N.J. senator, a white man, just wants to feel 'comfortable' in America | Editorial
Updated Jan 31; Posted Jan 31
Sen. Michael Doherty, advocate for white men. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
eletters@starledger.com
When we last checked in with Sen. Mike Doherty, he was lamenting how hard it is to be a white man in America.
"Just because I'm a member of a certain group doesn't mean that I can be denigrated over and over again," he said. "It's got to stop at some point."
This was during a New Jersey Senate debate over how to bring women's pay into parity with that of men. Another senator had the insensitivity to share some pay statistics comparing the income of various demographics to that of white men. It was "almost bullying," Doherty said.
Now, in a Record column by Mike Kelly that profiles him as President Trump's lonely cheerleader in New Jersey, Doherty says the U.S. shouldn't take any more immigrants from certain countries: "non-European" nations that are not part of a "Judeo-Christian culture."
Get his drift?
"People want to feel comfortable with their culture," Doherty said. "You can only change a community so much before people start feeling uncomfortable."
He elaborated: "People don't say it publicly, but why wouldn't you be able to have a homeland that you feel comfortable in -- one that has a common culture, a common language? I think that's what it's all about."
Why don't people say this publicly? Maybe because they don't want to be revealed as bigots. Thank you, Sen. Mike Doherty, for just admitting it.
Of course, many decent people want to limit immigration and step up enforcement, and that's a legitimate view. But this sort of ethnic bigotry is part of it, too, as Doherty is good to remind us - much like Rep. Steve King did when he said, "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies."
Or Trump did, when he talked about you-know-what countries like Nigeria or Haiti, saying the U.S. shouldn't take anyone from there; that Haitians all have AIDS, and Nigerians would never go back to their "huts."
Doherty later backed off his comments when we called him, saying he opposes all immigration, from anywhere. His words had been misconstrued, he claimed. What he was really talking about were "economic issues." You know -- that "economic anxiety" that made so many white people vote for Trump.
"You give interviews, and you say comments, and certain things end up in articles and certain things don't," Doherty said. Right.
Another thing that ended up in the Record article: Doherty's idea that Democrats are just trying to drum up votes by supporting immigration from certain places - "I said nothing about people that were white or non-white," or "Latin America" - which is crazy conspiracy theory stuff, regardless.
You'd think an Irish guy would recognize that the same know-nothing, anti-immigrant words were once used against his own people, and learn a lesson from this. But no. Doherty has no clue what really makes America great.
When asked directly, he wouldn't say whether he has people in his 90-percent-white district who make him feel uncomfortable. He wouldn't say whether his neighbors have expressed this discomfort too. But certainly, he's not the only one who feels this way.
"The basic culture of this country is European and Christian and I think that if we lose that, we lost America...I don't think we should suppress other races, but I think if we lose that white -- what's the word for it -- that white dominance in America, with it we lose America."
That's David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
People do want to feel comfortable in their homeland, Sen. Doherty. So what about the rest of us, who feel uncomfortable around this kind of bigotry?
Updated Jan 31; Posted Jan 31
Sen. Michael Doherty, advocate for white men. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
eletters@starledger.com
When we last checked in with Sen. Mike Doherty, he was lamenting how hard it is to be a white man in America.
"Just because I'm a member of a certain group doesn't mean that I can be denigrated over and over again," he said. "It's got to stop at some point."
This was during a New Jersey Senate debate over how to bring women's pay into parity with that of men. Another senator had the insensitivity to share some pay statistics comparing the income of various demographics to that of white men. It was "almost bullying," Doherty said.
Now, in a Record column by Mike Kelly that profiles him as President Trump's lonely cheerleader in New Jersey, Doherty says the U.S. shouldn't take any more immigrants from certain countries: "non-European" nations that are not part of a "Judeo-Christian culture."
Get his drift?
"People want to feel comfortable with their culture," Doherty said. "You can only change a community so much before people start feeling uncomfortable."
He elaborated: "People don't say it publicly, but why wouldn't you be able to have a homeland that you feel comfortable in -- one that has a common culture, a common language? I think that's what it's all about."
Why don't people say this publicly? Maybe because they don't want to be revealed as bigots. Thank you, Sen. Mike Doherty, for just admitting it.
Of course, many decent people want to limit immigration and step up enforcement, and that's a legitimate view. But this sort of ethnic bigotry is part of it, too, as Doherty is good to remind us - much like Rep. Steve King did when he said, "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies."
Or Trump did, when he talked about you-know-what countries like Nigeria or Haiti, saying the U.S. shouldn't take anyone from there; that Haitians all have AIDS, and Nigerians would never go back to their "huts."
Doherty later backed off his comments when we called him, saying he opposes all immigration, from anywhere. His words had been misconstrued, he claimed. What he was really talking about were "economic issues." You know -- that "economic anxiety" that made so many white people vote for Trump.
"You give interviews, and you say comments, and certain things end up in articles and certain things don't," Doherty said. Right.
Another thing that ended up in the Record article: Doherty's idea that Democrats are just trying to drum up votes by supporting immigration from certain places - "I said nothing about people that were white or non-white," or "Latin America" - which is crazy conspiracy theory stuff, regardless.
You'd think an Irish guy would recognize that the same know-nothing, anti-immigrant words were once used against his own people, and learn a lesson from this. But no. Doherty has no clue what really makes America great.
When asked directly, he wouldn't say whether he has people in his 90-percent-white district who make him feel uncomfortable. He wouldn't say whether his neighbors have expressed this discomfort too. But certainly, he's not the only one who feels this way.
"The basic culture of this country is European and Christian and I think that if we lose that, we lost America...I don't think we should suppress other races, but I think if we lose that white -- what's the word for it -- that white dominance in America, with it we lose America."
That's David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
People do want to feel comfortable in their homeland, Sen. Doherty. So what about the rest of us, who feel uncomfortable around this kind of bigotry?
