Why The GOP Will Never Be Able To Reach Minority Voters

After the beating in the 2012 election cycle where 71 percent of Latinos, 73 percent of Asians, 93 percent of African-American, and 55 percent of women voted Democrat, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said correct its outreach strategies.

In an interview with MSNBC’s ?Morning Joe? Priebus said:

?It’s not necessarily what you say but how you say it. If you go around and you say a lot of biologically stupid things? and you create a caricature or you allow a caricature to become reality, you’re not going to win an election.

In March the RNC released the ?Growth and Opportunity Project,? which was designed to educate Federal Republican Party members on how best to reach minority voters.

?It is time for Republicans on the federal level to learn from successful Republicans on the state level,? the report declares. But how exactly do state level GOP representatives conduct outreach?

In late March Alaska State Representative Don Young attempted to impress upon the Latino community the virtues of the ?Big Tent? party. ?I used to own?my father had a ranch.? Young said in an interview with local radio station KRBD, ?We used to hire 50 or 60 wet backs to pick tomatoes. You know, it takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now.?

Young later stated that the phrase was common when he was growing up, thus is ingrained into him.

I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in central California. I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect.

The fact that the term was as derogatory then as it is today aside, this argument seems to be a common defense for racial slurs.

In April Republican County Commissioner Jim Gile used the term, ?nigger-rigging,? then defended its use by claiming he only knew the term from its use when he was growing up. He also noted having a ?black friend.?

He was also defended by his wife in a bumbling explanation and redefining of the term. ?Joann Gile attempted to present the term as a term of praise toward the black community.

I want you to realize where that came from. It came from the 1900s with farmers, when the colored people, or the black people as we refer to them now, worked on farms,” she said. “The farmers praised them because they had the know-how to get something together with nothing. The farmers praised those colored people because they could do it. They were proud.

Gile’s comment was followed up by Oklahoma House Leader Dennis Johnson?s anti-Semitism while talking about effective strategies for small-business owners. ?They like the service they get,? Johnson said commenting on niche marketing, ?and they don’t ask me?they might try to Jew me down on a price that’s fine. You know what? That’s free market as well.?

After a staffer hastily whispered into the speakers ear Leader Johnson returned to the mic to issue an apology. ?I apologize to the Jews. They’re good small-business men as well,??Johnson said amongst laugher from his?colleague. In an interview with The Oklahoman Johnson explained the term was used in his youth.

May 2013 saw The Heritage Foundation; a Republican Party backed ?think tank? predicted a $6.3 trillion economic loss for the nation if immigration reform passed. This conclusion was developed in part by Jason Richwine.

Richwine received his doctorate in Public Policy in 2009 after writing his dissertation??IQ and Immigration Policy.? In this ?study? Richwine precludes that:

The average IQ of immigrants in the United States is substantially lower than that of the white native population, and the difference is likely to persist over several generations… No one knows whether Hispanics will?ever?reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.

The Heritage Foundation is the most powerfully influential Republican research organization in America?what does allowing an individual like Richwine to co-author policy say to Latino voters?

Recently North Carolina Republican legislators attempted to do a little damage control after Buncombe County precinct chair Don Yelton‘s profoundly racist?Daily Show interview. Yelton subsequently resigned after Republican Party chairman Claude Pope asked him to.

However, that didn’t keep Yelton from defending his views to The Wrap saying:

When a n?? can use the word n?? and it not be considered racist that’s the utmost racism in the world, and its hypocrisy? They [the Republican Party] can turn it into a positive if they want to. The party does not try to control the speech of individuals. That’s the point they could have made. You have to let people have an opinion.

The RNC’s ?Growth and Opportunity Project,? recommends that, ?If we want ethnic minority voters to support Republicans, we have to engage them, and show our sincerity.?

It would seem Republicans are taking those words to heart and showing minority voters exactly how sincere they are.

Edited by SS

R.E. has been a contributor for the UNCW SeaHawk-- a campus newspaper. An Alumni of the University of North Carolina, he currently lives in Jacksonville, FL with his wife and daughter.