I’m a hustler baby, I’m a hustler
I just want you to know, wanna let you know
It ain’t where I been, it ain’t where I been
But where I’m ’bout to go, top of the world!
—Jay Z
The race hustlers can almost taste it now—Obama at the top of the world. And now Spike Lee, Maxine Waters, Jeremiah Wright, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, et al. are joined by a new hustler-wannabe—Howard Dean. Yes, the Dean of scream. Yaaaaaaaaaaah! Whether he made a Freudian slip or not last week, Dean reminded me of the pathetic, race-confused “Raji” as played by Vince Vaughn in the movie “Be Cool.” In an NPR interview, Dean was asked about the shifting demographics in the U.S. and responded: “And if you look at folks of color, even women, they’re more successful in the Democratic Party than they are in the white, excuse me, than in the Republican Party….”
However you see it, Dean said what he thinks of the Republican Party—and joined the ranks of the “race hustler” elite while sporting his signature smirk. The lesson for Republicans is not that the race hustlers are still at it; or that the mainstream media smoothed it over for Dean (yet again); or that Wolf Blitzer will not rend his shirt in outrage; or that Keith Olberman will not round up a latte liberal posse to tar and feather Hustler Howard. The lesson is that Dean’s words are true. No matter how you slice the demographics, the Republican Party is distinctly “white” and that stings the conscience of the conservative to know that a solid block of the American electorate rejects the conservative worldview out of hand.
For the last 50 years Republicans have consistently garnered only 10 percent of the black presidential vote with no better prospects this time around. Every political consultant, pollster, economist, sociologist, historian, hack and blogger, not to mention past and present politician, seems to have a well-reasoned explanation for the phenomenon. So far, I’ve only stumbled across one honest commentator (Paul Gottfried, a professor of humanities at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania) who says he “is still searching for an explanation as to why this hostility [blacks toward Republicans] is as deep and abiding as it seems to be.”
Who better to give some insight on this Republican failure than two former black Republican legislators—former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts and former Congressman from Oklahoma, J.C .Watts?
Senator Brooke believes the Republican Party has lost its “progressive” wing. Therefore, he says the Republican loss of the black vote is issue related, citing black dissatisfaction with Republican policies on jobs, healthcare, etc. As the first black elected to the Senate in the 20th Century and last black Republican Senator, Brooke would seem to have his finger on the pulse of things as he asks, “What are they [Republicans] doing for the millions of African-Americans that are suffering?”
Yet, as Brooke contends, “issues” are the problem, the Republican Party will have to substantially change its policies in order to win the black vote. The issue-based solution would include a Republican Party platform embracing universal healthcare, trade protectionism, affirmative action, the welfare state, vague notions of social justice, etc.—quite a stretch, even for a McCain-driven Republican Party. This sounds more like hustling or pandering than a commitment to principle.
As a successful conservative black Republican politician, J.C. Watts has “hustled” in a positive way on more than one playing field. From star college athlete to Congress to lobbyist to rising television network mogul, Watts has lived this issue, and he sees it differently. Echoing the age-old adage that voters “don’t care what you know, they just want to know you care” former U.S. Congressman Watts believes that Republicans simply don’t make the requisite effort—they don’t “hustle” enough for the black vote. As a result, Watts says Republicans are guilty of reaching out “60 days before the election” but otherwise avoiding black venues. Speaking of black venues, if Watts’ new Black Television News Network takes off it will be a ready-made opportunity for black Republicans to gain sweat equity with the black audience.
Truth is, the Republican Party should not be chasing the “rainbow” and hustling the vote of every ethnic group. The GOP is the party of individual empowerment, the “shining light on the hill,” drawing all that come to know the hope and promise of less government, more personal freedom and traditional family values. Remember, many stellar conservatives, even Ronald Reagan, arrived at the GOP after a philosophical journey. I’m glad the party didn’t change to fit Reagan, but that he came to it. People of other ethnic groups will come, too, one at a time, based on principle—not in response to pandering efforts to re-package the failed policies of the left. |