The problem for Matthew Jarzen’s worldview is that he hasn’t examined and understood what “conservative” actually means. There’s a fundamental difference between those who want progress (progressives) and those who want to conserve things the way they are (or were). Jarzen alternatively thinks that conservatives are losing the hearts and minds of racial minorities because they have old, white, crusty guys delivering the message or because they’ve given up on delivering any message at all.
But that’s not the problem. A key part of the Republican’s base is made up of white people who are concerned, anxious, or just plain angry about the demographic changes occurring in this country. You could call it the ‘browning of America,’ and Jarzen is well aware of it.
Consider this: By the year 2040, the population of the United States will be a majority of historically minority groups — black, Hispanic and Asian — that consistently vote for Democrats. So in another 30 years, will there even be a Republican Party?
That is why you see Rep. Steve King behaving like this:
QUESTION: I keep reading that Obama keeps bringing small quantities of Muslims into this country. Why can’t Congress stop that?
KING: You know, I don’t know what the basis is of that. I wouldn’t be surprised that that is the real factual basis. I know that the immigration that we have going on, there are a number of different ways that people come into the country. Family reunification is one of them. … I appreciate you making the point. I will try to watch it.
Many immigrants come to this country with socially conservative views about abortion, the family, premarital sex, homosexuality, and religion’s role in government. But they’re aren’t welcomed by conservatives because they aren’t white and, in many cases, they aren’t Christian. They might be attracted to an individual Republican who reflects their values, but not if they get the distinct impression that the Republican Party wants them deported and would have no problem seeing them treated as an enemy combatant and imprisoned for years on end without access to a trial.
It actually is a good question to ask whether the Republican Party will even exist in 2040. I think they probably will, but they will have given up on racism as an electoral strategy.
Right now, we’re in a transitional phase where the GOP can still hope to bang out good election results based in large part on racial anxiety. But it won’t work for long. In each successive election cycle, more states and districts will drift away from them. So, Jarzen’s right:
Republicans need to go to these groups and make it clear that what’s good for all Americans is good for black Americans. What’s good for all Americans is good for Hispanic and Asian Americans. What’s good for all Americans is good for gay Americans. What’s good for all Americans is good for young Americans.
Republicans can do this without compromising any of the principles of conservatism. We don’t need to pander like Democrats, as our message is one for all Americans.
Republicans have a message — we just need the messengers. The Republican Party must be open to these messengers from the very communities that they’re trying to reach out to. Without these groups and their messengers, there won’t be a Republican Party to speak of in years to come.
Eventually, the Republicans are going to have to do that. But they aren’t going to do it now because the current Republican Party hates blacks, Latinos, and Asians, and they really hate gays and Muslims. So, it ain’t happening anytime soon.
If you don’t think it’s the hate that’s killing the Republicans, ask yourself why Muslims overwhelmingly supported Obama despite agreeing much more with the Republicans on pretty much every social issue under the Sun.
You speak the truth.
and, they can’t help themselves. Arizona and its copycats prove that.
Jarzen is absolutely right. If the Reps ever get their act together and appeal to the asinine
bigotrysocial conservative bullshit that so much Catholicism and Islam brings with it, the dream of a secular, diverse, and open society could well be set back, not advanced, by the coming demographic changes. In our wild embrace of absurdity, we have now achieved the reality that racism may be the only thing keeping the Republic somewhat intact.Jarzen is specifically right about this: “Republicans need to go to these groups and make it clear that what’s good for all Americans is good for black Americans. What’s good for all Americans is good for Hispanic and Asian Americans. What’s good for all Americans is good for gay Americans. What’s good for all Americans is good for young Americans.” If Republicans ever manage to make that case there’s a good chance I’ll become a Republican. Unfortunately for them, making that case and walking the walk would require that they quit being conservative, which has come to mean nothing more than protecting the vastly overprivileged from any interference from demands for social and economic justice.
“We don’t need to pander like Democrats, as our message is one for all Americans” is really the message Dems need to get into their heads. They have failed miserably to make exactly that case, and their “progressive” critics are far, far worse. So what do we do now — pray for the GOP racism/classwar/nativism to last a little longer so maybe the Dems can figure out how to let people know that they’re working for them?
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(SF Gate) – A 16-year-old honors student from Fremont who has lived in this country since age 3 faces deportation to his native Russia because his mother wasn’t able to get her immigration status in order.
