What Should the GOP Do To Appeal To Minorities?

[Kevin]

No, if the whole country voted GOP it would look more like Cherokee county GA.  Rich, Suburban, Pro-business, and Socially Conservative.

Exactly it's not like the poor whites in the south vote GOP anyway.

It depends where you go in many parts Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Kentucky vote Democratic.

[Bo]

No, if the whole country voted GOP it would look more like Cherokee county GA.  Rich, Suburban, Pro-business, and Socially Conservative.

Exactly it's not like the poor whites in the south vote GOP anyway.

It depends where you go in many parts Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Kentucky vote Democratic.

Still, poor white areas in the South vote much more GOP than Democrat at the Presidential level right now.

[Mechaman]

The GOP should focus on winning the Hispanic, Asian, and maybe even the Arab vote.

For Latinos, I agree that the illegal immigration issue should be downplayed when addressing Latino voters. The GOP supported amnesty for illegals back in the 1980s, yet it didn't help them  very much with the Latino vote afterwards. I think Latinos voted for the Democrats since the 1930s, and I think the main reason is economics, since Republicans were the more socially liberal party up until the 1970s. Even though the GOP has been making a big deal out of social issues lately, that didn't help them win over too many additional Latino votes. Thus, I think the GOP is going to need to move leftward economically if they want to win a significantly larger share of the Latino vote, since "trickle-down economics" just doesn't sell very well to Latino (and black) voters.

I disagree with your proposed solution--the Biggest problem the GOP has with Hispanics is an image problem, not an issue problem.  If you break it down by issue, Hispanics are remarkably Fiscally Conservative; they supported things like Welfare reform in the 90s, and are highly entrepreneurial and self-relying.  The Problem is that the GOP can't seem to shake the notion that they're "Anti-Hispanic."

I agree with you that it's not really an immigration issue either.  Both the Reagan Amnesty and the Arizona bill had negligible impacts on GOP Hispanic support nationwide.  I think the best bet for the GOP is to do what so many are unwilling to--actually campaign for their votes.  Republicans have a lot to work off of in terms of mutual values and goals, and if they can break the carefully crafted Democratic meme that the Republican party is full of violent racists, electoral gains will follow.

The problem is that the GOP ins't fiscally conservative. If you look at the fiscal records of the last three GOP Presidents, they were just horrendous. Thus, if the GOP run as fiscal conservatives, Democrats could just point out that 80% of our national debt was accumulated under the last 3 GOP Presidents and that they only things Republicans do are make us more in debt to China. And GWB campaigned heavily for the Latino vote in 2004 and made a large effort to reach out to the Latino community. Even that didn't help much--Bush got 40% of the Latino vote in 2004, in contrast to 35% in 2000. However, keep in mind that the whole country swung 3% GOP in 2004 (relative to 2000), and thus the Latino vote only trended GOP by 2%, which isn't very much. Not to mention that Kerry was just a horrible candidate. I agree that the GOP needs to improve its image among Latinos as well, by a lot. But to be honest I don't think it will help the GOP that much. I mean, the perception of the GOP as racists only emerged in a large scale in the last decade, yet the Democrats have won the Latino vote by large margins ever since the 1930s, way before any perception of the GOP as racist came about (heck, back then the Democrats were perceived as the more racist party).

Isn't freeing blacks from slavery and voting for the civil rights bill enough for you?

Blacks did vote GOP for decades after the end of slavery. Of course, FDR changed all that. The civil Rights Movement wasn't really a partisan affair. There were plenty of people in both parties  on both sides of the debate. Johnson's emphatic support for it certianly cemented blacks in the Dem camp however. Blacks voting for the Dems today isn't about Civil Rights. It's a rejection of the every man for himself attitude among the GOP.

