Minority Voters and the GOP: Rand Paul’s Third Way

Commentary Magazine ^ | 4-11-2013 | Seth Mandel

[Sir Napsalot]

When confronted with the Republican Party’s poor standing among minority communities, GOP politicians have usually taken one of two approaches: claim these communities constitute “natural conservative constituencies” or advocate a broad change in policy or ideology to attract minority voters. Neither one of these tactics has been effective, for various reasons–chief among those reasons is that the communities under consideration are usually not “natural conservative constituencies.”

Take Hispanics, for example. It is often noted by GOP politicians that Hispanic immigrants are hard-working, family-oriented strivers who tend to be religious. That may be true, but polls showed that while Mitt Romney was generally trusted on the economy more than Barack Obama, Hispanics overwhelmingly trusted Obama on the economy. Whether or not Hispanics share a cultural or social conservatism with the GOP, then, becomes basically irrelevant. I wrote about one poll here that showed 73 percent of Hispanics preferred Obama to Romney on the economy, and 73 percent planned to vote for Obama. It doesn’t get much clearer than that.

Conservatives also tried to convince themselves that since black voters were generally disapproving toward gay marriage, they would gravitate toward the GOP. But when it came to national elections, black voters weren’t basing their choices on gay marriage, and now African-American opposition to gay marriage is dropping anyway.

But there is a third way, in fact, to try to appeal to minority voters, and it was typified in Rand Paul’s speech to the predominantly black Howard University yesterday. This strategy may not work either, but it is certainly worth trying. Paul’s third way had two elements. The first, and obvious, one is to show up in the first place. Conservatives cannot expect minority voters to come to them; if you want someone’s vote, you have to prove it–and earn it.

In the Washington Post’s wrap-up of the 2012 presidential election, the paper noted that Paul Ryan, on the ticket as the vice presidential nominee, apparently “had wanted to talk about poverty, traveling to inner cities and giving speeches that laid out the Republican vision for individual empowerment.” The Romney campaign, according to the Post’s sources, was unconvinced. But Ryan had the right idea. (Rand Paul’s speech at Howard raises the question of why Ryan isn’t giving those speeches now that he’s no longer restrained by the top of a presidential ticket.)

As Romney’s disastrous “47 percent” remarks showed, if you appear utterly uninterested in someone’s vote, you’re probably not going to get it. But the second part of Paul’s approach at Howard, and the identifying element of his third way, has to do with policy. When Republicans address the issue of minority voters, they often come off as condescending. They tend to hold that minority voters simply don’t know that they should obviously be voting Republican, or that if they repeat the same message enough it’ll get through–both of which suggest ignorance on the part of the voter being addressed.

But as Rand Paul found out yesterday, these voters quite often do follow the policy fights in Washington and know exactly where they stand on the issues. Luckily, Paul came prepared. Though the students were skeptical of much of what Paul had to say, he did receive cheers for his advocacy of reforming mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenders. Mandatory minimums take sentencing discretion out of the hands of judges and often result in wildly disproportionate sentences that have a disparate impact on the black community.

About three weeks ago, Paul and Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy introduced a bill that would provide a “safety valve” for drug sentencing, allowing the judge in some cases to levy far less jail time when the circumstances call for leniency. Additionally, while Paul doesn’t favor full legalization of marijuana, he is stridently opposed to the way those who use the drug are prosecuted. In a recent appearance on Fox News Sunday, Paul said:

"Look, the last two presidents could conceivably have been put in jail for their drug use, and I really think, you know, look what would have happened, it would have ruined their lives. They got lucky, but a lot of poor kids, particularly in the inner city, don’t get lucky. They don’t have good attorneys, and they go to jail for these things and I think it’s a big mistake."

When California proposed legalizing marijuana in 2010, polling showed it had the support of two-thirds of the state’s black voters, and an NAACP official called it “a civil rights issue.” Paul also supports school choice, which tends to attract support from the black community in both red and blue states.

Paul was far from embraced by the students at Howard yesterday. But Republicans have to start by showing up. It’s a low-risk proposition anyway, since it’s unlikely Paul’s third way will fare any worse than its predecessors.

