Originally posted by Bengal E
Nonsense, pure utter nonsense......that's was a very stupid article. Not the idea of that Republicans should make inroads into the minority community, but the dumb reasons he gave.
Maka,
I thought you were a better Republican than this. You're losing some of my respect.
Nonesense in your opinion mabye, I guess the ACLU is not supported by the liberal agenda.
Dude, what makes
me a Republican are 3 major tangents Abortion, Gun control and taxation.
And it matters not to me , that I have lost, or are losing something I was not aware or cared if I had in the first place.
Internet forum respect ??? I was not aware that it mattered.
I guess this article is non-sense as well..
The Republican Party and African Americans
By James S. Marotta
Reliably Republicans as a result of Abraham Lincoln, Blacks, many of whom migrated from the South to the cities of the Northeast and Upper Midwest throughout the 20th Century, began their turn away from our party for economic reasons during the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt becoming a reliable component of the big-city Democrat machines. This turn to the Democrats became complete during the 1960's when Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson championed civil rights and anti-poverty efforts while some Republicans such as Barry Goldwater opposed federal civil rights efforts not on racial but on constitutional grounds. This situation became cemented when Southern Whites, for a century the most reliable of Democrats, steadily fled the Democrat party of their birth and first, on a national level, and later on the state and local levels, embraced the Republican party, thereby completing the role reversal of the two (2) parties with respect to race.
All of this history is compounded by the fact that we Republicans believe in limited government and subsidiarity. In fact, Blacks, who are today disproportionately on the lower economic rungs as a direct result of slavery and Jim Crow, are often economically needy. Democrats, who promise quick-fix government assistance, and the protection of the national government (to which Blacks understandably look for protection) are by definition more attractive to Blacks in the short run. Republican principles of economic equality, opportunity, and an emphasis on state and local government, while genuine and in my view, correct, offer little short-term relief to many African-Americans in the here-and-now.
But our philosophy, even combined with the history I have outlined above, cannot completely explain our current predicament with African-Americans. Another component, that is, shear political stupidity over the course of the last forty (40) years, has to be added to the mix. We have simply ignored the flight of Black Americans from our party. Oh yes, we talk about it, but, to date, we have not, as a party, done a single concrete thing to address it.
Let us squarely address the Republican party's problem with African-American voters, a serious problem for our party which is not going to disappear in the near future no matter what we do. And what we have done in the past and continue to do today, a combination of ignoring Black voters all year long and then setting up nationally-based top-down outreach programs that often hang outstanding African-Americans out to dry with little or no real power, financial resources, or responsibility (or the variant of encouraging Black Republicans to run for office and then not delivering crucial financial and other support) has made matters worse. Such efforts generally appear on the horizon in a curious manner around Labor Day and then mysteriously disappear during the first week of November.
These efforts have been a complete failure. First, they alienate Black Republicans who believe the party is not really behind them. Secondly, they embarrass these dedicated and loyal Black Republicans with their Democrat friends who tell them, "I told you so." Third, they build absolutely nothing at the grassroots level and predictably fail leaving future Republican candidates, especially those with limited resources, thinking that it's no use even trying to compete for the Black vote since past efforts leave little to show for them.
There is no need to go into great detail about the mistakes the Republican party has made in the last sixty (60) years and how it has almost completely alienated African-Americans. What is sad and ironic about this is that the opposition of Republican conservatives such as the late Barry Goldwater to certain provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was based not on racial politics but on Constitutional principle. It was not based as was the opposition of Southern Democrats to Civil Rights on the desire to continue the system of pervasive legal discrimination against Blacks that flourished in the South. Segregationist Democrats simply wanted to maintain the Jim Crow system. They opposed civil rights law precisely because of race in order to keep Blacks in their place and used "states rights" as their political slogan. Goldwater and other conservative Republicans, on the other hand, were race-neutral in their opposition to national Civil Rights laws and many other national programs. They opposed what they believed to be unconstitutional federal governmental intrusion into the rights of states to regulate individual behavior. Moreover, Goldwater favored civil rights laws at the state level which of course segregationist Democrats vehemently opposed.
