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GOP Can Make Headway with Blacks.

November 11, 2014 by  
Filed under News, Opinion, Politics

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Last week’s midterm elections were historic. Republicans regained control of the U.S. Senate, increased their majority in the House, and expanded their majority among governors. While these gains were historic and impressive, there was a bigger story that no one is talking about.

According to early polling figures, Black participation in this year’s midterm was 12 percent,  down slightly from 13 percent in 2010.  Eighty-nine percent of Blacks voted for Democratic congressional candidates and 10 percent voted for Republicans. This year’s figures match the 2010 midterm figures for Democrats and represents a slight increase in support for Republicans, up from 9 percent in 2010 to 10 percent in 2014.

In Illinois, incoming Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner received 6 percent of the Black vote.  He actively courted the Black vote, but did it the wrong way.  For example, how many people in Illinois know that Rauner has endowed a full professor’s chair at historically Black Morehouse College in Atlanta?  There was no reason why he should not have earned upwards of 25 percent of the Black vote with his history in the Black community. But, as with many White Republicans, his White consultants and staff thought they knew more about the Black community than Blacks.politicalinsidersgop-2014

The exit polls further noted that 11 percent of Black millennials, 12 percent of Gen Xers, and 7 percent of those ages 45-64 voted Republican.  The RNC, under the leadership of Reince Priebus, is the only Republican entity that “gets it” when it comes to the Black vote. The House and Senate campaign committees and the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) are still living in the dark ages when it comes to the Black community.

I know Republicans are still in love with this idiotic notion of being “colorblind,” but if they can’t look around at their staffs and realize that they are surrounded by Whites, then they have a real problem.  Either they are truly colorblind or just blind to people of color.

So while last week’s national elections were historic for Republicans, they were not transformative. However, what happened in Ohio was not only transformative, but it was also a tectonic shift in the political landscape of America.

Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich received 26 percent of the Black vote. He was endorsed by the Call & Post, Ohio’s leading Black newspaper.  In their editorial of endorsement, they listed two specific examples of how Kasich addressed issues of concern to the Black community.  Kasich expanded Medicaid coverage to low-income Ohioans and supported set-asides for minority contractors on the Opportunity Corridor construction project in Cleveland.

According to the newspaper, “Opportunities like the Opportunity Corridor usually means ‘inopportunity’ for us [the Black community]…Of the $267 million in construction contracts on the Corridor, Kasich set aside a staggering 20 percent for minority-owned and disadvantaged firms. That’s about $22.7 million dollars ‘specifically’ for Black-owned businesses, not to mention an additional half a million dollars thrown in for job training of area residents. And even this came with some maneuvering from him on our behalf with the federal government and Turnpike Board.”

Contrast that with Obama’s record of issuing fewer Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to Blacks than George W. Bush.

Ohio’s is home to the political story of the year.

So, to the House and Senate campaign committees and the RGA, now we have empirical data that shows Blacks will vote Republican if given a reason. But when GOP candidate continue to make racist insults or, in the case of Illinois governor-elect Bruce Rauner, fail to mention things they’ve done that will resonate with African Americans, the GOP will not attract Black voters who are disgruntled with the Democratic Party and looking for an alternative.

Obviously, left to their own devices, GOP candidates can’t do this on their own. That’s why they need to look beyond the White male consultant who offer  bad advice on how to reach the Black community. I ask my Republican friends:  When will you begin to hire Black consultants to cultivate this fertile movement in the Black community?  When will you hire Blacks who are not ashamed of their Blackness for staff positions?  When will you spend money with Black media buyers?

Republicans hire more Black Democrats to work their campaigns than they do Black Republicans. Years ago, I committed to never voting for or working with any Republican that didn’t have any Blacks on their staffs or as consultants; and I have made good on that commitment.

Republicans should make a public commitment to broaden their base to truly look like America. If Republicans transformed the way they interact with the Black community, especially by using Black Republicans and Black political operatives, that indeed would be both historic and transformational.

Staff Writer; Raynard Jackson

Mr. Jackson is also founder of a political and industrial consultant firm which is based in Washington, DC; Raynard Jackson & Associates.


