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Bless their precious hearts, they're trying. But they still just don't get it, and their utter cluelessness shines through like the awkward maladroitness of a freshly pampered pauper trying to integrate into an elite Northeastern social circle.
I'm referring of course to Ken Blackwell and his likely successful bid for chairmanship of the RNC. He would become the first African American to chair that illustrious body. And by virtue of electing an African American to such a high leadership position within their party, surely the Republicans will ingratiate themselves to the black community, right? Surely this will stand as irrefutable evidentiary support that racism is dead among the Republican leadership, right ? (ignoring, of course, that whole ugly mess with Trent Lott not too long ago - I still chuckle when I think back to him making the mea culpa rounds on BET and other black media sources.)
But actually, no. Blackwell's election will mean nothing by itself. Let's look at something interesting. Mr. Blackwell was the unsuccessful Republican contender in the 2006 Ohio gubernatorial election, losing to current Governor Ted Strickland by a wide margin. Here's a juicy tidbit that nobody bothers to mention; in that election Ted Strickland - a white guy who went to college in Kentucky, running against a viable black politician - won 77% of the black vote according to exit polling.
Hmmm! Apparently as blacks, our chains to the fantasy "liberal plantation" of free welfare handouts are still quite formidable. At least that's how I'm sure Mr. Blackwell's beating among blacks was explained in a myriad of Republican cocktail parties following that election.
There's at least one other similar, interesting example that immediately jumps to mind - the 2004 Senate election in Illinois. That was of course the election that launched President Obama into his penultimate political power role as the Junior Senator from Illinois. Even giving due recognition to his deft political skills, it would be an understatement of Biblical proportions to say that President Obama was lucky in that race - a string of nasty sex scandals basically eviscerated his early Republican challengers (the party of "God-fearing family values" certainly has a hard time keeping it zipped up, but I digress.) The Illinois Republican Party rightfully feared Mr. Obama and deviously schemed of ways in which they could curtail his rising momentum. Their tour de force? How about a black Republican, and a conservative black Republican at that! Unfortunately the number of viable conservative black Republican politicians is roughly comparable to the number of treadmills in Rush Pigbaugh's home, so the Illinois Republican Party soon found themselves searching outside of the Land of Lincoln for a suitable opponent. Their choice turned out to be none other than Alan Keyes (black conservative Republican, but viable? based on his past election history, not so much.) Their strategy basically went like this: since many blacks are culturally conservative and Obama is a fierce liberal, this selection will cause blacks to split the vote, and if the Democrats can't carry the black community by the usual lopsided margin, Obama will be defeated.
Unfortunately for them, there were more holes in this desperate, racist strategy than in a piece of swiss cheese after being run through a shredder. Keyes was an egregious carpetbagger, having never lived in Illinois a day of his life before that election. Illinois, dominated demographically by hyper-liberal Cook County (home to Chicago), is the most liberal state in the entire Midwest; Alan Keyes - a man who disowned his own daughter and cut off her financial support after she came out as a lesbian - is so fiercely, acerbically conservative that most sane Republicans want absolutely nothing to do with him. Because of his borderline fascist views and nasty personality, he has in fact never won an election in his entire life.
So on election day, the Illinois Republican Party's strategy (predictably) fell to pieces. Not only did Obama win the election by the largest statewide margin in the history of Illinois, exit polls show that he won a full 92% of the black vote (in comparison, Obama won 95% of the black vote in the election against McCain.) Again, I'm sure that this provided much fodder for conversation at many Republican cocktail parties afterward. Why didn't the two black guys split the black vote, like we had thought?
What's going on here? The answer is remarkably simple, and I'm going to do the Republicans a great favor by sharing it with them. In fact, it is so simple that I can summarize it in one word:
...but not "values" in the mercurial, distorted Republican sense of that word. There may be rampant homophobia in the African American community, but that isn't what drives black voters to the polls. Blacks, while overall pro-choice, are more split on that issue than Americans as a whole, but that's not what drives the community. Blacks are in general highly religious, but they aren't driven to vote because they want to legislate morality from the Bible into our secular system of Common Law.
"Values" to most black Americans mean addressing the fact that in many areas blacks are a majority of the prison population despite being only a small minority of the overall population.
"Values" to most black Americans mean rectifying crumbling inner-city public schools that have failed entire generations of minority youth with remarkable effectiveness.
"Values" to most black Americans mean being able to take off from their job to deal with a sick child without having to suffer a pay cut or worry about being fired.
"Values" to most black Americans mean being able to retire with dignity and some financial security at a reasonable age, as opposed to working up until the day that they die.
And faced with these "values" issues, what are the right-wing Republican solutions that people such as Ken Blackwell and Alan Keyes propose? Tax cuts for the wealthy? Private retirement accounts, which would have destroyed massive amounts of investor wealth? Continuing the current profit-driven healthcare system which has left 50 million Americans completely uninsured and millions more underinsured? School vouchers that would strip financial support away from our nation's poorest school districts? And absolutely no changes at all to our current incarceration policies because we must be "tough" on the "crime" of smoking pot?
For a very long time, Republicans have believed that they could effectively "blackwash" their party simply by virtue of appointing a few token minorities - Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, etc. - to high-profile positions. They have relentlessly pursued this strategy, and they have continued to lose the black vote by increasingly lopsided margins for generations. I might also note that they appear to be in a similar situation now with the Latino vote, which appears to have all but abandoned the GOP after years and years of incendiary, racist rhetoric on the immigration issue.
Until the GOP recognizes the patent fact that it is their values that drive away blacks in droves - policies of making the wealthy even wealthier while not generally giving a damn about anybody else - they can continue to appoint people like Ken Blackwell to whatever positions they wish, and they will continue to be massacred in elections among black voters, and most other minority groups as well.