Actually I would go back further than FDR to 1928 when Hoover implemented the first GOP "Southern Strategy":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover#Southern_strategy

[Ameriplan]

Yeah, freedom and civil rights acts mean nothing. It's all about more welfare benefits from the New Deal

[Derek]

Yeah, freedom and civil rights acts mean nothing. It's all about more welfare benefits from the New Deal

Yes the democrats learned how to manipulate minorities with that and now look at the crime rate and out of wedlock births. How are those democrats working for you?

[Mechaman]

Have you guys even bothered to read my wikipedia link?:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

If there is anybody the Republicans should blame for costing them the black vote it's themselves.  Sure, FDR supporting welfare might've put them over to the Democrats permanently, but it was Hoover's hardon for the vote of White Southern Protestant businessmen (thus why he also campaigned on Prohibition and anti-catholicism.  Because black rights don't mean a damn as long as he kept those catholic micks out of office (yes believe or not the immortal "pro-civil rights" Republican party was full of bigots back then, whether you like it or not).

[RIP Robert H Bork]

Have you guys even bothered to read my wikipedia link?:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

If there is anybody the Republicans should blame for costing them the black vote it's themselves.  Sure, FDR supporting welfare might've put them over to the Democrats permanently, but it was Hoover's hardon for the vote of White Southern Protestant businessmen (thus why he also campaigned on Prohibition and anti-catholicism.  Because black rights don't mean a damn as long as he kept those catholic micks out of office (yes believe or not the immortal "pro-civil rights" Republican party was full of bigots back then, whether you like it or not).

Indeed. So that must be why FDR was the first Democrat to carry the black vote.

[milhouse24]

And which direction has the crime rate gone in black communities since the Johnson administration? How many more babies do we have born out of wedlock? What has happened to the poverty rate among blacks? The black community is a perfect example of what the country would be like if everyone voted democrat.

Congrats on proving why Blacks don't like the Republican party, because many Republicans don't like Blacks and are hostile to helping the Black community.  You claim its because of Democrats that cause all of the problems for the Black communities. 

I don't really see any rich Republicans caring about Black problems.  At least Democrats and LBJ passed the Civil Rights Legislation.  The GOP doesn't care about giving handouts to minority small business owners, its survival of the fittest and richest for the already wealthy.

Plus, on a social issue, GOP want to keep the white and black communities separated, just like in the old days.

[Mechaman]

Have you guys even bothered to read my wikipedia link?:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

If there is anybody the Republicans should blame for costing them the black vote it's themselves.  Sure, FDR supporting welfare might've put them over to the Democrats permanently, but it was Hoover's hardon for the vote of White Southern Protestant businessmen (thus why he also campaigned on Prohibition and anti-catholicism.  Because black rights don't mean a damn as long as he kept those catholic micks out of office (yes believe or not the immortal "pro-civil rights" Republican party was full of bigots back then, whether you like it or not).

Indeed. So that must be why FDR was the first Democrat to carry the black vote.

Yes.  I am not saying that Hoover lost the black vote (hell, the Democratic Party wasn't any more sympathetic to them) but he definitely wasn't doing them any favors by trying to win over Southern Whites.
Sorry guys, but racism and bigotry were quite prevalent in both parties back in the day.  It is only more recently that society has become somewhat more accepting of people as people and not by their ethnicity.  We still have problems as a society in being colorblind in our analyses, but it is certainly alot better than it was in the first half of the 20th century.

[feeblepizza]

I think that the GOP should just stay on its current course and let the Democrats remain as the pander party. But, if you insist, I think nominating more minority candidates would do the trick, and they have plenty. And if they were really desperate, they could use someone like Condi, Michael Steele, or J.C. Watts, although I think that is very unlikely.

[Mechaman]

I think that the GOP should just stay on its current course and let the Democrats remain as the pander party. But, if you insist, I think nominating more minority candidates would do the trick, and they have plenty. And if they were really desperate, they could use someone like Condi, Michael Steele, or J.C. Watts, although I think that is very unlikely.

Hey if Southern Oklahoma could elect a southern black conservative Republican to Congress, might as well give it a shot.