Comments

14 Responses to “GOP Can Make Headway with Blacks.”
  1. peckerwood says:

    Hey eric,

    I have enjoyed watching your superior, overachieving, feral primates doing a number in Missouri and other parts of the country. It was quite entertaining; I thought about you a lot and your swill about your superiority because your race has had to outsmart guys like me for 400 plus years. I really felt like I was watching a “planet of the apes” rerun… it was quite outstanding watching the peaceful savages act out, but really what do you expect… the average IQ in your community is about 85, that is just a few points above legal retardation. Don’t bother replying, just go away and think about what I have said… actions are speaking so loud, that I can’t hear what you say… you should really consider going out there and stirring the pot, maybe be head chimp in charge, and get your 15 minutes of fame.

  2. peckerwood says:

    Giddy huh? I don’t know why but when I present reality and educate you vermin, you get all giggly, laughin, hee hawin it, like everything else in your miserable lives, its all a big joke. You have mistaken about me being upset about anything, actually because I am white, more is expected from me, it is you, and those like you, that do not have to maintain a standard, because after all you are and forever will be in your mind the primary victim. Remember, I can’t fall back on my community, or my skin color when situations don’t go my way. Say what you want but that is fact.

    As far as being superior, yes; I will give you that. Your racial group is superior in illegitimacy, STDs, criminality, violence, and filth. And the achievements in all that you have overcome can easily be seen, in your communities. Your racial group makes up barely 12% of the population, and responsible for the majority of the abhorrent criminal behavior in this country. I worry for nothing, if anything I am excited because a new day is dawning. Many of the new comers despise you much like I do, the south west and now in many areas like Atlanta and DC, where literal “racial cleansing” is taking place, meaning innovators of nothing like yourself, being run out of your own neighborhoods. And watch what happens when they are the majority and controlling local politics, and you want to educate them about your struggle….. You will be laughed off the stage my friend. I know this because I have lived it and seen it, and it can’t happen quickly enough.

    And I also would like to mention your superiority all over the planet; we all know it takes a village to raise places like Detroit, Haiti, Nigeria, and Angola. You can try your monkey shines, double talk, b.s. with me, but I deal in something you can’t handle, which are facts. The only place a black utopia ever existed is in your twisted mind.

    “Since the dawn of history the Negro has owned the continent of Africa – rich beyond the dream of poet’s fancy, crunching acres of diamonds beneath his bare black feet and yet he never picked one up from the dust until a white man showed to him its glittering light.
    His land swarmed with powerful and docile animals, yet he never dreamed a harness, cart, or sled.
    A hunter by necessity, he never made an axe, spear, or arrowhead worth preserving beyond the moment of its use. He lived as an ox, content to graze for an hour.
    In a land of stone and timber he never sawed a foot of lumber, carved a block, or built a house save of broken sticks and mud.
    With league on league of ocean strand and miles of inland seas, for four thousand years he watched their surface ripple under the wind, heard the thunder of the surf on his beach, the howl of the storm over his head, gazed on the dim blue horizon calling him to worlds that lie beyond, and yet he never dreamed a sail.” —Thomas Dixon

  3. Hey, Peckerwood,
    .
    I just love seeing comments like this from people like yourself, because I know that as long as I see them, and people like yourself are angry and frustrated, the country is moving in the right direction.
    .
    Life must be miserable for a person like you, to be watching the dying gasp of Jim Crow, and I just love watching your pain. How do I know that your life is miserable? Because if it wasn’t you’d be to busy enjoying life to be sitting around spewing such ignorant and inane bitterness – and I understand why too. With the world changing around you, you can no longer depend on your Whiteness to defend you from your towering mediocrity. Now you’re going to be forced to PROVE that you’re superior, and I don’t think you can – in fact I know you can’t.
    .
    You see, as a direct result of Black people having to outwit bigots like you on a daily basis, every day of their lives, you’ve unwittingly made them superior to you. Because, in spite of the fact that people like yourself have force Black people to run a marathon against you while wearing lead boots, and after spotting you fifty yards, we’ve STILL remained competitive. That means that EVERY Black person that you know on your job, or at a similar economic level as yourself, is superior to you – they HAVE to be to be at your level in spite of all of the White supremacist affirmative action programs that you’ve been able to take advantage of.
    .
    For years, it’s been a universally accepted scientific assertion that adversity tends to trigger evolution, and as a direct result of your mindless ignorance, Black people have been forced to go through the very same process of growth as humanity as a whole. When man was placed here on Earth, he faced much of the same disadvantages that Black people has faced here in America over the past 400 years. He wasn’t as big as the elephant, as ferocious as the lion, and he couldn’t soar above danger like the eagle. He only had one tool to defend himself – the human mind. But as a result of being forced to hone that tool into an efficient and effective weapon, he now has dominion over the Earth. He is now able to build machines that can crush any elephant, slaughter the most ferocious lion, and fly far above the eagle’s domain – in fact, he’s even gone on to explore other worlds.
    .
    Well, let me lay something on you, you jive-ass bigot. With all of the prejudice and bigotry that bigots like yourself have forced Black people to endure over the past 400 years, all you’ve done is inadvertently forced many Black people to evolve far beyond you. Many of us are now your intellectual superiors – Obama is a case in point. That’s the true reason you hate him, isn’t it? But surprise of all surprises – as you’re going to find out very soon, Obama is not an aberration. I hope you respond so I can prove it to you – and I’m not as nice as he is. I’ll drag your ignorant ass through the mud, and, with absolute glee. I live for ignorant assholes like you.
    .
    So I’ll be awaiting your response with giddy anticipation.

