The Indian Scam by Rich Lowry over at townhall.com starts off:
American Indians have always occupied an outsized place in our imagination, usually as a noble people, at one with a pristine North American continent prior to the arrival of the white man. It's time to upgrade the image. Forget buffalo, eagle feathers and tribal dances. Think slots, Harrah's and dirty politics.
The California recall is providing the nation an intense education in contemporary American politics, and high on the list of lessons is that Indian tribes have, lucratively, sold their souls to gambling and can buy off or defeat anyone who might want to stand in their way. California tribes make some $5 billion a year in gambling revenue and have poured more than $120 million into state political campaigns since 1998.
So, I guess what Lowry is saying is after we've stolen their land and driven them onto largely barren dusty reservations and pretty much destroyed their culture and sense of meaning and purpose as human beings, why, how dare Native peoples turn to something as evil and perverted as gambling to try to support themselves!
First , it's not the Indians who are doing all the gambling, it's the White Folks, so Lowry's chastising the wrong group, it seems to me. Second, I guess Lowry hasn't spoken to Bill Bennett lately. If he did, he'd have learned that gambling is OK. And third, if Lowry really wants pointers on dirty politics he should go talk to Karl Rove or Tom DeLay.
American Indians have always occupied an outsized place in our imagination, usually as a noble people, at one with a pristine North American continent prior to the arrival of the white man. It's time to upgrade the image. Forget buffalo, eagle feathers and tribal dances. Think slots, Harrah's and dirty politics.
The California recall is providing the nation an intense education in contemporary American politics, and high on the list of lessons is that Indian tribes have, lucratively, sold their souls to gambling and can buy off or defeat anyone who might want to stand in their way. California tribes make some $5 billion a year in gambling revenue and have poured more than $120 million into state political campaigns since 1998.
So, I guess what Lowry is saying is after we've stolen their land and driven them onto largely barren dusty reservations and pretty much destroyed their culture and sense of meaning and purpose as human beings, why, how dare Native peoples turn to something as evil and perverted as gambling to try to support themselves!
First , it's not the Indians who are doing all the gambling, it's the White Folks, so Lowry's chastising the wrong group, it seems to me. Second, I guess Lowry hasn't spoken to Bill Bennett lately. If he did, he'd have learned that gambling is OK. And third, if Lowry really wants pointers on dirty politics he should go talk to Karl Rove or Tom DeLay.
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