Posted on 04/22/2014 7:25:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Have the Republicans become the white man’s party? Are the depth and bitterness of Republicans’ opposition to Barack Obama and his administration the product of racism?
Those are questions you hear in the clash of political argument, and you will hear plenty of answers in the affirmative if you click onto MSNBC or Salon.com with any regularity.
You can find a more nuanced and thoughtful analysis in Jonathan Chait’s recent New York magazine article, “The Color of His Presidency.”
Chait, a liberal, starts off by noting that the post-racial America that Obama seemed to promise in his 2004 national convention speech and his 2008 campaign has not come into being.
On the contrary, “Race, always the deepest and most volatile fault line in American history,” he writes, “has now become the primal grievance in our politics, the source of a narrative of persecution each side uses to make sense of the world.”
Many liberals see racism in every criticism of the Obama presidency, even though, as Chait points out, Bill Clinton was met with similar and in some cases more strident opposition.
Conservatives, he argues, “dwell in a paranoia of their own, in which racism is used as a cudgel to delegitimize their core beliefs.” Understandably so, given his description of liberals’ “paranoia of a white racism.”
Chait defends liberals by arguing that the debates on big government were inevitably produced by the Obama agenda and “there is no separating this discussion from one’s sympathies or prejudices toward, and identification with, black America.”
But he also admits that “advocating tax cuts is not in any meaningful sense racist.” And he seems to ignore the argument that policies that directed large sums of money disproportionately at blacks — like the welfare programs from the 1970s to the 1990s, which the Obama administration is trying to partially resurrect — harm more than benefit their intended beneficiaries.
This is, after all, what House budget chairman Paul Ryan was getting at when he lamented “a culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working.” The fact that Obama has made similar arguments didn’t prevent Ryan from being excoriated as racist by some liberals.
On balance, Chait absolves Republicans (and Democrats) of the charge of racism. But he is one of many analysts, including some conservatives, who have warned Republicans of the danger of becoming a party made up almost exclusively of white people.
That puts them at risk, the argument goes, of becoming a permanent minority in a nation with increasing percentages of Hispanics and Asians and with blacks voting almost unanimously for Democrats.
There’s obviously some peril there. Mitt Romney won 59 percent of white votes in 2012, the same as George H. W. Bush in 1988. But with a smaller non-white electorate, Bush won 53 percent of the total popular vote to Romney’s 47 percent.
History tells us that Republican presidential candidates have never won more than Romney’s 59 percent of the white vote except in 1972 and 1984, when incumbent presidents were reelected in landslides.
But history also tells us that until the 1940s (except during Reconstruction), whites constituted nearly 100 percent of the electorate. Southern blacks weren’t allowed to vote, and there were few Hispanics or Asians.
The relevant electoral divisions in the past were between groups of whites — southerners and northerners, Catholics and Protestants, New England Yankees and Jacksonian frontiersmen.
The parties competed by maximizing solidarity among favorable demographic or regional minorities, while quietly seeking inroads among other groups.
Awareness of minority status tends to produce greater partisan solidarity. Extreme examples include Irish for 120 years after the potato famine, white southerners for 90 years after the Civil War, and blacks since 1964.
That may be happening again. Political scientist Larry Bartels points to research that shows that when Independent voters in the West were asked “if they had heard that California had become a majority-minority state,” they were more likely to vote Republican by a sizable 11 points.
These days, voters nationally are being told, by triumphant liberals and defensive conservatives, that America is headed toward becoming a majority-minority nation. So whites may become more Republican than ever, not because of racism, but because of the dynamics of competitive party politics.
Republicans still face challenges among non-whites. But Democrats may face similar challenges among whites, and charges of racism won’t help.
— Michael Barone is senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner.
Time to make playing the race card a hate crime.
Any change in the current trend needs to occur in the hearts of non-whites.
Who cares. Everytime I see Boner or Kantor or King or McCain or McConnel or Gramnesty I just want to vomit. If I wanted to support a party that is run by creeps and hates conservatives I would support the democrats. At least they have some stones...
For those who haven’t figured this out...it’s mostly a fight from urban America to rural America. Urban areas would be used to really attract the votes and settle this entire Presidential voting scheme, from top to bottom, from funding to attention.
Rural areas would not be part of the voting process, and thus cease to mean anything except for absolute control of the House, for decades to come. States would draw the districts as much as they want, but you can’t really beat the rural nature of control.
So you end up with an imbalance. Maybe the political wizards and junkies think it’d be something otherwise, but look over the past decade. Urban areas got the vote out for Democrats....rural areas got the vote out for Republicans.
No doubt the GOP is passing the tipping point at which it’s a minority party. Demographics will overwhelm it, especially as it performs the final throat slash to its own existence with amnesty legislation.
Fortunately, for now, it’s still competitive in some statehouse and state legislatures, so it still can have an impact.
*** If the GOP has become a white party it is because most non-whites have followed the siren song of racial grievance to the democrat party.
Any change in the current trend needs to occur in the hearts of non-whites.***
You are correct, and that change won’t happen. The media and the education system are all in to assure that it won’t happen.
We are watching this country come apart. I was hoping I’d be gone before it happened. If God grants me a reasonably long life, I will see the fall of the United States.
As usual, Barone and NR spew out nonsense trying to make it sound erudite.
The key to winning ANY election is to speak (and mean) conservative truths. These reach across all lines and draw in all people who want to live a better freer life
Same here.
Nonsense.
America need not collapse.
However someone needs to be on our own nation’s side.
The GOP is sold out to China. The Dems are sold out to China. Everyone is sold out.
Everyone.
Someone needs to stand up strong, and for America.
America.
We richly deserve oblivion. Look at our leadership, what sane person would send money to the Senate Republicans (remember Alaska.
“Nonsense.”
I’m not trying to dissuade you. A positive attitude is a good thing. I can’t be positive, because I’m a realist. It is odd that you scold me, then proceed to negate your own rebuttal.
In America, majority rules. The majority, like it or not, doesn’t want the America you and I grew up in. What the majority wants is unsustainable, and history shows that it is the path to a totalitarian government.
As a lifelong Republican, I would naturally like to see my Party have more appeal among women, blacks, and hispanics. But if that mean supporting abortion to get the women’s vote, supporting affirmative action and more welfare spending to get the black vote, and turning blind eye towards illegal immigration to get the hispanic vote.....FORGET ABOUT IT!!!!!!!
Much happier being in the smaller tent!
.....Or a path to a future revolt.
The GOP will be a “permanent minority” once it passes amnesty. The problem is, most Republicans are okay with that.
“Same here.”
I have an incredible sadness that I can’t shake because of this. I see this coming, it’s undeniable, it’s unavoidable, and yet, most of those around me seem oblivious. I really thought I would miss the fall of this country. Now it appears I’m getting a front row seat. (Half of the morons in this country won’t understand it, even when it happens).
I see a growing turning of the backs towards party politics.
I see more and more of my predictions coming true.
“.....Or a path to a future revolt.”
Revolt grows from unbearable conditions. Americans are the classic case of frogs in a pot. Heck, some of them are asking for it to get warmer.
I turned my Hispanic in-laws from Democrats into Republicans by not backing down from my principles, i.e. pro-life, pro-Constitution. My youngest child (of three) is the most conservative yet, and his older brother and sister are reliably on the right side of things.
I'll damned if I'm going to keep spinning my wheels to keep GOPe in office, ready to stab me in the back when it suits their needs.
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