Kindred black republican Sophia Nelson has fired up a post election analysis on the GOP defeat, its causes and where the GOP goes now. Her starting premise:"After such a devastating loss, Republicans will have to do some retooling. We'll have to decide whether we want to be the party that believes in smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation, or whether we're going to be a litmus-test party that responds only to the demands of social conservatives. But most important, we'll have to confront our most disastrous modern legacy: our poor relationship with black Americans, the very people the party was formed to protect from the expansion of slavery into Kansas and Nebraska in 1854"
Nelson suggests that this defeat came because the McCain campaign conceded the black vote. That would be accurate only if you assumed that they ever intended to make a play for it in the first instance. I would contend they did not. Early on, McCain, along with the other front runner republicans, blew off Tavis' Smiley's debate, a prime opportunity for the front runners and the party itself to make a case to black America. Later on, McCain traveled to Atlanta for King's big memorial event and apologized for opposing his holiday, a transparent and tepid attempt to curry goodwill with blacks. Clearly a harbinger of the decrepit cogitation going on in the republican party when it comes to blacks. That kind of gesture might have got you some love in the 50's. It means diddly squat now. Out of 2,000 delegates at the republican convention, a mere 36 were black Americans. It continued downhill from there. The fact is, McCain and the republican party writ large, never even gave it a shot. They figure they can win without blacks, particularly since they were banking on the hispanic vote to come their way. For all his various and sundry apostate stances which put him crosswise with the base, principled attention to the issues of black America was not one of them. Nelson suggests republicans may have lost the black vote for a generation, but it's hardly fair to suggest that its McCain's fault. His abysmal performance is merely a symptom of the GOP's political indifference to black America.
Nelson points to RNC leadership hopeful Michael Steele's succinct analysis of the problem. "The problem, former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele told the Washington Times last week, is that party officials "don't give a damn." To them, he said, "outreach means let's throw a cocktail party, find some black folks and Hispanics and women, wrap our arms around them -- 'See, look at us.' And then we go back to the same old, same old."
This is so blisteringly accurate its heartwarming. Coming from the guy who is vying for leadership of the RNC, it's almost a sign of hope for the GOP. Alas, this is the same guy who thinks the McCain campaign should have vigorously hammered away at Obama with Rev. Wright. Tactically, such behavior might have been effective with base republican voters, but it would certainly have only widened the chasm between the GOP and black Americans. Steele wants to lead the RNC back from the wilderness, but doesn't seem to see such tactics as the same old he identified as the problem.
Sophia echoes a common lament of the black conservative and/or republican existence. "My black GOP colleagues and I endure endless ridicule and questioning from other African Americans, including close friends and family members who wonder how we can belong to a political party that is so overwhelmingly white, male, Southern, conservative and seemingly closed to ethnic minorities. And truth be told, it's sometimes an ill fit."
Tis all too true. My mother in law routinely described me as the "whitest black man" she ever knew. When the conversation turns to politics in social company, you find yourself defending conservative viewpoints and catching the raised eyebrows that signals that your conversation partner is thinking "sellout". This is actually become less the case I think on social issues, where blacks have some natural conservative bent, but on policy issues, still a tough sell. Ill fit? Try no fit. GOP outreach to black American's has never seemed more than half hearted and when they began to think there was electoral gold in them hispanic hills, their attention really did drift.
Steele's prescription to fix this problem and presumably Nelson's as well? "Talk to them. Actually engage the black community where they are. Stop thinking you're going to get by by having a handshake and a photo-op, and actually go and listen to black folks in the issues and the concerns they have and . . . make them important to the [party's] overall strategy."
It sounds good. The problem? The GOP has never given any indication that they considered politically addressing the needs of black folks as important to their aspirations for governance. In fact quite the opposite. Year after year, the GOP has hammered away at affirmative action in ways that indict blacks as unqualified recipients of its largess, championed get tough law and order approaches in the war on drugs without regard to the consequences and now we reap the re-entry whirlwind, and fueled election races across the land with racially coded messaging for extra punch. They've done these things quite knowingly, to win the republican base, thinking that the base was large enough to keep them in power.