Sadly we Republicans have never explained this critical dysfunction to African-Americans or to the American people generally. Moreover, and equally sadly, many of the problems that Barry Goldwater and others foresaw with national civil rights laws and mandates, the War on Poverty, and federal intrusion generally, have come to pass exactly as he and they feared they would. Bitter and divisive disputes over racial, ethnic, and gender quotas; set asides; the failure of the War on Poverty even after the spending of trillions of dollars; and the costs of federal intrusions in terms of over regulation and loss of individual freedom are now obvious facts of American life.
Moreover, we Republicans have also failed to explain that notwithstanding the principled opposition of conservative Republicans to certain provisions of the Civil Rights laws the Rockefeller wing of the Republican party was staunchly pro civil rights. We have allowed the American people to forget that higher percentages of Republicans than Democrats in both the House and the Senate supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Furthermore, Republicans such as Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney and others were front-line supporters of civil rights for Blacks all through their careers.
But enough about setting the record straight. We simply have to do better than we have been doing with Black voters. First let's consider and then dismiss what not to do. The top-down approach at the National Committee level hasn't worked because it cannot work. As I have pointed out this has bred resentment among and embarrassment to our most loyal Black Republicans. Some of these so-called outreaches are, frankly, insulting and many have backfired.
Secondly, we have to stop searching for "the secret" for our party to somehow magically "get" the Black vote. The simple secret is that there is no secret and there is no magic. Like everyone else, African-Americans respond to those who engage their interests and needs and who court them on an everyday basis. The obvious truth is that we Republicans have to have a presence in every community, including the Black community. And the obvious fact is that we have not had a presence in Black communities as a party for over 40 years.
It has been my experience that no one listens to politicians until they are familiar with them, get to know them, and begin to trust them. We allow the Democrats and their media allies to demonize us 365 days a year with the participation and support of Black Democrats, many of whom are elected officials and have high profiles and who live in and/or have personal support in the community. Then six weeks before election day we think we can turn all of this around with a public relations message (usually vacuous) to people who are not familiar with us, do not know us, and, frankly, do not trust us. Our message never gets through because we are not in those communities, there are no Republicans whom the party has nurtured and supported in those communities and who look like and are trusted by the voters there, and because we continue with a top-down (almost paternalistic) approach that only increases resentment and hostility.
In the short run we are probably not going to be able to dramatically or significantly increase our share of the African-American vote. But even if we are unsuccessful and even rebuffed in the short term we have to try. No political party or other organization deserves to govern if it does not honestly and sincerely reach out to all of the people. Moreover, we Republicans know that our message and core beliefs are as good for Black people as they are for everyone else. There is, in my view, a solid 30% to 35% of the Black vote that we can and should get on a regular basis if we Republicans of all colors just have the guts to go into African-American communities, listen to the concerns of those who live there, recruit good people, and support their political endeavors financially and otherwise. Once again, there is no magic, just hard work and communication every day.
There are, indeed, millions of African-Americans who think just like Republicans, who are conservative, traditional, religious, vigorously anti-criminal, and believe in individual rights, individual responsibility and a strong defense. They will become Republicans if we only reach out to them. There are so many talented Black Republicans as well as conservatives at every level in this Country and our party has been derelict in failing to exploit their talents. Just some of these include Willie Richardson; Gwen Day Richardson; Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell; the late Colorado State Treasurer Vicki Buckley who, sadly, passed away as I was drafting this document; Thomas Sowell; Walter Williams; Armstrong Williams; Ken Hamblin; Gary Franks; former Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Kay Coles James; Theresa Doggett; Ezola Foster; Deroy Murdock; Dylan Glenn; Faye Anderson; Theresa Jeter Chappell; Jacqueline Cissell; Phyllis Berry Myers; Jacqueline Gordon; Robert L. Woodson; Alan Keyes; Shelby Steele; Alvin Williams of BAM PAC; Joseph H. Brown; Webster Brooks; Frederick D. Robinson; Tony Brown; Bill Randall, and many others too numerous to mention. Perhaps, the recent election by his House Republican colleagues of Rep. J. C. Watts of Oklahoma as House Republican Conference Chair will be the beginning of a new course, an overdue real first step.
