Colin Powell Slams Palin and the Republican Party

Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress at 5:03 AM on December 13, 2008.

In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria that will air this weekend, former Secretary of State Colin Powell sharply criticized the Republican party and its "value system," taking particular aim at Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK):

Gov. Palin, to some extent, pushed the party more to the right, and I think she had something of a polarizing effect when she talked about how small town values are good. Well, most of us don't live in small towns. And I was raised in the South Bronx, and there's nothing wrong with my value system from the South Bronx.

And when they came to Virginia and said the southern part of Virginia is good and the northern part of Virginia is bad. The only problem with that is there are more votes in the northern part of Virginia than there are in the southern part of Virginia, so that doesn't work.

Watch it:

Powell also said that with the changing demographics of America, the Republican party needs to start listening to minority communities, rather than "shouting" at them with "loaded statements" and "Republican principles and dogma."

Tagged as: republicans, colin powell, sarah palin

Amanda Terkel is Deputy Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Deputy Editor for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.