This is where I think Nelson is off track. Nowhere in her analysis does she confront the GOP's repeated, knowing and intentional utilization of racial messaging, a method of political attack that is used by party apparatus at a variety of levels. The continued use of such tactics and scapegoating of blacks and hispanics (for example, the CRA forced banks to lend to poor black people meme or the we will be overcome by a brown invasion meme) that is done with every intention of firing up the base and appealing to white base voters by using these issues constructed in wedge fashion. This is purposeful, and it seems to me that Steele does not want to acknowledge that piece and Nelson is avoiding it because its an inconvenient truth she would rather not speak.
Being a black of conservative political bent and nominally a republican (reluctant is my preferred term) I do so with a clear understanding that the party has been communicating for some time now its lack of interest in black America as a political entity. The GOP does not make any real effort I am aware of to effectively apply conservative principles to the major policy challenges facing black America despite ample opportunity and fertile ground to do so. Even beyond that, the party has demonstrated that it is more than willing to pursue electoral and political victories in a manner that cuts against the political interests of black Americans with regard to how it conducts its messaging.
As the GOP tries to rebuild, it shows little to no sign that it will confront this fundamental disconnect and black conservatives do not do the GOP, themselves or black America any favors by not calling out the issue squarely.
There is no Return on Investment for the GOP in the black community. Black support for Democrats is not rational, so there is no reasoned way to get them to switch.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't mean that the GOP abandons anyone who is black. That isn't how the Good Guys work, and it is the sort of crap that has allowed the party to stray so far off course. It does mean that if the party goes above and beyond, however, it is to make the party's constituency happy -- and that constituency is rarely black.
Black America made a Faustian bargain with the Dems, and now they are reaping what they sowed. The democrats have no reason to do anything for Black America, because the Democrats have the vote either way. Republicans have no reason to do anything for Black America, because it won't get the votes regardless of what is done.
To top it all off, the fact that the only way for Black America to become a vote to be sought (rather than assumed) is to begin voting Republican is held up as a reason to not vote Republican (because they don't "care" about black people.) That's the real "voting against interests".
Phelps my friend, you are engaging in the same sort of lazy logic that helped republicans earn a thumping at the polls this year. Its circular and false reasoning to say Republicans have no reason to do anything for Black America, because it won't get the votes regardless of what is done. Circular because the reason given is nothing more than a restatement of the conclusion that poses as the reason for the conclusion. False because its simply untrue.
ReplyDeleteBut its easy to run with that because it gets republicans off the hook for not trying, at least in their own minds. It would command more respect if republicans were just honest in saying they don't give a crap, as opposed to blaming blacks for not supporting a party that uses racial messaging to win elections.
Black support of Democrats is quite rational. Blacks look at the Southern strategy of the party, look at the racially coded messaging in republican campaigns and quite rationally conclude that while republicans might say they are for us, they don't seem to campaign that way.
Now republicans like to retort that our ideas are so much better and more effective to change the lives of black folks. I would actually agree, being a conservative myself. Here's the problem though. You can't sell ideas you don't live up to. In six years, Bush never vetoed anything. So its perfectly rational for blacks to see the GOP as all wet when they push their ideas about limited government and holding down spending as great ideas for us, while they are also talking the language of racial wedge issues to white base voters, pitching us as the bad guys that only they can protect the base from.
The GOP has never bothered to craft a message for a constituency that they actually have a good shot at, considering that most black folk are social conservatives and christians, which the prop 8 vote results in Cali by now should have clued them in on. They know how to play to that, they just don't bother when it comes to blacks.
Even now, Michael Steele and Ken Blackwell are supposedly going after the RNC leadership post and to read the blogosphere, there is a lot of enthusiasm for it. To me, it looks like more denial by the GOP which they will try to paper over with a black face to say "look, we are different", while they continue to use the same tactics they always have.
Its less uncomfortable to think that blacks are irrational and thats why they don't vote GOP than it is to think that blacks are smart enough to see the disconnect between what the GOP says and what they do when it comes to the political interests of black Americans. Deal with it.
Phelps my friend, you are engaging in the same sort of lazy logic that helped republicans earn a thumping at the polls this year. Its circular and false reasoning to say Republicans have no reason to do anything for Black America, because it won't get the votes regardless of what is done. Circular because the reason given is nothing more than a restatement of the conclusion that poses as the reason for the conclusion. False because its simply untrue.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of reasons to do things for Black America, starting with it is the right thing to do. The folly is in thinking that any of it will gather Republicans any votes from black people.
The majority of voters are irrational and voting from habit; black voters are simply more so. As far as not thinking that black voters are smart, I will have to cop to that, as I don't think that voters in general are smart enough to see the vast majority of what is happening. Luckily, they generally see enough to get by.