No discussion of the Republican party and the African-American can be truly complete without a mention of the controversial issue of affirmative action. It is not my intent to go into detail about this or any other substantive issue but some things must be said. First, Republicans do not and should not oppose all forms of affirmative action. As first articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King in his provocative book, Why We Can't Wait, affirmative action was foreseen as concrete steps by the government to compensate for past discrimination. These concrete steps were not a guarantee of results but rather a serious effort to train and prepare Blacks for full economic participation in American life. Writing shortly after the guarantees of full legal equality had been won with the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Dr. King was concerned not just with hollow legal rights which were the starting point but with full participation, economic and otherwise, which was the finish line.
Many such outreach, training, and recruitment efforts should receive strong Republican support so long as they are not based exclusively on race and are consistent with merit, individual rights, and individual responsibility. We Republicans have to care enough and be creative enough to address this issue in ways that are consistent with our beliefs. We have to make a distinction between help to prepare and train versus the government dictating results. We have to embrace affirmative action in ways that combine with our strong belief in entrepreneurship and economic opportunity. In fact outreach dovetails perfectly with Republican principles particularly if we tap our private sector institutions to do this.
What Republicans must oppose and must continue to oppose are attempts, however well intentioned, to dictate results and (even for salutary reasons) to stack the deck in advance. Quotas, set asides, separate lists, disparate test results for various groups, and other so-called remedies are simply political short-cuts fashioned by politicians to speed up a false process of appearing to produce full participation by Blacks and other groups. They are wrong and they are inimical to our system not only because they are divisive and produce false results but also because they are insincere and, in many cases, not even well-intentioned. They are cynical and they reflect the worst in political cynicism. What is even worse is that such cynicism and insincerity only further aggravate the racial divide that continues to plague our nation.
Notwithstanding, however, that much of affirmative action has evolved into a racial spoils system and a divisive political and social morass, we Republicans must never lose sight of the fact that the basic concept of helping and truly assisting those who, as a result of past unfairness, have been left behind, is both good and right. The way in which we as a society do this, however, makes all the difference in the world. It is my view that the Republican approach is the better way and we should build support for it. We must also champion real educational reforms that allow all students to get the best education available so that all can effectively compete when opportunities await. Moreover, our emphasis on traditional values will help buttress the type of commitment, hard work, and stick-to-it-evenness that produces and will produce success for African-Americans and everyone else.
Former four term Republican Mayor of heavily Democrat Paterson, New Jersey who always won the Black, Hispanic, and Jewish votes in all four (4) of his races, two (2) partisan elections, and two (2) non-partisan elections, has said that "a vote is an emotional action searching for a logical reason to justify itself." Voting is based on emotion and habit cemented by hard work on the part of those seeking votes. This is a lesson few Democrats have ever forgotten and many Republicans have never learned. The simple truth is that our party has to change the voting habits of African-American voters and the only way to do this is to change the emotional context and predicate that define the politics of race and ethnicity in America today.
In my view our party has to continue to tout its firmly held belief in equality of opportunity, traditional values, freedom, individual rights and responsibilities, low taxes, smaller government efficiently run, merit, respect for life, and economic opportunity to all of the voters particularly to African-Americans and Hispanics. We have to repeat confidently and positively what we believe over and over again day after day, after day.
In short, we Republicans have to speak to everyone. This is so obvious it should not even have to be written. But the truth is that we have been so shell-shocked and defensive about achieving political success among Blacks that we have ignored them. In an age when campaigns are so expensive and when resources are so hard to come by this may even make tactical sense in the course of a specific campaign. But in the long run it is a disaster for the party that takes this route. Republicans have to be everywhere and they have to be active everywhere. And we have to attract new Republicans everywhere. While it may not make short-term sense to commit resources where there is hostility to us in the long run it is the only way to break down and defuse this hostility. It is simply penny-wise and pound-foolish not to commit resources to real day-to-day efforts to establish a genuine presence in these communities. It will not produce results overnight, but it will eventually achieve results. Our message is a good one; it simply has to be delivered effectively, persistently, and persuasively to every voter.
In future essays I will try to address the specifics of how I believe we Republicans can effectively bring Blacks into our party at every level. For now, however, the fact is that we have a great deal of hard work to do every day in order to change the attitudes of African-American voters toward our party. We need to work from the ground up all year around in every election precinct in America. We simply have not done this. But we have to begin. It will not be easy but if we never really try nothing will really change. It has been said that "the longest journey starts with a single step." Are we ready to undertake what will be long but rewarding journey?
James S. Marotta
