Young voters who call GOP ‘closed-minded’ and ‘racist’ unlikely to approve of Connemara bullying

The New York Times posted an article on June 3, 2013, under the headline “Why young people don’t vote Republican.”

It once again illustrates that the young, diverse generation raised by the Internet and now old enough to vote has a vastly different world view than white people age 50 and older who have had a vice grip on the top positions in many organizations to this point.

While the article discusses presidential politics, the message should resonate with all groups that cling to the old world views of privilege and exclusion.

I’m specifically referring to the American Connemara Pony Society, which has made its most important goal during the last 15 years the exclusion of horses that are Connemaras genetically but look too much like thoroughbreds for its taste, even if those horses have a similar thoroughbred genetic makeup to the breeding stock of the officials doing the excluding. The breed officials are only judging horses by their shell, and they will only allow the shell they have anointed as the chosen one to pass an inspection.

This hypocritical bullying has reeked of old world arrogance and exclusion, as the officials who have pushed for inspections have plowed ahead with no regard for the opinions of half the breed society.

Does that sound like any political party we know?

The result, not surprisingly, appears to be a continuing slide in the relevance of the Connemara society in the horse world. Young people are not flocking to this organization. Can you imagine today’s young people, who come from a blending of all colors and backgrounds, finding anything appealing in an organization that flies around the country and tells horses they aren’t good enough to be called what they genetically are?

It’s pretty absurd for Connemara officials to think this organization will survive if exclusion is its most important goal, given that bullying has become Public Enemy No. 1 in America.

In the NYT article, the writer examines a post-mortem report by the College Republican National Committee on why the GOP lost the presidential election.

The College Republican National Committee questioned young voters on their priorities and how they viewed Democrats and Republicans.

The most “damning” findings, according to the writer, came in how young voters viewed the two major parties in terms of broad attributes. For Democrats, young voters chose the attributes “tolerant,” “diverse” and “open-minded,” while for Republicans they often chose “rich” and “religious.”

When participants were asked what words came to mind when they heard “Republican Party,” the results were “closed-minded,” “racist,” “rigid” and “old-fashioned.”

And those are the words that might come to mind when young riders think about a Connemara breed society whose only purpose these days appears to be closed-minded, racist, rigid and old fashioned.