[Derek]

Republicans have shown that they can win without any minorities, but that era is fading. Simply supporting affirmative action isn't going to cut it unfortunately. Call for "open borders" with guards who let people easily and amnesty. Also, alot of my conservative counterparts don't realize this but amnesty allows more foreigners to be tracked as opposed to now where the government doesn't know exactly who is who within the illegal community.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

And which direction has the crime rate gone in black communities since the Johnson administration? How many more babies do we have born out of wedlock? What has happened to the poverty rate among blacks? The black community is a perfect example of what the country would be like if everyone voted democrat.

Congrats on proving why Blacks don't like the Republican party, because many Republicans don't like Blacks and are hostile to helping the Black community.  You claim its because of Democrats that cause all of the problems for the Black communities.  

I don't really see any rich Republicans caring about Black problems.  At least Democrats and LBJ passed the Civil Rights Legislation.  The GOP doesn't care about giving handouts to minority small business owners, its survival of the fittest and richest for the already wealthy.

Plus, on a social issue, GOP want to keep the white and black communities separated, just like in the old days.

Dewey and Taft were fighting for civil rights while LBJ was voting against Anti-Lynching bills.

90% of the GOP voted for the Civil Rights act, including both Conservatives led by Everett Dirksen and Liberals of the Rockefeller wing. Without Dirksen's Conservatives it wouldn't have passed. Three Republicans Voted no, Goldwater, Tower, and and Milton Young. It was 67% yes for the Dems. With such Liberal icons as Robert Byrd (god rest his soul for he atleast grew a brain), Al Gore Sr, J William Fulbright (Clinton's mentor and loved by the left due to Vietnam opposition), and Sam Ervin (loved by the left for leading the fight to impeach Nixon) voting no. Nixon was fighting for the Civil Rights bills of 1957 and 1960 which LBJ gets credit for while JFK was dithering on the issue to gain Southern Voters. In 2005, the GOP Congress and evil, omg son of the Devil GEORGE BUSH renewed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

That second part is a bold face lie as son of the devil Bush gave numerous tax breaks and other incentives to minority small business owners and entreprenuers.

Today, yes the programs that sought to help blacks have had the negative effect of destroying the African American family which, according to left wing historian Howard Zinn, was essential to African Americans surviving slavery and segregation.  

The greatest threat and hinderance to the black community and we aren't even allowed to discuss because of your political correctness. You are destroying the black community because you insist on shaping the debate for whats good politically not whats best for the black community and to do that you make sure any challenge to established thought on the subject is RACISM. You and your corrupt party have a nice little con game going on. You aren't interest in helping people but creating long term voting blocks of machine voters so you can enact your adjenda which you "think" will help them but it may not. And we can't even challenge you because you hide behind the racism charge. Democrats are cowards, especially liberal ones.

You want to help Blacks, then drop the arrogance inherent liberals and listen to the opposite side for once instead of categorizing all conservatives as kooks. Republicans don't have a problem with blacks. They have a problem with balls. The balls to face down people like you and address the real problem. They are too afraid, they tried the politically correct path in 2000 and you people responded with ad featuring a brutal crime committed against an African American saying that if Bush is elected that will be your future. Well from what I see it, January 20, 2001 nothing changed from the Clinton years (which did nothing either despite media hype as the first black President, lol). I think its liberals that are afraid. If blacks finally start to become more open about who to vote for the Democratic party will instantly be in trouble. If 25% of OH blacks voted Republican, the state would be a secure red state. MI and PA would become even or Republican leaning swing states instead of Dem leaning swing states. The TX gains will be wiped out. FL becomes a safe GOP state. Yea, I think Dems are afraid and even somewhat patronizing, if not racist, in their methods to keep blacks in line, voting 95% Dem.

