Senator Jim Webb - A Soon to be Convert to the GOP?

UPDATED: A commenter has cited impoverished areas of Virginia that are almost completely white as justification for Jim Webb's proposal to end all affirmative action programs. Unfortunately, neither the commenter nor the author of the link cited were willing to take into consideration the responsibility that impoverished areas of Virginia bear for their own current economic situation. Yes, historic manufacturing jobs have exited the region. However, it is the residents' own racism, homophobia and general unwelcoming attitude to anyone who isn't white, far right conservative Christian and just like themselves that are the largest biggest impediments to attracting new and progressive businesses to replace lost manufacturing jobs. Modern businesses do not want to locate to areas where one expects the Klan to show up at any moment and where gays are fired at will. Martinsville, Virginia (unemployment hovers at around 20%), is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Increasingly, bigotry carries a heavy economic price.

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Having already done his utmost to alienate LGBT voters by his refusal to support DADT repeal, now Virginia U.S. Senator Jim Webb is working hard to alienate the minority vote by stating that affirmative action programs for racial minorities need to end. Of course, Webb is very selective in who he wants to "help." He whines that whites from families that have been in the USA for two hundred years are allegedly being unfairly treated and subjected to reverse discrimination. Yet, in my personal case, notwithstanding an ancestry on my mother's side that stretches back two centuries in the USA, I can be fired at will in Virginia and I am subject to unconstitutional religious based discrimination that has zero to do with affirmative action programs. And where is Webb on such issues? He's either invisible or supporting those who support such discrimination. I'm sorry but the word hypocrite quickly springs to mind.

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What's next for Webb? Will a condemnation of unions and union members be his next next step? Frankly, at this rate I am waiting for the next shoe to drop and have Webb announce that he's switching to the GOP and that he wants to be Sarah Palin's running mate in 2012. He clearly doesn't give a damn about the traditional Democratic Party Base. Moreover, in the case of affirmative actions programs, rather than looking at program shortcomings, Webb wants to throw the baby out with the bath water. As bad as my former law school classmate George Allen was, at least you knew he was an enemy of LGBT and minority rights. With the benefit of hindsight, I regret ever voting for Mr. Webb. I will not make that mistake a second time. I'll take a clear enemy any day over a duplicitous back stabber like Webb. Here are highlights from Webb's op-ed in the less than liberal Wall Street Journal:
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The NAACP believes the tea party is racist. The tea party believes the NAACP is racist. And Pat Buchanan got into trouble recently by pointing out that if Elena Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court, there will not be a single Protestant Justice, although Protestants make up half the U.S. population and dominated the court for generations.
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Forty years ago, as the United States experienced the civil rights movement, the supposed monolith of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant dominance served as the whipping post for almost every debate about power and status in America. After a full generation of such debate, WASP elites have fallen by the wayside and a plethora of government-enforced diversity policies have marginalized many white workers. The time has come to cease the false arguments and allow every American the benefit of a fair chance at the future.
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The injustices endured by black Americans at the hands of their own government have no parallel in our history, not only during the period of slavery but also in the Jim Crow era that followed. But the extrapolation of this logic to all "people of color"—especially since 1965, when new immigration laws dramatically altered the demographic makeup of the U.S.—moved affirmative action away from remediation and toward discrimination, this time against whites.
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Those who came to this country in recent decades from Asia, Latin America and Africa did not suffer discrimination from our government, and in fact have frequently been the beneficiaries of special government programs. The same cannot be said of many hard-working white Americans, including those whose roots in America go back more than 200 years.
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Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity programs should end.
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Nondiscrimination laws should be applied equally among all citizens, including those who happen to be white. The need for inclusiveness in our society is undeniable and irreversible, both in our markets and in our communities. Our government should be in the business of enabling opportunity for all, not in picking winners. It can do so by ensuring that artificial distinctions such as race do not determine outcomes.
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Memo to my fellow politicians: Drop the Procrustean policies and allow harmony to invade the public mindset. Fairness will happen, and bitterness will fade away.

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Memo to Jim Webb: fool me once , shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I have no intention of being fooled twice and support those who have suggested that Webb be targeted as a turn coat Democrat who needs to be defeated in his next election cycle.