Why the GOP Can't Win With Minorities (Excellent Column)

WSJ ^ | 3/16/09 | Shelby Steele

[RangerM]

Today conservatism is stigmatized in our culture as an antiminority political philosophy. In certain quarters, conservatism is simply racism by another name. And minorities who openly identify themselves as conservatives are still novelties, fish out of water.

Yet there is now the feeling that without an appeal to minorities, conservatism is at risk of marginalization. The recent election revealed a Republican Party -- largely white, male and Southern -- seemingly on its way to becoming a "regional" party. Still, an appeal targeted just at minorities -- reeking as it surely would of identity politics -- is anathema to most conservatives. Can't it be assumed, they would argue, that support of classic principles -- individual freedom and equality under the law -- constitutes support of minorities? And, given the fact that blacks and Hispanics often poll more conservatively than whites on most social issues, shouldn't there be an easy simpatico between these minorities and political conservatism?

{more at link}

[stevio]

Until my encounter with conservatism I had only known the racial determinism of segregation on the one hand and of white liberalism on the other -- two varieties of white supremacy in which I could only be dependent and inferior

Ain't that the truth, the latter being more true than the former.

[fight_truth_decay]

Latinos had a big swing up of 46%. Back on Post #173 or my post thereabouts.

Republicans just did not get out and vote. You can have this minority, that minority, younger voters (again high percentage), women voters etc.; but it comes down to fact that the Republican Party Elite did not support its own voters. Rush was pushing for Hillary to win over Obama. Well, we know how that failed..but no further mention of that scenario. McCain, a hero, has done a lot for this country; but being a Moderate and lacking a "star" quality on camera which Obama mastered as soon as he walked out of the surf in Hawaii with a big smile on his face.

All about image, forget the dialog and use a teleprompter. That is what Americans BUY into through the Disney magic of advertising.

[jeltz25]

good post. I think MLK Sr was a Republican and was on the verge of endorsing Nixon in 60 but when Jr was arrested RFK was able to get some phone call pushed through to have him released of something like that and a few days before the election, Sr came out and backed JFK. They say that sealed the black vote for him and if Nixon had been more proactive in backing JR, he was nervous about bleeding Southern support, he probably would have beaten Kennedy.

[ansel12]

“That 95% black vote in the last election pretty much decided the election.”

---

Obama only got 49% of the male vote, he got 53% of the female vote, that is what decided the race.

[NITESHADE]

America is not a melting pot. This is 2009 not 1965. In Silicon Valley more tha 50% of the high tech professionals are none White - they are from China, Latin America, and IndoAsia. My medical doctor is from China. When I speak to my local banker or drug store staff for drugs they all hail from India. When I was shopping for a car last year the gent was born in the USA but his parents are from the Pacific Islands. More and more boys I see on the streets like more like Tiger Woods than Justin Timberlake. They are not just biracial but quads or transracial. Do you know what color is most likely to replace you with most major employers, it’s not Black but Yellow or Brown. Do you know who picks up the phone for technical services it’s not Bob but Ravi? Generation X or Y are not like their mama or of their dad’s party. They know that the major bail outs are not going to Blacks and none White people people but other White people that need the bonus money the least.

[hinckley buzzard]

Activism is moral authority in redemptive liberalism.

Steele has been at this a long time, and perhaps he can take us to the next step: activism, (praxis), is moral authority in Marxism. Marxism is the foundation of "redemptive liberalism."

[hinckley buzzard]

Republicans used to receive the majority of the Black Vote until Nixon’s Southern Strategy.

Roosevelt turned the Black vote in the Depression and the northern urban 'rat machines absorbed the great northward black migration beginning in the '20s while the repubican organizations showed lukewarm interest.

By 1948 Harry Truman was to win with 70% of the Black vote.

Eisenower was not much focussed on racial politics although he did good works, as in Little Rock, and the 'rat-ward migration of Blacks continued.

Nixon's strategy was far more an acknowledgement of reality than a strategy at all, as demonstrated by the fact that he lost most of the South to George Wallace in 1968.

[Darren McCarty]

If I ran for office, I'd say this to minorities. Detroit has been run by democrats for fifty years. White democrats ran Detroit during the time of the riots. What has it gotten you? White Democrats have run Chicago for just as long. What's happened to the South and West sides during that period? Los Angeles. How have the white democrats helped Watts? Baltimore.

I'd then go through my plan, which would be the same plan I had for "white" Americans. No pandering. No BS. No trotting out celebs like Don King. It would be the message that was important.

I'd end the message with this. Many of you don't trust me because of that R next to my name. That's fine. If you want change, we'll still be here. If you want the same, keep voting for who you've been voting for since the 1960's.

