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How To Fill the GOP’s Black Hole?

Posted by SHAUN MULLEN, TMV Columnist in At TMV.
Feb 28th, 2008 | Comments

A MEETING OF BLACK REPUBLICANS

I got into a pretty lively debate with a blog radio talk show host earlier this week over the Republican Party doing a pretty good imitation of not only being exclusionary to blacks but showing no interest in changing that unfortunate state of affairs.

The host, a Republican activist from a Midwestern state who has no great affection for George Bush but notes that he has named a goodly number of black officials to Cabinet and other posts, took umbrage at my assertion and after some nudging made a pretty good point:

It’s not that the GOP goes out of its way to exclude blacks, but it has been so preoccupied with its own agenda that blacks have every reason to feel left out.

Now I suppose that is damning with faint praise since Bush appointed those blacks and they were not elected, and I suppose the whole discussion was probably ill timed since the Democratic nominee looks more and more like it will be an African-American.

Additionally, I am of the view that even though John McCain will give the Democratic nominee a good run for their money, the GOP defeat nationally, congressionally and even at the state level will be enormous and only then — and maybe only then — Republicans who have a stake in regrowing the party will take a long, hard look in the mirror at their Caucasian selves and vow to begin turning things around.

The radio host had a damned good idea how to begin that process — at the very grassroots level where Barack Obama has had such extraordinary success with coalition building. She noted that her local Republican organization is reaching out to blacks and other minorities. It knows that it can’t turn the trick overnight, but is determined to succeed.

That is a worthy — and noble — beginning.

As is the Republican National Committee’s very public smack down of the shameless Robin Smith, the Tennessee state committee’s chairman, for refusing to pull an “Anti-Semites For Obama” piece that begins:

“The Tennessee Republican Party today joins a growing chorus of Americans concerned about the future of the nation of Israel, the only stable democracy in the Middle East, if Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is elected president of the United States.”

A modest suggestion: If the GOP is serious about cleaning its Augean stables, forcing Smith to quit — with or without an apology — would be a terrific start, but methinks that it knows exactly what Smith knows. Her pedagogery appeals to the party’s red-meat base.

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superdestroyer

But the question the radio host or yourself did not answer is if any conservative, small government, pro-private sector party can ever appeal to blacks. I do not think it is possible for Republicans or any other conservative party to appeal to makes. And no, it does not matter how many times Karl Rove points out that blacks go to church and are suspect of the government.

The Republicans Party will cease to exist long before it will ever be able to appeal to blacks. You should have asked the host what he would do if the Republican party collapses and ceases to exist (or at least becomes are irrelevant as the Libertarian Party)?

Slamfu

Why do you keep saying the GOP will cease to exist? Dear god are you blind? The dems will get control, and eventually, with 4-12 years will start screwing up bad enough for the GOP to get back in office. It happens every time. You sound just like my liberal friends who were crying back in '04 how the democrats were sunk for good. I told them the same thing, they said similar hopeless and groundless things back to me. And here they are, 4 years later eating their words. Now I gotta set you straight too?

pacatrue

Slamfu, I should let SD give his own answer, but since he and I have gone around and around on this issue for, well it must be, a year now, I will attempt to answer objectively for him anyway. He will certainly correct me.

Anyway, my understanding is that SD is particularly worried about the impact of changing demographics in the US and whom each party draws. In particular, the current white majority is decreasing as a percentage of the population, while other groups, blacks, Latinos, and Asian-Americans, are all increasing. Since all of those group, particularly African-Americans, vote most often for the Democratic Party, it spells doom for the Republican ones. The demographic trend will not change and so the future of the parties will not change.

Where SD and I argue is that I don't think the relation between demographics and voting must be the case. I see little reason, for instance, that a 4th generation Texan rancher whose roots are Mexican, a Cuban exile in Miami, a shop owner in NYC whose parents are Puerto Rican, and a Nicaraguan migrant worker picking grapes in eastern Washington should all vote in the same way -- unless our society or our political parties insist on treating them as one single group so that these Americans have to vote as Latinos or Hispanics rather than as ranchers, shopkeepers, and farmers. SD's reponse is probably to simply point out how people actually vote and extrapolate.

superdestroyer

Pacatrue,

I am not worried about it as much as interested in its impact on the U.S. However, the reason everyone but the Cuban exile in Miami (who are generally very European in ancestry) vote the same way is that the government treats them all the same way and treats them differently than it treats whites. Hispanics are groups by the government for quotas, affirmative action minority set asides, mentoring programs, etc. The Democrats have over 100 congressmen running unopposed and that number had been going up since before 2000.

The other reason or the Republican collapse is that the incompetence and stupidity of the Bush Administration which has sped up the process. Now, upper class whites are as likely to be Democrats as Mexican-Americans. Also, since Bush, Hastert, and Frist were all so stupid and incompetent, the Republicans lack the next generation of leaders and have no issues to run on. Any Republican running on smaller government, fiscal responsibility, or cutting spending will be laughed out of any political rally.

Thus, in the end, as the demographics and politics of California expand of the rest of the U.S., national politics will resemble what California has today.

Jim_Satterfield

The core philosophy of the GOP is that since it is possible to point to success stories of those who pull themselves up from poverty that government doing anything to help the poor creates moral hazard by making certain that there is no incentive to match these feats because since they can point out these successes everyone who is poor can do the same. Given that minorities with a disproportionate experience of poverty know that this is hogwash it's hard for the GOP to appeal to them when they are considered holier than thou ignoramuses.

superdestroyer

If it is the main function of the government to hand out goodies to defined groups, then the party that has the larger demographic groups to support will eventually be the one dominate party. Passing the costs of the goodies on to smaller demographic groups just makes it easier for one party to become dominate.

Also, government failures do not seem to affect Democrats as much as Republicans. Look at Detroit. An example of the failure of Democratic leadership but still one of the bluest areas in the U.S. As more of the U.S. has the demographics of Detroit (or Cleveland, Baltimore, Philly, LA) the same voting patterns will occur.

Shaun said that having to vibrant parties is important to the U.S. But he (and everyone else) has never offered a model that demonstrates that two parties dedicated to handing out the maximum level of goodies can occur. Thus, the U.S. will become a one party state just like Detroit is a one party city.

kritt11

SD- Then you oppose handing out corporate tax breaks as well ?

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