The GOP and Its Latin Fantasy ...
We figured that as soon as defeated MD Senate candidate & Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R) announced plans to seek the chairmanship of the RNC, the GOP White boys would figure out a quick and ruthless way to keep that from happening. The message here from White Republicans to their lowly Black Republican counterparts: "We'll let ya'll run for office and, sure, we'll give you some money for a few campaigns to make us look all good and big tent - but we'll be damned if you run our party!"
Picking Steele to run the Republican National Committee would have paid dividends in the future, particularly when one considers the slow but gradual rise of the Black Republican profile. Sooner or later, that sort of move would at least have some (not all) but some Black voters taking a second glance. Essentially, it would've been a somewhat smart move, perhaps making Democrats look a little less diverse along the way. We don't know - what we do know is that the GOP wants to openly blame everybody but the current President for its loss last week. Hence, the feeling is that current RNC Chair Ken Mehlman should go -
GOP: Ken - thought you said all this Black talk, all this talk to the Blacks, all this apologizing and stuff, was going to get them votin' for us? What happened there, Ken? Cuz they sure wasn't votin' for us last Tuesday?
Mehlman: Well - that sort of stuff takes time, you know, earning people's trust -
GOP: Time? We ain't got that kind of time, man! If they couldn't get it in a year, then they just can't get it. You know what we need? We need them Browns in here. We need them Hispanics to counter that Black vote.
Hence, fairly White-looking, "safe," establishment Cuban-American GOP Senator becomes the Republicans' Flavor of the Cycle.
And, so, the GOP indulges in some perverted electoral Latin fantasy of a wave of Latin immigrant voters embracing the GOP. But, with all this hype about the Latino vote, somebody forgot to remind them that Hispanics are only a bit over 6% of the voting masses (that's less than the percentage of African Americans that typically vote Republican on any Election Day - if that's the case, how come Black people can't get a chair at the RNC?). In addition, they can't really be classified as a "bloc."
Picking Steele to run the Republican National Committee would have paid dividends in the future, particularly when one considers the slow but gradual rise of the Black Republican profile. Sooner or later, that sort of move would at least have some (not all) but some Black voters taking a second glance. Essentially, it would've been a somewhat smart move, perhaps making Democrats look a little less diverse along the way. We don't know - what we do know is that the GOP wants to openly blame everybody but the current President for its loss last week. Hence, the feeling is that current RNC Chair Ken Mehlman should go -
GOP: Ken - thought you said all this Black talk, all this talk to the Blacks, all this apologizing and stuff, was going to get them votin' for us? What happened there, Ken? Cuz they sure wasn't votin' for us last Tuesday?
Mehlman: Well - that sort of stuff takes time, you know, earning people's trust -
GOP: Time? We ain't got that kind of time, man! If they couldn't get it in a year, then they just can't get it. You know what we need? We need them Browns in here. We need them Hispanics to counter that Black vote.
Hence, fairly White-looking, "safe," establishment Cuban-American GOP Senator becomes the Republicans' Flavor of the Cycle.
And, so, the GOP indulges in some perverted electoral Latin fantasy of a wave of Latin immigrant voters embracing the GOP. But, with all this hype about the Latino vote, somebody forgot to remind them that Hispanics are only a bit over 6% of the voting masses (that's less than the percentage of African Americans that typically vote Republican on any Election Day - if that's the case, how come Black people can't get a chair at the RNC?). In addition, they can't really be classified as a "bloc."
posted by BPblogger at 2:07 PM
<< Home