[wardaddy]

issue now jv is that we won those elections at 53-55% of the peckerwood vote

with immigration both legal and otherwise trending dem we now need 58% or better

at least that’s the analysis I’ve seen from last November’s results where the usual 55% was not enuff

i think it’s easier to get big gulp fatassed peckerwoods off their butts and vote GOP than it is to get enuff minorites to matter

i mean what “minorities” vote RIGHT anyhow?

one hand:

Cubers

Vietnamese

Japs

Christian Arabs used to...at least in Dixie they did (i’m 1/32 one myself)

Rich South Americans fleeing despots and collectivists

that bout covers which “minorities” vote majority to the GOP

[wardaddy]

We have to change the behavior of minorities ...blacks and poorer latins....that is who we really are talking about.

and they might see the light

a damn tall order given their history

[hinckley buzzard]

Ike won 39% of the Black vote in 1956, with the surprise endorsement of Adam Clayton Powell. Nixon won about 32% of Blacks in 1960. After that it was the Goldwater debacle and all down hill.

[jveritas]

Agree. The Republicans need at least 58% of the white vote if not 60% to have a strong chance at winning the elections. I do not think that is very difficult but for sure it requires a lot of hard work. Last elections it was clear that if McCain/Palin won 60% of the white vote they would have won the elections but they only got 55%.

Now, at least 10% of Republicans and Conservatives voted for Obama and may be another 5% of Republicans just stayed home. In other word if they decide in 2012 to vote Republican again then we win. So what we need in 2012 is a candidate who can energize the Republicans/Conservatives but I think Obama will be the biggest energizer of people coming out and voting against him.

[publius_in_abq]

As a minority who didn’t vote for BO, let me add some points:

1. As Darren McCarty said when he channeled Rush and David Horowitz, talk about how big cities have been run by liberal Democrats for years and how they’ve been promising national healthcare and other programs for decades. And the cities are in terrible shape and the promises are unmet.
2. Talk about Steeele’s point on how liberalism is designed to make people FEEL good about themselves, despite the fact that liberalism has not produced any RESULTS for the people it is targeted to help.
3. Talk about the “prosperous pauper” idea, namely, big gov’t programs turning downtrodden people into wards of the state reliant on the whims of politicians rather than indepedent citizens that can take care of themselves and live freely.
4. Stress the idea with the data that poverty is a temporary station in life (R. Rector for Heritage, T. Sowell, etc.)for the vast majority of people, and that wholesale societal changes are not needed to help the small % of those trapped into cycles of poverty.
5. Stress the importance of school choice that the left is so opposed to and talk about school credit programs designed to give people tax breaks if they send their kids to private school (Rush’s sub Jason Lewis - I like his idea better than vouchers).
6. Talk about how even President Obama admits that his kids (growing up rich) don’t deserve the same help that he and his wife received growing up (less rich). This opens the door to talking about truly helping the poor of all colors and genders instead of giving a leg up to middle and upper class white women and ethnic minorities.
7. Talk about the data (Stanford prof? and T. Sowell) that shows affrimative action puts undergrad and law school students into schools where they are mismatched, leading to higher dropout rates, lower grades, failed bar exams, etc. Again...this point stresses results over feeling good about giving people opportunities that don’t materialize into anything tangible.
8. Talk about the days before busing when black schools with black teachers were serving their students and getting real results (T. Sowell’s work, Z. Neale Hurston’s concern about Brown vs. Board).

That’s just a few off the top of my head...

[A Strict Constructionist]

“from my view something definitely seems amiss in the black community, even among affluent professionals.”

From my experience in a medical school/hospital setting in the “chocolate city” the answer is that the black community is the last stronghold of racist’s. This is racism practiced against any other group that might usurp their position as uber-victims.

When my daughter was in HS at a school that was very selective the blacks who were there from the projects complained that they were called Uncle Tom’s every day by the other blacks who had no intention of trying to get out of the projects. Their problem is that many do not want successful blacks...because successful blacks prove that what is needed is the elimination of crutches so people can pick up their beds and walk. A little religious reference for those that can’t figure out that black minister’s, liberals, and politician’s are the problem not the helpers that they claim but the enablers of the destruction of a culture.

[wardaddy]

from your cogent words to the minds of free peoples and then to the voting booth

[Big_Monkey]

"After that it was the Goldwater debacle and all down hill. "

I know it's popular in conservative lore to preach that it was Goldwater's drubbing that gave us Ronald Reagan. I think, to your point, it was Goldwater's drubbing that gave us a permanent disadvantage in the black community. And, it also gave us Johnson's "end poverty" initiatives, many of which are still with us.

Goldwater's loss wasn't a turning point for conservatives. But, it may have been the stake through the heart - a very slow moving stake through the heart. Sure, we had Reagan in the interim, but Reagan's tax cuts are long gone and Johnson social programs are still here and are about to get a whole lot bigger.

[Darren McCarty]

. As Darren McCarty said when he channeled Rush and David Horowitz, talk about how big cities have been run by liberal Democrats for years and how they’ve been promising national healthcare and other programs for decades. And the cities are in terrible shape and the promises are unmet.

Irony in that is that I don't even listen to Rush's show and haven't heard Horowitz in about seven years.

I just happen to be 30 miles from Detroit and 5-10 miles from Ypsilanti and seen much of this firsthand.

[Albion Wilde]

Unfortunately, it was his title. So I didn’t change it.

I realize that completely. My issue is with him as a writer, not with you. Thank you for posting.