Embracing the whiteness

Hot on the heels of skipping the Latino-centric Univision debate, the top tier GOP candidates have announced that they will not attend the forum that will focus on African-American issues. This development has many in the GOP worried, and rightly so. America as a whole is getting darker and Republican policies have alienated many if not most of that population. Refusing to address those audiences is not going to help matters. Even worse, those that recognize the problem don’t seem to grasp how to fix it.

"We sound like we don't want immigration; we sound like we don't want black people to vote for us," said former congressman Jack Kemp (N.Y.), who was the GOP vice presidential nominee in 1996. "What are we going to do -- meet in a country club in the suburbs one day? If we're going to be competitive with people of color, we've got to ask them for their vote."

Sorry Jack but just asking for the vote is going to cut it. There is far too much history between people of color and the GOP what with the infamous Southern Strategy, the Willie Horton ad, Trent Lott’s Dixiecrat pining, etc – one could go on for days. The upshot is that a whole generation of African-American and Latino voters is lost to the GOP. Furthermore, it will take a sea change in policy priorities to alter that reality and any attempt to do so risks disaffecting the substantial Cracker wing in the South. So, they are damned if they reach out to minorities and damned if they don’t. The GOP made this bed and now they must lie in it.