The black family has been destroyed. Blacks kids have no postive role models. Even in the media the only positive role model of stature is Bill Cosby and maybe Oprah. Yet I hear it all the time, around here, young blacks don't like either. The media has promoted blacks of questionable intregrity who treat women like crap, who make drugs look cool and at the same time, trivialize respectable people. No amount of money is going to prevent kids from starting drugs, or joing a gang, or committing a robbery, or vandalizing property. Only a strong family unit (even a homosexual one would do the trick) in which the parents instill core values of hard work, honesty, and integrity. Thats the one thing blacks lack that every other race has by wide margins. The numbers show this problem is far worse in the black community then any other group and it needs to be addressed. Or the main career path for young blacks in the city will remain crime and jail.

Somehow I doubt that Dr. King spent his life fighting for equality and justice just so the African Community could laid prostrate by social ills caused by the collapse of the family, which not only survived Slavery (going back to Zinn) but help blacks get survive that hell. You can make the the case for affirmative action and even reparations but you can throw all kinds of money here and not one thing will change. I think we oh it to the black community to address this problem don't you? The pillar that helped them get through enormous difficulty and living hell has been torn assunder. And your solution is, for us who offer an alternative, to shut up, sh**t down, cower in fear, and do nothing. So the Dumbocrats can take there sweat time just like they did last time. The blacks can afford to wait another 40 years while you people find your soul again on black issues. Well guess what, the GOP is already there, they just don't realize it yet. You people in general aren't. The battlelines have moved and you want to fight the 1960's all over again with the new "dixiecrats". That ship has sailed, times have changed, the problems facing the community have taken on a different character. Get with the times on it or accept that the Dem monopoly on black voters may become endangered.

Do as you will, but you don't scare me with your political correctness and no other Conservative should be afraid either. I am not a racist, my best friends in high school consisted of several African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. My first girlfriend/crush whatever you want to call it was with a black girl (damn why did I have to move away from her, well its probably for the best considering my relationships never last ). I respect good people, color never crosses my mind when considering who I should be friends with. So I won't be driven away by a simple mention of the "r" word. I also am not a hack and your first response will be to do what Moderate Dem did to me which is accuse me of opposing welfare entirely (I don't, I oppose the way it is crafted to encourage destruction of poor families). You also can't use slavery destroying the family on me like Moderate Dem did because I cited an "LEFT WING" author to back up the new theory on that. And a passage is currently posted from his book in the LBJ thread in the History Board which describes what I am talking about.


Sorry for the rant/speech/sermon all in one. But I feel this had to be said.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Republicans have shown that they can win without any minorities, but that era is fading. Simply supporting affirmative action isn't going to cut it unfortunately. Call for "open borders" with guards who let people easily and amnesty. Also, alot of my conservative counterparts don't realize this but amnesty allows more foreigners to be tracked as opposed to now where the government doesn't know exactly who is who within the illegal community.

I have explained this 100 times. You don't concede, you fight. The pressure groups who control minority votes will never support Republicans. You have to break their grip on those votes. You have to prove to them that they are self serving and not looking out for their best interests.

I won't go into detail on the Amnesty thing (I just did recently). The people pushing amnesty know damn well that future illegal immigration will be encouraged and they will demand yet another amnesty. These groups have been hindering enforcement operations and demaning amnesty since the when the ink had barely dried on the Reagan Amnesty. You are naive or unaware of the history if you think that we won't be having this same arguement 15 years from now. It never changes, it has been their game since the 60's. They won't machine voters, not good policy. I'll be damned if I sign of a bill that only benefits these groups and big agribusiness. It will do nothing for the immigrant who came here legally, the next wave of illegals who will be exploited, the victim of ID theft, and most certainly not the country at-large. My view is the "compassionate" view not the open borders one.

Oh and I please don't hit me with that "you can't round them up crap" because  I already went through why that is not necessary two days ago. Go dig for it.