  4. peckerwood says:

    nice to see you filth getting what you deserved. as we speak, millions of illegals who identify with me will be moving into your std, rat, and roach infested “hoods” and taking what is left of your jobs. your evil, low down, race is done with.

  5. keepn it real says:

    I can’t ever knock MLK given his body of work. You on the other hand, the most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.

  6. Lol! That brings to mind an MLK quotation:
    .
    “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

    Martin Luther King, Jr.

  7. keepn it real says:

    Give me a fruitful error any time. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.

  8. Wake Up, Keepin It Real,

    Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
    FELLOW AMERICANS, DON’T LET OUR IGNORANCE DESTROY US
    .
    The racist animosities that are running rampant among ALL segments of the American people are playing right into the hands of the those who are our most insidious enemy – the global corporatists. These people are intent upon enslaving us all. The only difference between literal slavery and what they have in mind for us is we’ll have to provide our own housing.
    .
    These people are no longer Americans; they are now globalists, and America is just a virtual cotton field to them. And as long as they keep the poor and middle class fighting and hating one another, we’ll be powerless against their social and political manipulation. So “illegal aliens” and others are far from the biggest threat to the American way of life – the corporatists are.
    .
    If Al Qaeda represents a rattlesnake in America’s garden, the corporate/GOP alliance represents a python under our bed. Al Qaeda can only destroy buildings, but the corporate/GOP wants to destroy our entire way of life and replace American democracy with a system of corporate feudalism, where corporations, literally, control the nation. So it is essential that every man, woman, and child who is a part of the poor and middle class recognize that fact, put our petty hatreds aside, and come together to fight our most insidious enemy – the global corporatist.
    .
    History is clear. Conservative Republicans don’t mind spending money, they just don’t want to spend it on those who need it – us. Remember, they’re the party of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of fiscal conservatism, who believed that only those who owned property should even be allowed to vote – and based on the voter obstruction laws that’s currently being passed in Republican controlled states, they’re headed in that direction again. Hamilton said the following:
    .
    “All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and wellborn, the other the mass of the people…. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government.” Debates of the Federalist Convention (May 14-September 17, 1787) . . .(MORE)
    .
    Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
    FELLOW AMERICANS, DON’T LET OUR IGNORANCE DESTROY US
    http://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/07/fellow-americans-dont-let-our-ignorance.html

  9. keepn it real says:

    Yeah right. Afterall, GOP has been managing inner cities for 40+ years so anyone can see why DEMS are perceived as our Savior. Can’t make this stuff up!

  10. Let’s keep real, Keepn It Real.
    .
    DON’T BE CONFUSED BY SEMANTICS

    Whether they are currently in the Republican Party,
    or were in the Democratic Party during the Civil War,
    CONSERVATIVES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN
    THIS NATION’S BIGOTS – PERIOD!
    .
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=776161259098554&set=a.136305753084111.28278.100001140610873&type=1&theater

  11. keepn it real says:

    According to Obamacare Architect stupidity lies within democratic voters!

  12. Raynard,

    Stop dreaming. There are just a few Black people in this country who are idiotic or uninformed enough to EVER vote Republican. If you go to the dictionary and look up the word “Conservative,” it’s defined as a person who is opposed to change, and supports traditional vales. Thus, any Black person who is opposed to changing this White supremacist system, and wants to “CONSERVE” traditional American values, is by definition, a goddamn fool – and there are not many of those in the Black community, and there never will be. In the current political environment, Black Republicans are the perfect equivalent of a Jewish Nazi. Again, a goddamn fool.

  13. CD Smith says:

    Please define blackness. Is it given or earned?

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