[CzarNicky]

"When they look at their dollars and realize that the Hispanics are chomping at the bits to get aboard, I’m not sure they’re going to make a bona fide effort to attract Blacks.” "

It is easier to reach out to those who are willing to reach out to you.

[Lee'sGhost]

The only thing the GOP needs to do is let everyone know that everyone is welcome and that everyone benefits equally by being part of the party. Other than perhaps making a special effort to make sure certain groups get THAT message there should not be anything special going on in terms of what happens when you belong to the party. What we don't need is a conservative variating of the dim party which segments people into groups. The policies and planks benefit everyone equally. If you want to be segmented, baby sat, stroked, coddled, lied to, led on and humiliated -- join the Democrat party.

[lady lawyer]

Freedom, security, and prosperity benefit Americans of every color. There shouldn't be a different agenda depending upon skin color.

If 90 percent of blacks really believe that they can't make it unless standards are lowered for them, or unless more money is confiscated from white Americans and given to them, then I guess the Republican party will never get their votes.

[Always Right]

For example, former president Ronald Reagan is being lionized this week as creating the modern-day Republican Party. Yet, Reagan, who will be buried this week at the age of 93, was a polarizing figure who spoke of non-existent “welfare queens” and was hostile to civil rights.

LOL. Reagan was never hostile to civil rights, he was hostile to free handouts. If we have to abandon conservative ideas to get the black vote, it ain't gonna happen. That's not gonna happen. This article implies that the GOP has to abandon conservatism, to get the black vote, when in fact blacks tend to hold many conservative principles. We need to capitalize on the areas we agree, not change to cater to a certain group.

[cyborg]

BC ping

It was not unusual for Republican candidates to get 30 of the Black vote until the party picked Sen. Barry Goldwater, an archconservative from Arizona, as its presidential candidate in 1964. With strong Black support, President Lyndon Baines Johnson was re-elected in a landslide.

“It wasn’t until after Goldwater got up and refused to deal with the civil rights legislation, that began to break it. That’s where the break came,” says Milton Bins, a longtime Black Republican activist.


*** Perhaps many black Americans resented being sold down the river once again just to get the southern vote or this 'southern strategy' as they call it.

[Our man in washington]

Don King??????

That's pretty embarrassing.

[MEGoody]

"We want to do better than the 9 percent that President Bush got in 2000."

I've noticed that minorities and women who don't think the world owes them generally end up being Republicans.

[bereanway]

According to this article in order to attract blacks the Pubbies need to:
1. Support Affirmative Action
2. Quit appointing "far right wing" judges
3. Hand out more dollars targeted to blacks

In other words, just morph into the Dim party and the black vote will come.

thanks, but no thanks

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

He has further alienated Blacks with appointment of Far Right judges and his pledge to fill any Supreme Court vacancies with judges similar to Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia

Ah, there's the rub.

This is not black / white. It's liberal / conservative.

Let's be honest about it.

[bigeasy_70118]

Where to begin? This article is a train wreck.

Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie, who has been touring the country with Black boxing promoter Don King, says he’s working to prove that the Republicans are serious about the Black vote.

Just when you thought Al Gore's youth oriented cable news network was the worst idea you ever heard. Leave it to the lilly white Gillespie to tour the country with a convicted felon who enriched himself pillaging black boxers and throwing them to side of the road after their careers were shot. If the Dems can't make a metaphor out of this, they are more inept than I thought.

He has further alienated Blacks with appointment of Far Right judges and his pledge to fill any Supreme Court vacancies with judges similar to Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, the two most conservative members of the court

Uh...and what race is Clarence Thomas again? Thomas may want to change his name to something more ethnic because once again, the left fails to mention his race in the article. Justice Shabazz K. Thomas.

At the Republican convention in Philadelphia four years ago, the GOP hired many Black entertainers and attempted to showcase Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, who became the two most prominent Blacks in the Bush administration.

I am surprised the article doesn't mention how the RNC made Condi and Colin do a stepinfetchit routine at the Convention. I would think two qualified blacks (whose race is never mentioned except in articles such as this) at the upper echelon of the administration would constitute a little more than showcasing. They seem to actually be governing at the highest level. Showcasing was Clinton trotting out Vernon Jordan every time he needed a photo op.

“Nixon was the first one to provide money for desegregation. Nixon was the first one to go after providing money to historically Black colleges and universities and he had a program to deal with Black folks,” Bins says.

Yeah, Nixon was a real paragon of race relations. Why don't we set the Republicans relationship with Blacks back another 40 years? But that Bush ought to just put a white sheet over his head.

It says a lot about the Democratic Party as well since we don’t have any Blacks in the Senate, but it just shows it’s just far worse in the Republican Party since they don’t have any in the House as well as the Senate,” says Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).

Uhhh, yeah would that because your party, Mr. Rangel, spent an ungodly amount of money to defeat Gary Franks in Connecticut and then when it was clear there was no way JC Watts would lose his House seat, your spent attempted to demonize him the same way you demonize Clarence Thomas?

