Showing posts with label Republican Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Republican Party. Show all posts
Friday, June 4, 2021
Monday, March 30, 2015
J. Hunter ― Winning Latinos to the GOP Requires More than a Latin Face
The Chicago conservative blogger writes about identity politics and Republican immigration policy.
Latino voters presented a significant boost to President Obama’s 2012 electoral victory. Obama won 71% of the Latino vote, second only to Bill Clinton’s 72% in 1996. As Republicans go, George W. Bush scored highest among Latino voters winning 40% of their votes in 2004. Recreating Bush’s success among Latinos would make the GOP an unstoppable force in presidential races. The Party knows this and scrambles for outreach opportunities, including highlighting the ethnic identities of some of the highest profile national Republicans. As the 2016 presidential race breaks ground, two Latino Republicans face an interesting appeal to Latino voters that speaks to the intersection of identity politics and Republican immigration policy.
Texas senator, Ted Cruz (already a 2016 presidential candidate), and Florida senator, Marco Rubio (a potential contender), arguably make up the two most visible Republican Latinos in the country. Both, though, suffer among Latino voters because of how their immigration stances square with their ethnic identities. For starters, they’re Cuban–sons of Cuban immigrants. Cubans make up only 3 percent of American Latinos, while the overwhelming majority of American Latinos are Mexican.
Read more at https://blackandredblog.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/the-complexities-of-identity-politics/?
Texas senator, Ted Cruz (already a 2016 presidential candidate), and Florida senator, Marco Rubio (a potential contender), arguably make up the two most visible Republican Latinos in the country. Both, though, suffer among Latino voters because of how their immigration stances square with their ethnic identities. For starters, they’re Cuban–sons of Cuban immigrants. Cubans make up only 3 percent of American Latinos, while the overwhelming majority of American Latinos are Mexican.
Read more at https://blackandredblog.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/the-complexities-of-identity-politics/?
Sunday, March 22, 2015
J. Hunter ― Colin Powell and the “Dark Vein” of Intolerance
Colin Powell irked Republicans on Sunday with comments he made during his appearance on “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos. Asked about his years’ old professions about racism in the GOP, Powell said that he still sees a “dark vein” of intolerance in some parts of the Republican Party. This assertion comes on the same weekend of the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Selma that led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Each of these points represent perfectly aligned stars forming the constellation “Teachable Moment” for every Republican to see. Getting Republicans to look skyward, though, can be a difficult task.
The “dark vein” Powell sees happens not to be a vein at all—it is, in fact, the Optic Nerve. Republicans hasten to rebut Powell’s assertion in our usual fashion, by noting that the first black elected to the Senate since Reconstruction is Republican Tim Scott; that blacks fared far better under George W. Bush than they are currently, under President Barack Obama. Ironically, these statements about the GOP’s race problem come from the first black Secretary of State who served under Mr. Bush and was succeeded by the second black to hold that position—Condoleeza Rice. Substantive Republican apologetics can continue (ad nauseum), but they fail at attacking the problem at its root—Republicans fail miserably at optics.
Read more here: http://www.blkandred.com/
Friday, January 9, 2015
Crystal Wright ― GOP failing to learn race lessons
The CNN opinion columnist writes:
"If our party is not welcoming and inclusive, young people and increasingly other voters will continue to tune us out." That was the Republican Party's own take on the 2012 election as it acknowledged in an autopsy report (otherwise known as the Growth & Opportunity Project) that it was failing to appeal to minority voters.
Unfortunately, too many Republicans have already forgotten this lesson, a reality made all the clearer by the response to recent revelations that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise spoke to a white supremacist group 12 years ago.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was just one of those who seemed more interested in making excuses than holding Republicans to the standard they had supposedly set for themselves."
Read complete article here
Sunday, January 4, 2015
The First African American Senator: Hiram Revels (R)
Hiram Rhodes Revels, was appointed by the Mississippi state legislature to an unexpired term in 1870. He was the first African American to serve in the United States Senate, and in the U.S. Congress overall. He represented Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during Reconstruction.
NOTE: Prior to the 17th Amendment in 1913, U.S. Senators were elected by state legislatures.
(Photo: Source: Wikipedia)
On February 25, 1870, visitors in the Senate galleries burst into applause as senator-elect Hiram Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, entered the chamber to take his oath of office. Those present knew that they were witnessing an event of great historical significance. Revels was about to become the first African American to serve in the Senate. Born 42 years earlier to free black parents in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Revels became an educator and minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. During the Civil War, he helped form regiments of African American soldiers and established schools for freed slaves.
After the war, Revels moved to Mississippi, where he won election to the state senate. In recognition of his hard work and leadership skills, his legislative colleagues elected him to one of Mississippi's vacant U.S. Senate seats as that state prepared to rejoin the Union. Revels' credentials arrived in the Senate on February 23, 1870, and were immediately blocked by a few members who had no desire to see a black man serve in Congress.
Masking their racist views, they argued that Revels had not been a U.S. citizen for the nine years required of all senators. In their distorted interpretation, black Americans had only become citizens with the passage of the 1866 Civil Rights Act, just four years earlier. Revels' supporters dismissed that statement, pointing out that he had been a voter many years earlier in Ohio and was therefore certainly a citizen.
(Source: Senate.gov)
Read complete bio here
NOTE: Prior to the 17th Amendment in 1913, U.S. Senators were elected by state legislatures.