[Sir Napsalot]

Note, linking to this article is not 'supporting' Paul. As I said yesterday, in the Howard Student To Rand Paul: "I Want A Government That Is Going To Help Me" thread,

To me it is more a Andrew Breitbart moment. Without them shining lights onto these problems, I’m just living a sheltered live.

It is one thing to read about GIMME GIMME crowd and their mentality, but another to actually see what this video clip showed.

[IamConservative]

I’m listening to Rand closely. Hard to imagine he’s got ideas that could actually be implemented that would be worse than gun control and legalizing 20M illegals. That’s where the Republicans are right now..at least the ones in the Senate not running for re-election. And then we have John “I’ll vote for it if the Democrats like it” Boehner in the House.

[muir_redwoods]

I am afraid that only the sort of collapse that leftist policies inevitably invite will ever convince large numbers of some people that these policies simply don’t work. Even intelligent leftists (if such things actually exist) are seemingly immune to the truth that policy decisions aren’t a matter if preferences but a matter of what actually works long term. Socialism always fails, free market capitalism always works.

[cdcdawg]

Waste of time. Blacks are owned by the Democrats. LBJ stated it very plainly, almost 50 years ago. I guess we have about 150 years to go, if he was right.

[bigbob]

I think Rand Paul could serve a useful purpose by starting to distance himself from the GOP and casting out a vision of “a third way” in the sense of a third party, so we can see the reaction and level of support. I’d prefer he not lead with the drug legalization issue but let’s face it, libertarian principles are generally aligned with smaller government, less regulation, and more individual liberty - hallmarks of conservatism.

[DJ MacWoW]

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I don ‘t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, “We must broaden the base of our party”–when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents.

It was a feeling that there was not a sufficient difference now between the parties that kept a majority of the voters away from the polls. When have we ever advocated a closed-door policy? Who has ever been barred from participating?

Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?

Let us show that we stand for fiscal integrity and sound money and above all for an end to deficit spending, with ultimate retirement of the national debt.- CPAC 1975

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Truthfully, I think Paul’s idea of pointing out the terrible racism of the left, both historically and today, is very persuasive, and needs to be pounded home like having a claw hammer in both hands.

But the black community also has to be strongly *frightened* that the left doesn’t just want to “keep them in their place”, but that they want to *exterminate* black America in its entirety. Literal genocide.

Which is the truth.

Voluntary genocide, by enabling blacks to exterminate themselves. Giving them the tools and encouragement to wipe themselves out.

“No matter what they say, a liberal is *not* your friend if he wants you, and your family, to die!”

“He is *not* your friend if he sells drugs to your children, if he tells your wives and daughters to get abortions, if he tells you that marriage and two parent families are just for white people.”

“He is *not* your friend if he encourages gangs to run loose in your neighborhood, and wants to keep you disarmed so you cannot protect yourself from criminals.”

“He is *not* your friend for denying your children a good education as a child or as an adult, keeping them poor and telling them that all white people hate them.”

“Liberals truly hate black people. They want them to suffer and die in poverty. And they tell black people that liberals are their friends, and conservatives who are willing to give black people opportunities, are their enemies.”

“Liberals tell black people to embrace the devil and to curse God.”

“Every time a black person votes for a liberal, he votes to kill all black Americans.”

“Any black ‘leader’ who tells you to vote for a Democrat is like a black slave-trader or overseer on the plantation. He gets wealthy by whipping other black people on behalf of the Democrat slave owner.”

“If you saw the movie Django Unchained, the slave owner, Calvin Candie, is a liberal Democrat in every way. Except he is honest about his hatred and contempt for black people. The only difference today is that liberals lie to you about how much they hate you.”

[ExCTCitizen]

Paul’s third way is should be tried. The others 2 ways didn’t help...

[Redmen4ever]

I have a small disagreement with the presumption about non-black minorities. Yes, in the recent election, they were polarized. So were whites. Both whites and and non-black minorities voted overwhelmingly one way or the other, 70 to 30. Something’s not right about that.

