Like the FBI’s ‘most wanted’ list in your local Post Office, the GOP’s ‘most wanted’ list is now top heavy with the faces of black folks. The GOP has made no secret that they are on the hunt for black folks. And the mere fact that at the recent NAACP Convention an apology for playing the race card came out of the mouth of RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, who orchestrated his share of these games, gave ‘hmm, maybe they aren’t the devil after all’ pause for many blacks. For many blacks, the Grand Old Party of Lincoln, Reagan, and Newt, not to mention Rice, Powell, and Swann now gives them a chance to choose, and not by default.
Here are the top 5 ‘saying it real’ reasons the GOP enjoyed a double digit vote support from blacks in the 2004 presidential election, will continue to increase their support in the black community, absent a major scandalous ‘even George Bush, Jr. can’t play this one off’ misstep, and the Democrats just don’t get it. Or maybe they never did.
1. The GOP couches issues with emotions, making it easier for the medicine to go down. The Patriot Act has nothing to do with civil liberties. It’s all about making us ‘winners’ (which appeals to the competitive jock in us), and feel safe in this bad dirty crime and terror ridden world the media and the GOP feeds us nonstop so we won’t forget. So ask 10 people 3 actual liberties the Patriot Act covers. They won’t be able to tell you. Ask them what the Act does, and even if it hasn’t done that, and which political party is most able to do that, … You get the picture.
2. The GOP wraps their issues around values (which are not emotions) of good and fairness. A stance against gay marriages is not a denial of equal civil liberties. It is an embrace of family – even though the GOP family still looks like a trailer still from the movie Pleansantville, before color was introduced. To usurp the power of Senators, generally the Democrats, to ask questions of White House nominees to the U.N. or Supreme Court, tell the public you just want the hearings to be ‘fair,’ then define fairness as what works best for the GOP, ignoring you railed against this ‘fairness’ when the Democrats controlled the White House and Congress. And after you get your values out there, remind the public ‘if the GOP is about values and the Democrats are the antithesis of us, then of course, a Democrat is bad. Bad bad are Democrats.
3. The GOP never waffles about their positions. Ever. Any change in position is just a clarification of what they really would have said if they had known all the facts. Translation – the public has now found something out the GOP didn’t want them to know.
There were weapons of mass destruction, therefore a war in Iraq was justified to fight terrorism. When no weapons were found, the GOP said they were mislead (a value) by the intelligence reports themselves (who cares that intelligence community heads are selected by the President), and the intelligence community selected convenient scapegoats to fall on the sword to back up the GOP claim. For icing, the GOP also began to publicly claim that the reason for the war was not wmd’s but values. The consistent message of our fight against terrorism was clarified – ‘Finding wmd’s would have been nice, but that’s not really important. We went to war (consistent message) because if we change the values of these people who breed future terrorists, we win the terrorism fight. We bring democracy (a value) to people who have been abused (emotional pull) and had no freedoms (value #2), under their terroristic leaning (see #4) leader.
4. The GOP never ever gives any validity to opposing viewpoints. They don’t exist, therefore to acknowledge them in any way, like responding, is not necessary. But if ‘dealing’ cannot be avoided, one of two things will happen, one, the GOP will give their opponent a label that focusses your attention off the issue, and makes that person the issue (‘Angry Left Driving Democrats’ and murderers (pro choice supporters) or two, they rewrap the issue in values and emotions (see #1 and #2 above). What they will never deal is defensiveness. They don’t have to. They’re always right. Or clarified. Offense, offense, offense is the name of the game. If your opponents aren’t included in the conversation, or labeled too irresponsible to be in the conversation, the game is over. However, see this article’s conclusion.
5. The GOP takes the time to know their audience, then uses this knowledge for their ultimate advantage of sway. When the public was concerned about the increase of crime, the GOP trotted out Willie Horton and said the Democrats were responsible. When the public became concerned about the country’s deficit and fiscal responsibility, the GOP introduced the ‘Contract with America’ and said it would give the government back to the people. And regardless of the actual issue involved, to appeal to voters’ ‘sensibilities’ (value term), and make them feel they, with the GOP, were the government, each contract point was titled with emotional and value words (again, see #1 and #2). There was the “Common Sense” Legal Reform Act (which actually dealt with tort reform), The American Dream Restoration Act (tax credits), The Personal Responsibility Act (welfare reform), and The Citizen Legislature Act (term limits), among others.
More recently, the GOP realized to win the 2004 presidential election they needed the black vote. Not a lot of it, just enough. They assessed their target.
