Republican still not getting the message
Many American voters believe Republicans are “scary,” “narrow-minded” and “out of touch.” I’ve been thinking those things for years, but they aren’t my words. Republicans are saying them about Republicans.
According to a 98-page report commissioned by the Republican National Committee (something it calls the “growth & opportunity project”), the Republican Party is perceived as being a party of “stuffy old men.” They stopped short of sticking the words “rich” and “white” after the word “stuffy,” but at least they’re trying.
The report is a frank self-analysis about why Democratic presidential candidates have attracted more votes than their own in five out of the last six presidential elections.
Suddenly, the Republican brain trust has divined that women, minorities and young voters aren’t that excited about being ignored. Standby for “changes.”
“Public perception of the Party is at record lows.” (Yep.) “Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the Party represents, and many minorities wrongly think that Republicans do not like them or want them in the country,” the report (which could easily be called “The Comedy Stylings of the Republican Party”) says. Well, yeah.
RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus, held a news conference to release the report. While it’s clear he means well, he still shows he just doesn’t get it. “Because it all goes back to what our moms used to tell us: It’s not just what we say; it’s how we say it,” Priebus told reporters.
Let’s examine that statement. The Republican Party supports candidates who belittle entire segments of the population with their vitriolic drivel about “takers” and “givers,” and there’s supposed to be a nice way of saying it?
“Some people say Republicans don’t care,” says the report. I concur. Everybody except Republicans thinks Republicans don’t care.
“We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian and gay Americans and demonstrate that we care about them, too,” it says on page six.
As the Republican’s father of all-things-conservative, Ronald Reagan, once said, “There you go again.”
Nothing can be more tiresome than having somebody publicly announce their plans to “like” you, by having to “demonstrate” that they “can care about” you. First, I might add, you’ll have to remove their brains.
Hours before that report was released, there was an example of how any concerted Republican-based “minority outreach” program could fail miserably.
During a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a 30-year-old white man confronted the black conservative speaker, with his feeling that slaves really had it pretty good because they were fed and housed. He also put in a word for the return to segregation.
Scott Terry, that latter day segregationist, who’s also a Rick Santorum supporter, also claimed that white people have been “systematically disenfranchised” by the federal government.
Yet, despite the panel being titled “Trump The Race Card: Are You Sick And Tired Of Being Called A Racist When You Know You’re Not One,” not one Republican in or out of the room has challenged Terry, his words or his motives. African-Americans who’ve seen Terry’s performance just may wonder, “Is that what Republicans truly believe in the sanctity of their own outhouses?”
Yet, the worst example of how few teeth any notion Republican “minority outreach” might have came on the very day Priebus released his report.
President Obama announced his selection to head the U.S. Department of Labor is an Hispanic — Thomas Perez. Perez currently heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Republicans were quick-leaped head-first out of any “minority outreach” and into more of that same old Republican sanctimony about “principles.” One Republican Senator has already vowed to block Perez’ nomination. Another has questioned his involvement in a case that involved protections for minorities against predatory housing practices.
But it was the loudest-mouthed Republican of them all, Rush Limbaugh, who signaled an end to “minority outreach” before it began. Limbaugh claimed “this guy may as well be Hugo Chavez.” He also compared Perez’ nomination to something akin to George W. Bush nominating a Ku Klux Klansman.
There you go again.
Uniontown native Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net