(Photo: Source: Wikipedia)
 |
| Hiram Rhodes Revels (September 27, 1827 – January 16, 1901) was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), and a Republican politician. He was the first African American to serve in the United States Senate, and in the U.S. Congress overall. |
On February 25, 1870, visitors in the Senate galleries burst into applause as senator-elect Hiram Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, entered the chamber to take his oath of office. Those present knew that they were witnessing an event of great historical significance. Revels was about to become the first African American to serve in the Senate. Born 42 years earlier to free black parents in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Revels became an educator and minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. During the Civil War, he helped form regiments of African American soldiers and established schools for freed slaves.
After the war, Revels moved to Mississippi, where he won election to the state senate. In recognition of his hard work and leadership skills, his legislative colleagues elected him to one of Mississippi's vacant U.S. Senate seats as that state prepared to rejoin the Union. Revels' credentials arrived in the Senate on February 23, 1870, and were immediately blocked by a few members who had no desire to see a black man serve in Congress.
Masking their racist views, they argued that Revels had not been a U.S. citizen for the nine years required of all senators. In their distorted interpretation, black Americans had only become citizens with the passage of the 1866 Civil Rights Act, just four years earlier. Revels' supporters dismissed that statement, pointing out that he had been a voter many years earlier in Ohio and was therefore certainly a citizen.
(Source: Senate.gov)
Read complete bio here
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Raynard Jackson - The Republican Party of Virginia and the Black Community
Raynard Jackson, a Republican political consultant, blast the Virginia Republican party, and other Republican state committees for failing to take the lead in engaging the African-American community.
via the New Pittsburgh Courier
"Unlike the Republican National Committee (RNC), our national party apparatus, most of the 50 state party committees are stuck in the 1960s when it comes to the Black community. Exhibit A for this was the annual weekend gathering for the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) that took place two weeks ago in Dulles, Va., about 25 miles outside of Washington, D.C. This is a gathering where all the powers that be from across the state gather to plot future strategies that will move the state party forward.
I used to be intimately involved in these annual gatherings, but over the years found them to be increasingly a waste of time. The state party would always invite me to participate or moderate a panel on “minority outreach.” The panels always turned out to be more talk than action. In the 90s, I was elected statewide to be national committeeman of the Young Republicans Federation of Virginia, the first and only Black to ever win this office. In that position, I traveled the state talking to anyone who would listen about the imperative of getting more Blacks involved in our state party. Suffice it to say that Virginia’s moniker of being the “cradle of the confederacy” is well deserved.
Despite the lack of interest by the Republic Party of Virginia in the Black community, Virginia has a long history of statewide elected officials who talked, lived, and breathed real diversity. We had governors such as Jim Gilmore, George Allen, Lt. Gov. John Hager, and Attorney General Mark Earley. They not only earned north of 25 percen7 the Black vote, they had paid Black campaign staffers; and had prominent Blacks throughout their administrations. These Blacks were placed in decision-making positions and were not just window dressing."
Read complete article here
My view: The [State] Republican committees are likely the [number one] reason why GOP outreach goes no-where, year after year, despite the RNC's efforts. After one Chairman leaves, another comes in leaving GOP State committees unaccountable for their gross performances. There are a few exceptions, like in California, but for the most part most local State power-brokers in both the GOP and conservative base have no interest in reaching beyond their White base. They will only engage Blacks when they are up against a wall, like in Mississippi, in the case of Sen. Thad Cochran.
Truth be told, if GOP State committees were a company responsible for growing their brand, they'd all be fired by now.
via the New Pittsburgh Courier
 |
| Raynard Jackson is a Republican political consultant based in Washington, DC. |
"Unlike the Republican National Committee (RNC), our national party apparatus, most of the 50 state party committees are stuck in the 1960s when it comes to the Black community. Exhibit A for this was the annual weekend gathering for the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) that took place two weeks ago in Dulles, Va., about 25 miles outside of Washington, D.C. This is a gathering where all the powers that be from across the state gather to plot future strategies that will move the state party forward.
I used to be intimately involved in these annual gatherings, but over the years found them to be increasingly a waste of time. The state party would always invite me to participate or moderate a panel on “minority outreach.” The panels always turned out to be more talk than action. In the 90s, I was elected statewide to be national committeeman of the Young Republicans Federation of Virginia, the first and only Black to ever win this office. In that position, I traveled the state talking to anyone who would listen about the imperative of getting more Blacks involved in our state party. Suffice it to say that Virginia’s moniker of being the “cradle of the confederacy” is well deserved.
Despite the lack of interest by the Republic Party of Virginia in the Black community, Virginia has a long history of statewide elected officials who talked, lived, and breathed real diversity. We had governors such as Jim Gilmore, George Allen, Lt. Gov. John Hager, and Attorney General Mark Earley. They not only earned north of 25 percen7 the Black vote, they had paid Black campaign staffers; and had prominent Blacks throughout their administrations. These Blacks were placed in decision-making positions and were not just window dressing."
Read complete article here
My view: The [State] Republican committees are likely the [number one] reason why GOP outreach goes no-where, year after year, despite the RNC's efforts. After one Chairman leaves, another comes in leaving GOP State committees unaccountable for their gross performances. There are a few exceptions, like in California, but for the most part most local State power-brokers in both the GOP and conservative base have no interest in reaching beyond their White base. They will only engage Blacks when they are up against a wall, like in Mississippi, in the case of Sen. Thad Cochran.
Truth be told, if GOP State committees were a company responsible for growing their brand, they'd all be fired by now.
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