.” Hendren’s gaffe — the latest, following headlines made since the November elections by nationally prominent GOP leaders — points to the possibility that the GOP might turn into the Democratic Party of the 1950s, home to enlightened intellectuals Adlai Stevenson and J. William Fulbright of, yes, Arkansas but also opportunistic bigots like Strom Thurmond and Orval Faubus of, yes, Arkansas.
There, another bristle brush I’m painting a lot of people with, Dixublican. Though when it’s me and a bucket, they’re drips and spills.
With Republicans like Hendren taking the limelight, their return to significant power dims, but something dreadful might happen: This half of the American two-party system might spur a potent mean streak that will hobble matters domestic and foreign. George Wallace grabbed a lot of headlines in his day, surprising for a mere Democratic governor then interminably a former governor. Is debilitating obnoxiousness what to expect from the Grand Old Party as it regroups? Oops, a stereotype.
Hendren spoke spontaneously, and Lord help you or me should a microphone be planted as we walk into a glass door or fume at the TV. Still, he and several family members have been longtime fixtures in this part of the country, and … or is that spritzing with the same airbrush?
Oh, how stereotypical.
