The issue is not that they "ignored" minorities they have been demonizing them for decades.
My first Diary post! Hopefully this goes ok....
What has been bugging me in the media discussion of the GOP and minorities is that its only the "true believers" in the GOP that refuse to recognize the changing demographics and that the "pros" get it.
Are these the same professionals have been using minorities as boogeymen to scare whites for decades? Whether it was Willie Horton or the white hands crumpling the job rejection letter as the voice talked about the affirmative action (Jesse Helms ad). I am sure there are many examples here.
Some of these GOP talking heads have been framing the minorities issue as the case of the cool popular girl/guy in high school not noticing the nerd in chemistry class and then later realizing she/he is the right person.
They have been targeting and attacking minorities for a long time because they thought it was their path to power. And now the jig is up.
I get the feeling that they think that all they need to do is put up a Jindal, Rubio or anyone else and have them spew the same right wing BS. Or throw some kind of Tupperware party and not make some real changes in policies.
Some examples of changes would be:
There are Hindus who are not fans of unions, excessive government spending and who benefit from globalization, but they will not want to be part of a party that embrace the likes of Pat Robertson or the late Jerry Falwell, who are and were religious chauvinists. Is the GOP going to tell the religious chauvinists to change to get the vote? I do not think so since they are not a large swath of the population.
Re: African Americans. Although we are light years ahead in terms of racial issues since the 50s and 60s, will they acknowledge that there is still racism out there that is unique to African Americans that affect economics, families, education etc that need to be addressed on a policy level that does involve the use of the "big bad evil federal government"? What is wrong with a conservative who is worried about an abusive government standing up against stop and frisk in NYC? Or, will they continue to think that racism ended with Dr. King's march on Washington or the Civil Rights Acts in the 60s? And, will they simply present African Americans who will parrot right wing talking points? In order to do the former they need to confront those racist elements in their party and kick them out. They also have to deal with those economic conservatives that don't seem to get that unfettered, unregulated "free" markets can allow for racism to thrive.
Are they ready to stop equating Muslims with terrorism? We rightly condemn those Muslims who have shown religious intolerance and do not understand that the actions of individual idiots are not the fault of the government. But, it is easy for a Muslim overseas to interpret the freak out by many many politicians over the Islamic Center in downtown Manhattan (which sounded more like a Muslim version of the 92nd Y) as the government being intolerant re: Islam.
You can dive into Latino and Asian issues deal with the policy prescriptions. If dealing with those issues force the GOP to make a choice to eschew a current constituency to bring on a new one, will they do it?
Do they get that the vicious assaults on the President such as birtherism and so many other veiled and not so veiled racist attacks would have occurred if he had been Asian or Latino? Why do I think if the Democrats nominated a Chinese, Korean, Indian, Vietnamese American that they would have been treated as some kind of secret spy? Or that a Hindu or Buddhist would have been viewed as Un-American? A Dominican would have been portrayed as an anchor baby or Castro's or Chavez's buddy etc?
The point is the GOP has to change its policies. And tell some folks in their party to take a hike.