In the end, I fail to see why Republicans should chase a 12% slice of the demographic that makes wildly disproportionate demands when that group has been unresponsive to any movement in its voting pattern over the last 40 years. There is, as I said, no return on investment in time, money and political capital there. Black people have priced their votes out of the market.
Why should the GOP chase that 12% of the demographic? Well for starters, if they could have peeled off 10% of it from Obama, it might have made the difference for McCain between winning or losing.
ReplyDeleteAs to the issue of black voter demands, here again, you are championing the lazy GOP approach to the issue which is the idea that black voters require pandering to left wing ideas like reparations or supporting affirmative action in order to win their support. Simply not true.
Black voters will respond to political leadership that effectively addresses the issues they are concerned about. Education for instance. I find it insane that republican ideas like charter schools have had to wait for solid implementation by democrats (Bart Peterson - Indianapolis). Charters are a conservative based policy prescription that directly and effectively targets the education concerns of blacks, particularly the black middle class which is essentially paying an education tax in order to get their kids expanded opportunity.
In the 3rd debate, Obama was pushing charters while McCain was pushing vouchers (a half measure). Perfect example of where republicans have a major conservative solution on an issue that has huge payoffs for blacks, that they can hammer, and they don't do it because they don't' give a crap about incorporating the black constituency into their aspirations for governance, a group of voters already predisposed to them because blacks are a social conservative, christian voting bloc.
The problem with your analysis is that you keep wanting to push the idea that black voters are not behaving rationally in eschewing support for the GOP, which is only partially true considering that Bush 43 garnered more black votes than previous candidates, including mine (twice). To make that irrationality argument fly, you keep ignoring my two central points. 1. The GOP has policy answers to issues blacks care about, but they put little to no energy into engaging the black community with those policy prescriptions (charter schools case in point) and 2. the GOP, up and down the party apparatus, uses tactics that get potency from their racial undertone in order to win elections. The GOP will intentionally, directly and indirectly, scapegoat or otherwise use blacks as the foil for political arguments to sway white voters. They have done the same with hispanics on immigration, which is why they lost that vote 67% to Obama. You can't demonize or play off blacks or hispanics as the villains and then think you can get that group's political support.
This is the kind of denial the party is in when it comes to blacks. The GOP wants to turn a blind eye to the tactics they use and the message it sends. C,mon Phelphs. If you think addressing the issues in the black community is the right thing for the GOP to do, then address this issue squarely - The GOP uses tactics that frame the interests of blacks against white Americans in order to win elections, and its a divisive strategy used purposefully and blacks in the majority are turned off by it. They have to stop doing it. Second, the GOP simply doesn't bother to address black American's issues with conservative solutions in any concerted, principled way to build the party within the ranks of blacks and the signal it sends is that they really don't give a crap. Hey, that's not just me, that's Michael Steele, a respected leader in the GOP, potential new head of the RNC, who says that. You can't play it like the GOP has been sweetness and light Phelps. Black folk have rational reasons in my two points above for why they don't support the GOP in large numbers. What do you say about that?
Right on Aaron + Alaine. However, I would go as far as saying that GOP conservative principles are, fundamentally, a misfit for African-Americans. The Republican response to social crises is not the creation of programs or infrastructure to help those in need but to give tax credits. Almost across the board, Republican conservatism seeks to demonize the concept of social programs (TANF, Medicaid, SCHIP) citing their existence as evidence of government inefficiency. For all the talk about the GOP returning to its "roots", the party is guided from elites in DC and more than anything those elites have a love affair with the Austrian School. Being a free-market fundamentalist is a prerequisite for joining the GOP these days. I just don't see how more libertarian policies can help minorities advance since results consistently show that they suffer under them the most.
ReplyDeleteI meant that Republicans have a love affair with the Chicago School. Ron Paul has a love affair with the Austrian School. ;-)
ReplyDelete@Origen01,
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you that conservative principles, in theory undergirding the GOP, are a misfit. I think the problem is the application or lack thereof. Charter schools are an idea based on conservative principles. Its a free market approach on education that is extremely effective. The failure is that the GOP is selective about the constituencies they apply their energy to develop solutions for. And if they can't make the fundamental shift about who they care about to reflect the reality of America's changing population, they will not deserve to survive into the future as a governing party.