Its not going to be easy, its going to take courage and effort. Simply changing one position is not going to do it. Bush promised everything under the son and got to 44% of Hispanics, 1% more among African Americans (I will note we are still in the mid 30's among Hispanics about 10% better then Dole's performance in 1996) but it was unsustainable and the promises impossible. A different approach is needed.

[Bo]

Republicans have shown that they can win without any minorities, but that era is fading. Simply supporting affirmative action isn't going to cut it unfortunately. Call for "open borders" with guards who let people easily and amnesty. Also, alot of my conservative counterparts don't realize this but amnesty allows more foreigners to be tracked as opposed to now where the government doesn't know exactly who is who within the illegal community.

I have explained this 100 times. You don't concede, you fight. The pressure groups who control minority votes will never support Republicans. You have to break their grip on those votes. You have to prove to them that they are self serving and not looking out for their best interests.

I won't go into detail on the Amnesty thing (I just did recently). The people pushing amnesty know damn well that future illegal immigration will be encouraged and they will demand yet another amnesty. These groups have been hindering enforcement operations and demaning amnesty since the when the ink had barely dried on the Reagan Amnesty. You are naive or unaware of the history if you think that we won't be having this same arguement 15 years from now. It never changes, it has been their game since the 60's. They won't machine voters, not good policy. I'll be damned if I sign of a bill that only benefits these groups and big agribusiness. It will do nothing for the immigrant who came here legally, the next wave of illegals who will be exploited, the victim of ID theft, and most certainly not the country at-large. My view is the "compassionate" view not the open borders one.

Oh and I please don't hit me with that "you can't round them up crap" because  I already went through why that is not necessary two days ago. Go dig for it.

Its not going to be easy, its going to take courage and effort. Simply changing one position is not going to do it. Bush promised everything under the son and got to 44% of Hispanics, 1% more among African Americans (I will note we are still in the mid 30's among Hispanics about 10% better then Dole's performance in 1996) but it was unsustainable and the promises impossible. A different approach is needed.

Actually, the 44% intially given was later revised as being too high. The revised numbers is that Bush got about 39% or 40% of the Latino vote in 2004, which is only a 2% trend to the GOP relative to 2000.

http://faculty.washington.edu/mbarreto/papers/2004vote.pdf

And I agree that supporting affirmative action and amnesty isn't going to help Republicans much with the minority vote. Even if both parties support those two things, most minorities will still vote Democratic because they agree with the Democratic economic policy (more social programs, tax breaks for the middle class, etc.) much more. The GOP supported affirmative action under Nixon and Ford, and supported amnesty for illegals under Reagan. Neither of them helped the GOP much with the minority vote. What makes you think doing the same thing now will help the GOP with minorities? And nowadays, supporting affirmative action and amnesty for illegals will alienate a large part of the GOP base, and thus is much more likely to hurt the GOP than help them.

[Derek]

Republicans have shown that they can win without any minorities, but that era is fading. Simply supporting affirmative action isn't going to cut it unfortunately. Call for "open borders" with guards who let people easily and amnesty. Also, alot of my conservative counterparts don't realize this but amnesty allows more foreigners to be tracked as opposed to now where the government doesn't know exactly who is who within the illegal community.

I have explained this 100 times. You don't concede, you fight. The pressure groups who control minority votes will never support Republicans. You have to break their grip on those votes. You have to prove to them that they are self serving and not looking out for their best interests.

I won't go into detail on the Amnesty thing (I just did recently). The people pushing amnesty know damn well that future illegal immigration will be encouraged and they will demand yet another amnesty. These groups have been hindering enforcement operations and demaning amnesty since the when the ink had barely dried on the Reagan Amnesty. You are naive or unaware of the history if you think that we won't be having this same arguement 15 years from now. It never changes, it has been their game since the 60's. They won't machine voters, not good policy. I'll be damned if I sign of a bill that only benefits these groups and big agribusiness. It will do nothing for the immigrant who came here legally, the next wave of illegals who will be exploited, the victim of ID theft, and most certainly not the country at-large. My view is the "compassionate" view not the open borders one.

