Kathleen Parker has a pretty good editorial in the WaPo titled"Tackling the Great Divide" It's about Marvin Rogers, former candidate for the state senate in South Carolina.
...This 33-year-old, Spanish-speaking former aide to South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis has a plan for the GOP: He wants to change its complexion.
Until 2008, when he ran unsuccessfully for the state House of Representatives, Rogers may have been better known in Latin America, where he was an itinerant preacher for several years, than in North America. "Unsuccessfully" in this case should be qualified. Rogers won 32 percent of the vote in a blue stronghold, running as a black Republican in the year of Obama.
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...Without preconceptions about where his race placed him politically, Rogers began examining issues on paper and recognized that he was philosophically more aligned with Republicans than Democrats. But then a funny thing happened. When he began attending political meetings, he noticed, "Oh, my, I'm the only black guy here. What's up with that?"
Oh My indeed!!
That question led Rogers on a quest that has resulted in a book nearing completion, "Silence Is the Loudest Sound," in which he attempts to explain how the party of Lincoln lost its black soul.
Through five years of study and interviews, Rogers reached the conclusion that the chasm between the black community and the Republican Party is more emotional than philosophical. And, he says, that chasm is more a media template than reflective of reality.
Now I know what you're thinking, "uh oh, another blame the librul media tirade." Actually no, he points the finger at his own house:
The biggest problem for today's Republican Party, he says, is tone-deafness, as manifested by conservative talk radio and TV. Rogers says he and most blacks can't listen to Rush Limbaugh because all they hear is anger.
"They might agree with Rush on the issues, but they can't hear him because he sounds mad. People don't follow fussers. People don't follow angry men. They follow articulators."
Mr. Rogers, uh, we're gonna need you to apologize to Boss Limbaugh for that comment. And if you could do it while on your knees and wearing a lawn jockey uniform? That would be great.
Another reason the GOP limits itself among African Americans, says Rogers, is because Republicans don't talk about issues that have currency in the black community -- poverty, the challenges of single-parent homes, social justice, recidivism, black capitalism and crime. Studying Republican speeches through the decades was how Rogers came up with his book title.
The way for Republicans to attract black voters is pretty simple, says Rogers: Show up and solve problems. (Italics mine.)
OK, so where to start..where to start??
First of all, I think that Rogers has his heart in the right place. He sincerely believes that the GOP is the better option for Black people. He also believes that blacks are being taken advantage of by the Dems. His mind is in the right place too. He recognizes that the GOP is in big trouble as far as representation, among people who are not straight, white and protestant. He's also right about Rush: The de facto head of a political party who freely makes jokes about the tragedy of Katrina and tells black callers to "take that bone out of your nose" is, quite simply, not going to draw Blacks to that party.
Here's Roger's problem: This has already been tried. Whatever you want to say about George W. Bush and Karl Rove, you've got to give them credit where it's due. They tried to drag the GOP electorate -- kicking and screaming -- into the 21st century as far as race relations were concerned. Not out of any goodness in their hearts,but because Rove knows demographics and he realized where the country is headed in the future. A predominantly white, straight, protestant and aging constituency is just not going to cut it in 2020.
So the smart people in the GOP can certainly agree on that. The problem is that that predominantly white, straight, protestant and aging constituency doesn't want anything to do with "diversity" or "inclusiveness" or "being a big tent".
In addition to that, there's the...let's say, unique situation that the party's southern base has with Black people in specific. Many of the hard core are still fighting the civil war, still fighting Lyndon Johnson's Civil Rights Act, still willing to believe the worst stereotypes of Black people.
Here's the reality Roger's has to see: right now the GOP is almost squarely centered in the South.
Any attempts by the House or Senate minority leaders to reach out to Blacks -- actually show up and solve problems -- would cause the base to go apoplectic. The veins in Limbaugh's head would bulge like a relief map of the Himalayas. Grover Norquist would start hyperventilating about taxes. And Sean Hannity would instantly bring up Reagan* and say, "we can't be giving handouts to people, that's what liberals do."
And in truth, Mr Rogers, Ronald Reagan, to this day remains a problem for the GOP. Reagan's unabashed viciousness towards social programs and civil rights are still being felt in the Black community to this day. Katrina was a prime example of that.
Reagan didn't believe in "solving problems". He didn't believe in uplifting neighborhoods. He believed in more cops, more jails, and longer sentences. As crack infested neighborhoods, he and the elder Bush were more than happy to watch the carnage as more and more Black men were hauled off to the pen or the morgue. Crack dealers, gangs, "Cadillac Welfare Queens" and Willie Horton became advertisements for the GOP. And conservative voters gave their overwhelming approval.
And we don't even have to get into the hysteria caused by the current occupant of the White House. I wonder what Rogers thinks of the numerous racially-charged caricatures of the president that have sprouted over the past eight months? Or of Rep. Jenkins' statement about finding a "Great White Hope" for the GOP?
Rogers has a Sisyphean task before him if he really intends to raise the GOP profile among Blacks. It's going to take more than politics -- it's going to take a wholesale change in the conservative mindset.
*Does Sean Hannity have any thoughts other than "You know, when Reagan was in office..." ???