The use of blacks as the poster child of why this country fails was a ‘been there, done that’ that would no longer fly. Even conservative whites were hipped to this. And with a substantial pocket of these hipped whites in the GOP corner, the GOP felt comfortable they could back off any race baiting ploys. The fact that blacks were now no longer the butt of the GOP, in a strange way gave blacks added public perception value, and blacks bought into it. And that made it easy for the GOP to move on to their step two – they explained to blacks how they, the GOP, not only was the sole holder and arbiter of values, black values now matched up with the values of middle white America. The result, blacks felt a greater essence of integration than they ever did from any Civil Rights legislation ever passed. Last, using these values as a cloak of ‘we’re the only party that has any true religious connection to God,’ the GOP invited into their fold a new group of black clergy who heretofore had not been part of the Democratic black clergy elite, but were part of the mass mega Black church movement that housed thousands and thousands and thousands of active black voters. The end result, GOP got their double digit numbers, the Democrats were left screaming ‘We do too go to church,’ and Bush was reelected.
Post election the GOP continued assessing when they recognized the inroads they made into the black church community could be increased, further decreasing black Democratic support. In a shrewd touch of brilliance, they made a big gain when they invited, this past spring, their usual black clergy supporters along with a larger contingent of Democratic clergy, to discuss aid to Africa. It wasn’t about politics (yeah, right), it was about black love (a value). And even though some of the new jack clergy were left screaming ‘we feel betrayed’ after posing as the poster children of the GOP’s sincerity, signing onto a faith based letter that ‘surprise’ just happened to be available for signature at the ‘it wasn’t about politics’ meeting, and then having Bush put forth an African aid package that was significantly less than they had requested, it didn’t matter. For the GOP, the media coverage of the betrayal was also significantly less than the coverage the GOP got when the clergy showed up, with smiles, in the first place.
Add Bush appointing two blacks to two high profiled positions – National Security Administrator and Secretary of State, whether you agree or disagree as to the amount of power Rice and Powell actually wielded, especially the latter, such high profile positions put their black faces in the news almost every day. Now that’s affirmative action in action, normally something the Democrats have a lock on. Did you see the blacks in the Clinton administration in the press, and on television, and the Internet, everyday!
In conclusion, the mere fact that this article and in recent months, many more like it, are being written prove the GOP strategy continues to work. Blacks who normally would never consider voting Republican, because of the party’s overall stance on affirmative action and pro choice, are taking a fresh look at the party of Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Sr. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Whether you agree with the GOP or not, one has to admire their relentless push forward. Yes, they have blinders to the rest of the world, but so what. At a time when America is being attacked physically and emotionally, they’re defining who the world is and aren’t afraid to do so. Americans admire moxie, even when mismoxxed.
Furthermore, for far too long the Democrats have taken the black vote for granted. And even when polls showed the GOP was making inroads into the black vote, the Democrats showed no interest in progressing beyond their usual chitlin’ circuit of tired civil rights organizations and paid political Sunday church visits. Worse, the Democrats no longer show they are a party worth support as they have not been able to get their voice. As with the world, the GOP has defined the Democrats for the last several elections, and the Democrats have allowed it to happen.
The GOP is in control and that has to be recognized.
It’s up to us to ensure the value of the black community and our issues are not only recognized but sincerely respected. Following the tactics of the GOP, even if not the GOP, isn’t a bad way to start.
I\’m still waiting for you to rfutee my statements on rising sea levels and global warming. I don’t know about Republican presidents because we don’t have enough test cases and haven’t identified all the factors that may be coincidence. I do know in my heart and soul that capitalism is better than socialism. My pocket book does too the tax rate in Europe should be a warning to you.
What’s your point, Kaus? What do Mugabe and Chavez have to do with the subject at hand? Why do you call them doacermtic leaders ? Why don’t you try to dispute the point about Democratic U.S. presidents vs. Republicans with regard to the U.S. economy? Why don’t you bring up Rev. Wright again? You usually do. I could write a post about the sex lives of llamas, and you’d find a way to bring up Rev. Wright. Why not here?
I’m all talked out regrdaing Rev. Wright till at least September. In the mean time, let’s talk about the statistics your Daily Kos clown did on the Democratic leaders being better for the economy. First this is the second time you’ve brought this subject up. Almost as many times as I’ve brought up the true story of Reverend Wright hating white people.Second have you ever heard of Inferential statistics which are used to model patterns in the data, accounting for randomness and drawing inferences about the larger population?Your buddy who did the analysis needs more patterns. By using political ideology more resembling Obama and Hilary, I’ve recommended Chavez and Mugabe as additional patterns. How long will it take Chavez to destroy his country’s economy? 2 years, 4 years, 8? I like your idea regrdaing the llamas.