Oh and I please don't hit me with that "you can't round them up crap" because  I already went through why that is not necessary two days ago. Go dig for it.

Its not going to be easy, its going to take courage and effort. Simply changing one position is not going to do it. Bush promised everything under the son and got to 44% of Hispanics, 1% more among African Americans (I will note we are still in the mid 30's among Hispanics about 10% better then Dole's performance in 1996) but it was unsustainable and the promises impossible. A different approach is needed.

I'm against promising handouts. That does seem to be the mentality that alot of minorities have fallen under. What are your disagreements with affirmative action though? I'm against the way that the University of Michigan did it but other than that I'm a supporter.

[milhouse24]

And which direction has the crime rate gone in black communities since the Johnson administration? How many more babies do we have born out of wedlock? What has happened to the poverty rate among blacks? The black community is a perfect example of what the country would be like if everyone voted democrat.

Congrats on proving why Blacks don't like the Republican party, because many Republicans don't like Blacks and are hostile to helping the Black community.  You claim its because of Democrats that cause all of the problems for the Black communities.  

I don't really see any rich Republicans caring about Black problems.  At least Democrats and LBJ passed the Civil Rights Legislation.  The GOP doesn't care about giving handouts to minority small business owners, its survival of the fittest and richest for the already wealthy.

Plus, on a social issue, GOP want to keep the white and black communities separated, just like in the old days.

Dewey and Taft were fighting for civil rights while LBJ was voting against Anti-Lynching bills.

90% of the GOP voted for the Civil Rights act, including both Conservatives led by Everett Dirksen and Liberals of the Rockefeller wing. Without Dirksen's Conservatives it wouldn't have passed. Three Republicans Voted no, Goldwater, Tower, and and Milton Young. It was 67% yes for the Dems. With such Liberal icons as Robert Byrd (god rest his soul for he atleast grew a brain), Al Gore Sr, J William Fulbright (Clinton's mentor and loved by the left due to Vietnam opposition), and Sam Ervin (loved by the left for leading the fight to impeach Nixon) voting no. Nixon was fighting for the Civil Rights bills of 1957 and 1960 which LBJ gets credit for while JFK was dithering on the issue to gain Southern Voters. In 2005, the GOP Congress and evil, omg son of the Devil GEORGE BUSH renewed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

That second part is a bold face lie as son of the devil Bush gave numerous tax breaks and other incentives to minority small business owners and entreprenuers.

Today, yes the programs that sought to help blacks have had the negative effect of destroying the African American family which, according to left wing historian Howard Zinn, was essential to African Americans surviving slavery and segregation.  

The greatest threat and hinderance to the black community and we aren't even allowed to discuss because of your political correctness. You are destroying the black community because you insist on shaping the debate for whats good politically not whats best for the black community and to do that you make sure any challenge to established thought on the subject is RACISM. You and your corrupt party have a nice little con game going on. You aren't interest in helping people but creating long term voting blocks of machine voters so you can enact your adjenda which you "think" will help them but it may not. And we can't even challenge you because you hide behind the racism charge. Democrats are cowards, especially liberal ones.

You want to help Blacks, then drop the arrogance inherent liberals and listen to the opposite side for once instead of categorizing all conservatives as kooks. Republicans don't have a problem with blacks. They have a problem with balls. The balls to face down people like you and address the real problem. They are too afraid, they tried the politically correct path in 2000 and you people responded with ad featuring a brutal crime committed against an African American saying that if Bush is elected that will be your future. Well from what I see it, January 20, 2001 nothing changed from the Clinton years (which did nothing either despite media hype as the first black President, lol). I think its liberals that are afraid. If blacks finally start to become more open about who to vote for the Democratic party will instantly be in trouble. If 25% of OH blacks voted Republican, the state would be a secure red state. MI and PA would become even or Republican leaning swing states instead of Dem leaning swing states. The TX gains will be wiped out. FL becomes a safe GOP state. Yea, I think Dems are afraid and even somewhat patronizing, if not racist, in their methods to keep blacks in line, voting 95% Dem.

