Does the GOP have a potentially potent piece of the electoral pie just waiting to be taken? Is it largely ignoring this chunk of the electorate that could have significant influence (and perhaps counterbalance a bit the further-to-the-right social conservatives)?
Booker Rising, the site that bills itself as for black moderates and black conservatives (but is one of the BEST moderate sites on the Internet) has a major post exploring the less-publicizied factor of moderate black Republicanism. Read it in FULL but here is a tiny taste 4 U:
Call them potential Cosby Republicans, and they have the potential to transform moderate Republicanism, black politics, and the Republican Party itself.
What statistics often hide is the variation within Black America. Black folks know old-school blacks: they are no nonsense folks; live in neatly trimmed city bungalows or growing suburbs; pay their taxes on time, go to church – and I do mean church, as this is a fervently Christian crowd – every week if not several times a week, and believe in strong family values and that education is the black person’s ticket to success. They may have grown up poor, but are now working-class and often middle-class. Old-school blacks believe in helping out the less fortunate – it is this subgroup which makes black Americans among the most generous Americans, per capita, when it comes to charitable contributions and volunteerism – but they want folks to at least meet them halfway in improving their lives. They often help out their less fortunate relatives, so they have firsthand experience in this area. Along with concerns about moral issues, it is this point of the Republican Party’s plank that has some appeal to them.
So yes, old-school blacks generally believe that moderate-liberal comedian Bill Cosby is right in his critiques of some black folks, although he is merely expressing points that they’ve quietly brought up for years at family barbecues, church picnics, and at dinnertime….
The post’s author Shay then gives you SPECIFIC examples of positions that are attractive to black conservatives and black moderates. Read them all.
Here’s another excerpt:
The recent GOP apology, via chairman Ken Mehlman, at the NAACP’s national convention may help thaw the ice. However, this is a huge hurdle for the Republican Party to cross in its outreach to old-school blacks. To get over the hump, the Republican Party must do a far better job of defining itself in media that this subgroup actually follows, which is black media. Right now, the Democratic Party defines the GOP in black media, and it ain’t a flattering definition either.
Read it in its entirety.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.