Both Eugene Kotelnikov, a sophomore at Washington High School, and his mother, Tatiana Miroshnik, 37, must return to Russia by June 18 on orders of the U.S. government.
If that happens, Miroshnik would be leaving behind her two U.S.-born daughters from her second marriage, Tatiana Martinez, 9, and Nastasia Martinez, 7.
… Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Miroshnik’s case “has been extensively reviewed by the courts, and all of the entities have found that they have no legal basis to remain in the United States.”
Miroshnik said she has contributed to the community by giving piano and violin lessons, playing the violin at the Centerville Presbyterian Church next door to her home each Sunday and volunteering at her children’s schools. Bruce Green, a pastor at the church has been organizing rallies in her support.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."As if the Democratic Party isn’t a part of that:
and we both know there are plenty more examples like this. the Democrats don’t play the xenophobia and authoritarian cards as blatantly as their GOP counterparts, but to make it seem as if deportation and indefinite detention is something specific to Republicans is laughable.
I respectfully disagree. You assume that people of color can’t be as racist as crusty old white people. The republican ‘southern strategy’ is about ‘us vs. them’ or ‘have vs. have-not’. When, in a few years, the country consists mostly of people of color, there will still be haves and have-nots, some people will still be trying to bar the doors, and I suspect many politicians will still be using the fear of ‘the other’ to get votes.
Anyone person who has to work for a living and thinks the GOP in anyway represents or cares about their interest -just ain’t paying attention to anything but FNC .
The Republican Party as currently constituted is a heartless soulless feign . The modern GOP exploits race and religion, not out of any abiding belief or principle , they do so solely as a mechanism to create more wealth and power for those who already have it .
Joe Barton’s apology to BP is the most honest reflection of real Republican values uttered in public,as we are likely to ever hear . There it was for all to witness, in all its bare-knuckle grandeur ,stripped of its casuistry -a statement of what the GOP really cares about: the growth and wealth of big business .
Barton did not , invoke God , family values, The Constitution or wrap himself in the flag , or recite any of the empty platitudes and disingenuity GOP members excel at summoning . No , this time we laid it bare with real honesty – he is motivated by the money BP is obligated to pay for real damage it caused – and he does not approve of that; he thinks it’s illicit . He called it a “shakedown” . So, the President pursues the people’s interest and a leader in the GOP calls it a criminal act ? That’s really sticking up for all those working folk on the Gulf coast isn’t it ?
When Richard Nixon ,the patron saint of the modern GOP, stole George Wallace’s racism play-book in 1968 -he did it to get the working class White vote and that’s it -objective overachieved . The GOP today uses White folk the way they used Black folk before FDR pulled Black folk away from the “Party of Lincoln” in the 1930’s . Working class folk -Black or White have never mattered to the GOP -all the GOP wants is their vote .
The GOP is the party of big money- it always been .
Unfortunately ,since Bill Clinton and his DLC crowd took over ,too many Democrats like the Blue Dawgs
think being GOP Lite or Democrat in name only , is the way to conduct the peoples business .
The GOP and some Democrats gave us NAFTA , China PNTR the WTO agreement and other lesser domestic policies – they have pretty much given us a world as the GOP thinks it should be . A world where working folk work for less and less .
I’m white so my opinion is probably of limited value, but the GOP’s problem with minorities is not simply that they are racist. It’s that the racism is a vehicle for class warfare. Minority=poor=deserving of political exclusion. It’s a chicken/egg thing but even if the GOP filled itself with Michael Steeles, it would still have the problem of being abjectly hostile to the poor and most of the middle class. As well as anyone who has the misfortune of being poor/middle class and suffering from some natural/corporate calamity.
As others have said, the GOP’s periodic fixation on social issues or “family values” is largely a smoke-screen. Aside from the patriarchal golden ring of banning abortion, the family values stuff is just a way to get the holy rollers to the polls. Once installed in office republicans are too busy taking checks from wall street, having scandalous relations on the down low, and invading other countries to worry too much about social issues. It doesn’t seem like GW did much of anything for the bible thumpers except a lot of talk about faith-based nonsense. I’m skeptical that this aspect of the GOP program really has that much practical appeal to minority voters since it could quite likely be just another aspect of the racial program: “We’re righteous people and deserve our wealth. We’re not like those crack-smoking welfare queens and their strapping young bucks etc.”