The black family has been destroyed. Blacks kids have no postive role models. Even in the media the only positive role model of stature is Bill Cosby and maybe Oprah. Yet I hear it all the time, around here, young blacks don't like either. The media has promoted blacks of questionable intregrity who treat women like crap, who make drugs look cool and at the same time, trivialize respectable people. No amount of money is going to prevent kids from starting drugs, or joing a gang, or committing a robbery, or vandalizing property. Only a strong family unit (even a homosexual one would do the trick) in which the parents instill core values of hard work, honesty, and integrity. Thats the one thing blacks lack that every other race has by wide margins. The numbers show this problem is far worse in the black community then any other group and it needs to be addressed. Or the main career path for young blacks in the city will remain crime and jail.

Somehow I doubt that Dr. King spent his life fighting for equality and justice just so the African Community could laid prostrate by social ills caused by the collapse of the family, which not only survived Slavery (going back to Zinn) but help blacks get survive that hell. You can make the the case for affirmative action and even reparations but you can throw all kinds of money here and not one thing will change. I think we oh it to the black community to address this problem don't you? The pillar that helped them get through enormous difficulty and living hell has been torn assunder. And your solution is, for us who offer an alternative, to shut up, sh**t down, cower in fear, and do nothing. So the Dumbocrats can take there sweat time just like they did last time. The blacks can afford to wait another 40 years while you people find your soul again on black issues. Well guess what, the GOP is already there, they just don't realize it yet. You people in general aren't. The battlelines have moved and you want to fight the 1960's all over again with the new "dixiecrats". That ship has sailed, times have changed, the problems facing the community have taken on a different character. Get with the times on it or accept that the Dem monopoly on black voters may become endangered.

Do as you will, but you don't scare me with your political correctness and no other Conservative should be afraid either. I am not a racist, my best friends in high school consisted of several African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. My first girlfriend/crush whatever you want to call it was with a black girl (damn why did I have to move away from her, well its probably for the best considering my relationships never last ). I respect good people, color never crosses my mind when considering who I should be friends with. So I won't be driven away by a simple mention of the "r" word. I also am not a hack and your first response will be to do what Moderate Dem did to me which is accuse me of opposing welfare entirely (I don't, I oppose the way it is crafted to encourage destruction of poor families). You also can't use slavery destroying the family on me like Moderate Dem did because I cited an "LEFT WING" author to back up the new theory on that. And a passage is currently posted from his book in the LBJ thread in the History Board which describes what I am talking about.


Sorry for the rant/speech/sermon all in one. But I feel this had to be said.

I would say that Obama is a strong positive role model for Black kids.  Mike Steele is a role model.  While I would agree that handouts have made it easier to game the system, there is difficult economic mobility amongst Blacks and I'm not sure if its economic racism or poor education.  Its not enought to just have small business owners, you need a strong Black population in the white collar workforce to encourage growth in the Black middle-class.  Additionally, race has divided and segregated the country since 1965 and its time for communities, towns, and cities to mix races and end racial segregation.  Countries like Brazil have successfully mixed former slaves into the population, we can do it in America as well.

[milhouse24]

Republicans have shown that they can win without any minorities, but that era is fading. Simply supporting affirmative action isn't going to cut it unfortunately. Call for "open borders" with guards who let people easily and amnesty. Also, alot of my conservative counterparts don't realize this but amnesty allows more foreigners to be tracked as opposed to now where the government doesn't know exactly who is who within the illegal community.

I have explained this 100 times. You don't concede, you fight. The pressure groups who control minority votes will never support Republicans. You have to break their grip on those votes. You have to prove to them that they are self serving and not looking out for their best interests.

