The last two paragraphs are priceless.
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GOP needs new tactics to recruit black voters (Sept 25, 2004)
BY ALBERTA PHILLIPS
aphillips@statesman.com
I always have been amused by white folks' perception that blacks are liberal, especially when I'm sitting in a pew on Sunday mornings.
In any number of African-American churches nationwide, you might easily get the idea that you were at a meeting of the Republican-leaning Christian Coalition, based on the text of the sermons.
Black ministers and many in their congregations fall on the same side as the Republican Party's conservative wing when it comes to gay marriage, abortion, school choice and school prayer. There is a heavy dose of personal responsibility in sermons -- urging fathers to take responsibility for their children, women to yield to men as heads of the household, and youths to reject drugs, crime and friends who steer them into trouble.
Those, too, are popular themes with the GOP. Even so, the party has failed to make inroads with blacks, who once were as loyal to the elephant as they now are to the donkey.
I could fill this space with reasons why the Republican Party is persona non grata with many black people. I'd certainly include the party's two-faced stance on respect for life and the family -- it wants to halt abortions but expand state executions; celebrate the family but toss poor children off government health-insurance programs.
But at the top of my list of why the GOP has failed to convert blacks is that it has dispatched the wrong messengers to recruit them. To win the trust of whites, black Republicans have emphasized their conservative credentials and played down their heritage. Deemphasizing their culture made them more attractive to whites but less appealing to blacks.
That's why many African Americans reject leaders such as Ward Connerly, who made a name by eliminating affirmative action in higher education in California, but why Colin Powell is still popular. Powell, the first African-American secretary of state, never wavered in his support of affirmative action. If anything, he shored up his support among African Americans by breaking with his boss, President Bush, who opposed the University of Michigan's affirmative-action policies.
Black arch-conservatives actually do more harm than good in wooing blacks because, let's be honest, African Americans view them largely as sellouts. Absent certain cultural credentials, a black face is not enough to win votes or recruits.
'The community asks us one question first, second and third: `Are you still black?' '' said Michael Williams, Texas railroad commissioner, a Republican.
After getting nowhere with extremely conservative blacks, the GOP is changing its tactics. Perhaps it knows that it can't remain the majority party in Texas, or keep control of all three branches of federal government, with white votes alone. To stay on top, it has no choice but to attract minority voters in significant numbers. Increasing Bush's share of the black vote to 20 percent could help swing this year's presidential election, Williams said. Bush took 9 percent of the black vote in 2000.
That's why boxing promoter Don King has hit the campaign trail for Bush and why Williams, too, is crisscrossing Texas and the country. And it's why Jacqueline Hawkins has formed the East Austin Republicans Club.
''We aren't about a hard sale at this time, but make no mistake, we let people know why this president deserves another four years,'' Hawkins said.
Williams and Hawkins believe that, with the right messengers, the Republican message of expanded homeownership and lending for small businesses, as well as Bush's initiative to divert government money to faith-based programs, is an easy sell. They've got a point.
But they recognize that if the party truly wants to compete for black votes, it must overcome blacks' image of the party as one that is insensitive to the less fortunate and hostile to civil rights.
After all, it was the Republicans' embrace of segregationists and their policies -- and Democrats' support for civil rights -- that drove blacks to trade in their elephants for donkeys.
This is a disgrace. They report allegations. If this is happening, let's charge someone, bring evidence and get a conviction. If you don't have any evidence, which you don't then quit whining.
"After all, it was the Republicans' embrace of segregationists and their policies -- and Democrats' support for civil rights -- that drove blacks to trade in their elephants for donkeys."
I don't suppose that presenting the writer with the fact that just the contrary is true would cause a change of mind?
I'm sorry, wasn't it Democrat George Wallace who stood in the doors of the University of Alabama in 1963 to bar desegregation and proclaimed ? Which party does Robert "Grand Dragon" Byrd belong to?
Which party supported and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
Don't you just love the revisionism with the last sentence of the article? Priceless....
ALBERTA PHILLIPS is clearly an idiot.
"Absent certain cultural credentials, a black face is not enough to win votes or recruits."
Support for affirmative action is now a CULTURAL CREDENTIAL!!!?????
It's not a CIVIL RIGHT either... it's an ABUSE of civil rights. It's racism.
"After all, it was the Republicans' embrace of segregationists and their policies -- and Democrats' support for civil rights -- that drove blacks to trade in their elephants for donkeys."
This whole sentence is ridiculous! George Wallace and his ilk were Democrats. The Democrats finally started paying lip service to civil rights to attract black votes, meanwhile they were busy destroying civil rights for everyone.