In a recent report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, an interesting, albeit depressing statistic regarding the recent Republican National Convention caught my eye.
...there were only 36 African-American delegates out of more than 2,300. The Democratic Party, meanwhile, said about a quarter of its 4,400 delegates were African-American.
That number, 36, is the lowest attendance of African American delegates since the Joint Center began tracking diversity 40 years ago. Twenty four state delegations do not have a single black member.
The news doesn’t get better for Hispanics, either. The Washington Post reported 5% of the delegates were Hispanic, the lowest percentage of Hispanic attendance since 1996.
A recent article in the Washington Post notes that the Republicans are bleeding Hispanic support.
In 2004, Bush won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote; a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed McCain with the support of 31 percent of Latinos.
And McCain is currently pulling 7% of the African American vote, compared to the 11% Bush carried in 2004.
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies lists the full roster of African American Delegates that attended the Republican Convention and the Democratic Convention. More startling are the roster of African Americans involved at the Republican State Party level.
Simply put, they aren’t. For example, let’s look at how representative they are on a local party level.
Looking at a 50 state analysis (not including Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, District of Columbia), Black Republicans are currently holding a party position in 11 states.
Compare this with the Democratic Roster. Black Democrats currently hold party positions in thirty states, again not including Virgin Islands, District of Columbia, et al.
In comparison to the paltry seven page Adobe pdf of the Republican Roster, the 44 page pdf Roster of the Black Democrats speaks volumes. From elected positions starting at the county level to Party Leadership positions, from Convention Leadership and Committees to the Roster of Delegates and Alternates, the disconnect within the Republican Party is stunning.
They are the party of whitey. There’s no kinder way to put it. They are the party of white folks. And they are woefully out of sync with the reality of our country.
The Census Bureau reported last month that racial and ethnic minorities will make up a majority of the country's population by 2042 -- almost a decade earlier than what the bureau predicted just four years ago. Two-thirds of Americans are non-Hispanic whites, 12.4 percent are black and 14.8 percent are Hispanic, according to 2006 census numbers.
On a Monday filled with poll numbers that seem to distract more than inspire, let’s remember that a loss of 13% of Latinos and a loss of 4% of African American voters, in the right states, are more than enough to pull this ticket over the finish line. This presidential race, in large part, is going to be about which party motivated their base to get out the vote.
The Republican ticket is not the party of change. It’s the party of same old, same old and the statistics prove it. They are the party of conservative white people. They are the party of your grandparents. There’s nothing maverick about four more years of the exact same.