I won't go into detail on the Amnesty thing (I just did recently). The people pushing amnesty know damn well that future illegal immigration will be encouraged and they will demand yet another amnesty. These groups have been hindering enforcement operations and demaning amnesty since the when the ink had barely dried on the Reagan Amnesty. You are naive or unaware of the history if you think that we won't be having this same arguement 15 years from now. It never changes, it has been their game since the 60's. They won't machine voters, not good policy. I'll be damned if I sign of a bill that only benefits these groups and big agribusiness. It will do nothing for the immigrant who came here legally, the next wave of illegals who will be exploited, the victim of ID theft, and most certainly not the country at-large. My view is the "compassionate" view not the open borders one.

Oh and I please don't hit me with that "you can't round them up crap" because  I already went through why that is not necessary two days ago. Go dig for it.

Its not going to be easy, its going to take courage and effort. Simply changing one position is not going to do it. Bush promised everything under the son and got to 44% of Hispanics, 1% more among African Americans (I will note we are still in the mid 30's among Hispanics about 10% better then Dole's performance in 1996) but it was unsustainable and the promises impossible. A different approach is needed.

The first issue with illegal hispanics is the crime involved with drug smuggling effecting Arizona.  This deserves a strong military response. 

The 2nd issue is dealing with the large illegal immigrant population and whether Amnesty should be given to them or if they should all be deported.  While they can legally be deported, it will take up a lot of time, money, police enforcement to round up non-threatening illegals. 

The Best option is to provide amnesty for non-threatening illegals if the American economy can sustain an influx of immigrants.  By taxing these immigrants as regular citizens, you are preventing them from taking lower-paying American jobs.  With Personal income tax and social security numbers, the illegals are no longer fighting and subverting American jobs but are equals with American workers. 

The American economy can sustain an influx of immigrants otherwise they would not be able to obtain jobs.  Therefore, the only option is to increase the number of immigrants and visas available.

[Derek]

They're able to obtain jobs because they get paid minimum wage or less under the table. When suggesting amnesty and affirmative action I was saying more where I stand than where my party should stand. I happen to oppose the GOP on those issues. If it's not popular with my base, I can bring up how it would be easier to track them through the FBI that way.

[Bo]

They're able to obtain jobs because they get paid minimum wage or less under the table. When suggesting amnesty and affirmative action I was saying more where I stand than where my party should stand. I happen to oppose the GOP on those issues. If it's not popular with my base, I can bring up how it would be easier to track them through the FBI that way.

If the GOP is going to support amnesty and AA, then it's going to alienate its base without gaining many minority votes, and thus it is going to hurt the GOP much more than it's going to help.

[Derek]

They're able to obtain jobs because they get paid minimum wage or less under the table. When suggesting amnesty and affirmative action I was saying more where I stand than where my party should stand. I happen to oppose the GOP on those issues. If it's not popular with my base, I can bring up how it would be easier to track them through the FBI that way.

If the GOP is going to support amnesty and AA, then it's going to alienate its base without gaining many minority votes, and thus it is going to hurt the GOP much more than it's going to help.

I know that I'm saying that I disagree with the GOP on policy here but not necessarily strategy.

[Vepres]

Again, I restate, simply reach out to the communities during campaigns and while in office. Republicans don't seem to care about their votes (or at least come off that way), not even for purely political purposes.

Reach out to Spanish-speaking media, black media, make sure all campaign literature and speeches, etc. have Spanish translations, speak in front of the NAACP, etc. Even if what a Republican says may anger them (such as welfare hurting the black family), every election a few blacks will trickle over to the Republicans (thinking, "Hey, he may be right").

If the Republicans were able to win just 25% of the black vote, think of how many razor-thin Democratic Senate and House victories would have become Republican victories.

[Magic 8-Ball]

They need to stay the course with the urban-suburban hip-hop strategy formulated by political wunderkind Michael Steele.

[milhouse24]

They should increase visas for Swedish women

[Bo]

They should increase visas for Swedish women

lol