But then again, exactly when have Republicans been known for shaking up the status quo, anyhow?
I'm referring of course to Ken Blackwell and his likely successful bid for chairmanship of the RNC. He would become the first African American to chair that illustrious body. And by virtue of electing an African American to such a high leadership position within their party, surely the Republicans will ingratiate themselves to the black community, right? Surely this will stand as irrefutable evidentiary support that racism is dead among the Republican leadership, right ? (ignoring, of course, that whole ugly mess with Trent Lott not too long ago - I still chuckle when I think back to him making the mea culpa rounds on BET and other black media sources.)
But actually, no. Blackwell's election will mean nothing by itself. Let's look at something interesting. Mr. Blackwell was the unsuccessful Republican contender in the 2006 Ohio gubernatorial election, losing to current Governor Ted Strickland by a wide margin. Here's a juicy tidbit that nobody bothers to mention; in that election Ted Strickland - a white guy who went to college in Kentucky, running against a viable black politician - won 77% of the black vote according to exit polling.
Hmmm! Apparently as blacks, our chains to the fantasy "liberal plantation" of free welfare handouts are still quite formidable. At least that's how I'm sure Mr. Blackwell's beating among blacks was explained in a myriad of Republican cocktail parties following that election.
There's at least one other similar, interesting example that immediately jumps to mind - the 2004 Senate election in Illinois. That was of course the election that launched President Obama into his penultimate political power role as the Junior Senator from Illinois. Even giving due recognition to his deft political skills, it would be an understatement of Biblical proportions to say that President Obama was lucky in that race - a string of nasty sex scandals basically eviscerated his early Republican challengers (the party of "God-fearing family values" certainly has a hard time keeping it zipped up, but I digress.) The Illinois Republican Party rightfully feared Mr. Obama and deviously schemed of ways in which they could curtail his rising momentum. Their tour de force? How about a black Republican, and a conservative black Republican at that! Unfortunately the number of viable conservative black Republican politicians is roughly comparable to the number of treadmills in Rush Pigbaugh's home, so the Illinois Republican Party soon found themselves searching outside of the Land of Lincoln for a suitable opponent. Their choice turned out to be none other than Alan Keyes (black conservative Republican, but viable? based on his past election history, not so much.) Their strategy basically went like this: since many blacks are culturally conservative and Obama is a fierce liberal, this selection will cause blacks to split the vote, and if the Democrats can't carry the black community by the usual lopsided margin, Obama will be defeated.
Unfortunately for them, there were more holes in this desperate, racist strategy than in a piece of swiss cheese after being run through a shredder. Keyes was an egregious carpetbagger, having never lived in Illinois a day of his life before that election. Illinois, dominated demographically by hyper-liberal Cook County (home to Chicago), is the most liberal state in the entire Midwest; Alan Keyes - a man who disowned his own daughter and cut off her financial support after she came out as a lesbian - is so fiercely, acerbically conservative that most sane Republicans want absolutely nothing to do with him. Because of his borderline fascist views and nasty personality, he has in fact never won an election in his entire life.
So on election day, the Illinois Republican Party's strategy (predictably) fell to pieces. Not only did Obama win the election by the largest statewide margin in the history of Illinois, exit polls show that he won a full 92% of the black vote (in comparison, Obama won 95% of the black vote in the election against McCain.) Again, I'm sure that this provided much fodder for conversation at many Republican cocktail parties afterward. Why didn't the two black guys split the black vote, like we had thought?
What's going on here? The answer is remarkably simple, and I'm going to do the Republicans a great favor by sharing it with them. In fact, it is so simple that I can summarize it in one word:
VALUES
...but not "values" in the mercurial, distorted Republican sense of that word. There may be rampant homophobia in the African American community, but that isn't what drives black voters to the polls. Blacks, while overall pro-choice, are more split on that issue than Americans as a whole, but that's not what drives the community. Blacks are in general highly religious, but they aren't driven to vote because they want to legislate morality from the Bible into our secular system of Common Law.
"Values" to most black Americans mean addressing the fact that in many areas blacks are a majority of the prison population despite being only a small minority of the overall population.
"Values" to most black Americans mean rectifying crumbling inner-city public schools that have failed entire generations of minority youth with remarkable effectiveness.
"Values" to most black Americans mean being able to take off from their job to deal with a sick child without having to suffer a pay cut or worry about being fired.
"Values" to most black Americans mean being able to retire with dignity and some financial security at a reasonable age, as opposed to working up until the day that they die.
And faced with these "values" issues, what are the right-wing Republican solutions that people such as Ken Blackwell and Alan Keyes propose? Tax cuts for the wealthy? Private retirement accounts, which would have destroyed massive amounts of investor wealth? Continuing the current profit-driven healthcare system which has left 50 million Americans completely uninsured and millions more underinsured? School vouchers that would strip financial support away from our nation's poorest school districts? And absolutely no changes at all to our current incarceration policies because we must be "tough" on the "crime" of smoking pot?
For a very long time, Republicans have believed that they could effectively "blackwash" their party simply by virtue of appointing a few token minorities - Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, etc. - to high-profile positions. They have relentlessly pursued this strategy, and they have continued to lose the black vote by increasingly lopsided margins for generations. I might also note that they appear to be in a similar situation now with the Latino vote, which appears to have all but abandoned the GOP after years and years of incendiary, racist rhetoric on the immigration issue.
Until the GOP recognizes the patent fact that it is their values that drive away blacks in droves - policies of making the wealthy even wealthier while not generally giving a damn about anybody else - they can continue to appoint people like Ken Blackwell to whatever positions they wish, and they will continue to be massacred in elections among black voters, and most other minority groups as well.
But then again, exactly when have Republicans been known for shaking up the status quo, anyhow?
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