[bad company]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.


"non-existent “welfare queens” "

If the writer thinks for one minute that
A) welfare Queens never existed
B) Those in the black community are any more happy about busting their butt all day long in part to support the welfare queen her kids and her kids kids than people in the white community is about supporting the welfare queens in their neighborhood (and her kids and her kids kids) he is sadly mistaken.

The black community has fought itself to a point that there is too much common ground with "mainstream america" to keep them on the plantation anymore.

[skeeter]

?But in order to achieve that goal, they?ve got to, from the very beginning, make it known to Black voters that they stand for issues, that they support issues that affect the lives of Black people. The Republican Party should be far more representative of the entire population. And it doesn?t have that.?

These statements are contradictory.

[T. Jefferson]

Concentrate on hispanic issues without making a public statement about it. Poachers always follow the money.

[JohnnyZ]

According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, there were only 85 African-Americans among the 2,066 delegates or 4.1 percent.
...........
By contrast, there were 872 Black delegates (20.1 percent) at the 2000 Democratic National Convention, a figure that is expected to increase this year in Boston.

If blacks vote Democrat at a 9-1 ratio, but only attend the conventions at a 5-1 ratio (20.1 to 4.1), that seems to indicate that Republicans are making a significant effort to maximize the contribution of the blacks who are in the party.

[mhking]

But former Republican Sen. Edward Brooke, the first Black elected to the U. S. Senate in the 20th century, is unimpressed.

“I saw some hope in Ed Gillespie as the new chairman of the Republican Party, that he would recognize the need to make the Republican Party inclusive and open up its doors to Black voters and organizations,” Brooke says. “But in order to achieve that goal, they’ve got to, from the very beginning, make it known to Black voters that they stand for issues, that they support issues that affect the lives of Black people. The Republican Party should be far more representative of the entire population. And it doesn’t have that.”

Let's get the notion straight -- Brooke is more liberal than conservative, regardless of party affiliation. What Brooke does not realize is that the GOP doesn't have to change itself, it only needs to address those needs and values (i.e, family values, hint! hint!) that much of middle class black America already embraces. The Democratic party pays lip service to those values, and does so from the pulpit, which keeps the middle class in black America quiet and placated...for now.

The GOP needs to point out that the Dems only provide lip service. The GOP needs to get into those same pulpits and community forums. The outreach needs to be there -- but contrary to Brooke's bleatings, the Republican party need not change it's core values to do that; only it's method of outreach and communication.

“The Republicans, it’s all a photo op. If they think going out with Don King is somehow going to get young African-Americans out to vote for - Don King - it’s laughable,” says Democratic Chairman Terry McAuliffe.

Well, yeah. I have a major problem with Don King being one of the standard bearers for the GOP in black America. There are far too many other black Republicans and conservatives who have achieved far more than Don King's sideshow. Having him as a spokesperson is a huge mistake, and I've communicated that feeling to the GOP leadership.

It's an uphill battle, but one that with time, can yield some significant gains. The gains won't be instant (no, there won't be a massive change in the number of blacks voting for Bush in November). But nothing worth having ever is.

If we can go from 95% of blacks voting Dem this year to 92 or 90%, I'll be pleased. That will be, IMO, a significant change. Some people (as evidenced by some of the nay-sayers on FR) won't be satisfied with that, and insist that the black vote be completely written off as a result.

You've got to crawl before you can walk. The liberals are scared to death of people like me. They'll never admit it, but they are running scared. Because I'm their worst nightmare -- a black man who dares to question their "authority;" a black man who dares to say that there is a better way. And one who can get voters to listen for a moment, and think for a moment.

If I can do that, they'll stop their lemming-like lock-step long enough to realize that there is a way to break out and move on.

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[Recovering_Democrat]

The wonderful secret is this: if the Republican Party can persuade just a small percentage more of black Americans to vote for them, the Democrats will become a permanent losing party in America.

The Democrats' only stranglehold in terms of demographics is in the African-American community...nearly every other segment of the population distributes the vote more equitably. When the day comes (and it will come, I am certain) that 90% of blacks do not vote for the Democrat Party Operative in every election, the Jackass Party will become a party that loses nearly every time.

[Mr. Bird]

The Republican party is the only party in American history to place "African Americans" in positions of real power, as opposed to ceremonial appointments. JC Watts, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, Condi Rice. Give me the name of one black Democrat in a position of power above these, past or present. SC Justice Marshall is the only one I can think of.

[chasman89031]

Somebody needs to tell Hazel that it's not about race. It's all about Conservatism vs Liberalism. Race-based handouts are sooooo 60's.

[I_killed_kenny]

and they choose Don King to get black votes. Heads oughta roll for that one.

[Tall_Texan]

Bush junior has won it without a Black vote.

Might there have been 537 black voters in Florida who voted for George W. Bush? If you accept the figures that 9% of black voters vote GOP, statistically, it is highly unlikely that Florida's black voters didn't help put Bush in the White House.