We should be able to fetch 40 to 50 percent of the non-black minority vote. Hopefully, this Obama thing is a passing fancy among non-black minorities, otherwise our country’s goose is cooked.

As for blacks, there is a group think among blacks that is very strange. Black people overwhelmingly think of themselves as black people (and think of white people as white people). They are very race-conscious. Possibly, this will change one day, but in this generation it’s a conversion experience for a black person to see past skin color.

Supposedly, blacks are race-conscious but are not racist because they don’t have power. Like, duh?, no black people are President of the United States or Attorney General or in any other position where their race-consiousness enables them to discriminate against whites.

Black people say they don’t want Republicans to put them in the back of the bus. They like being in the front of the bus because of affirmative action, set-asides, quotas and so forth. The idea that no group should have preferences is to them being put in the back of the bus because they don’t think they can compete on a level playing field.

Plus they are willing to have non-black minorities come to this country and gain affirmative action even though the non-black minorities out-compete them, because it just another way to subjugate white people. This is called cutting off your nose to spite your face. It’s irrational, but it’s indicative of black hatred of whites.

So, this is why the country is racially polarized. White people understand that they are the new second-class citizens of this country, denied opportunities because of the color of their skin and demeaned because of their heritage.

This is something we can and should tap into. With 70 percent of the white vote, we only need to “break even” with non-black minorities to win elections.

At the same time, we have to make the choice clear to the non-black minorities, you want to join with the progressive socialists, atheists, sexual perverts, and climate mongerers of the white left and with the black welfare recipients they have cultured (in which choice, you’re joining the black welfare recipients, not the white liberal elite), or do you want to join with the self-responsible, hard working and free people of this country?

True, the self-responsible, hard working, and free people are mostly white in this country; but, they are not of any particular race or ethnicity as far as the world is concerned. Indeed, as far as the world is concerned, they are mostly Asian. Yes, Asian is the new white.

I think if we make the choice clear, we’ll get 40 percent or maybe a tad more from the non-black minorities, and double our percentage among blacks from 5 to 10 percent. Combined with 70 percent of the white vote, and we’re talking about an electoral majority.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I stand with Rand.

[Sir Napsalot]

Larry Elders had an article yesterday (? the day before?) about 50 years of lies helped kept suppressing Blacks.

Like Paul did, you can present the information to them only so much. They have to start really ‘listen’ to the message themselves. Hopefully some will have a Eureka! moment and help more to find the turning point.

The ‘Renaissance’ needs to come from their own community, we are basically viewed as outsiders.

[ansel12]

I’d prefer he not lead with the drug legalization issue but let’s face it, libertarian principles are generally aligned with smaller government, less regulation, and more individual liberty - hallmarks of conservatism.

Libertarian principles of broken people, broken lives, broken communities, of a Sodom and Gomorrah culture and unlimited global immigration, creates a permanent underclass and dependent class of voters who vote for more liberal economic policies, hallmarks of liberalism.

[ansel12]

At the same time, we have to make the choice clear to the non-black minorities, you want to join with the progressive socialists, atheists, sexual perverts, and climate mongerers of the white left and with the black welfare recipients they have cultured (in which choice, you’re joining the black welfare recipients, not the white liberal elite), or do you want to join with the self-responsible, hard working and free people of this country?
True, the self-responsible, hard working, and free people are mostly white in this country; but, they are not of any particular race or ethnicity as far as the world is concerned. Indeed, as far as the world is concerned, they are mostly Asian. Yes, Asian is the new white.
I think if we make the choice clear, we’ll get 40 percent or maybe a tad more from the non-black minorities, and double our percentage among blacks from 5 to 10 percent. Combined with 70 percent of the white vote, and we’re talking about an electoral majority.

Excellent post, you nailed it.

The strangest thing that the republicans have done, is somehow let the left attract people with our values and goals in life of desiring respectability and dignity and of being quality family people continuing the success and high prestige of America that made it the desired destiny, into bonding with and joining with the type of people that humans don't admire or aspire to be, anywhere.