And you wonder why it's harder for the Republicans to win over minorities. Of course, you can't tell that to the online extremists who continue to harp about the Republicans being the party of "civil rights".
If anything, the Republicans are like cocaine, 94% WHITE and 6% OTHER.
An interesting video from The Daily Show's Jon Stewart. He hammers Republicans for their overreaction towards the president's executive orders to curbing gun violence. Many Republicans and conservative media figures were pushing the notion that the president is acting like a tyrant or dictator because he wants to ban semi-automatic weapons. Stewart dismiss this as another phony outrage to gin up fears of a government gun grab.
The dog whistle is being blown once again by calling an elected leader a "KING", "TYRANT", or "ELITIST". They seem to be still fixated on the very thought of losing an election. They complained about the president using children in the press conference. It's a part of ridiculousness of Republican Party. They're becoming unhinged.
Then of course, the Republicans head for the hills. The annual retreat is going to be in Virginia at the Kingsmill Resort on the campus of the Burwell Plantation. In fact, the room is named after the Burwell Family, a wealthy family that owned many slaves in 18th century Southern Virginia. Records pertaining to the families owning of slaves is well-documented by the city of Williamsburg on their website.
The Republicans have a huge problem reaching out to Blacks, Hispanics and women. Thus they have little fanfare with Black leaders. One thing they pull is the "race card". They have one Black member who is rising in the party. The only member of Republican fold is Senator Tim Scott (R-South Carolina).
Scott came into the senate after being picked to represent the state after Jim DeMint resigned.
This is not helping! This comic here makes the case to paint President Barack Obama as an "enslaver" to the Black community. This was done by a Black Republican group. The National Black Republican Association peaks around the time of the King celebration. Every year the NBRA and Black Republicans go full stream into the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being a Republican talking points. They continue to piss off the Black community with condescending rhetoric that goes against King's philosophies of social justice, equal rights, union rights, and anti-war. |
The Democrats have no Black members in the U.S. Senate since 2010. The last one was Roland Burris who retired from the senate because of a federal investigation on him. Barack Obama was the last elected member of the U.S. Senate. He was elected to be the President of the United States. He is the current president.
Yet, these online extremists will "shuck and jive" this excuse that Republicans are the party that freed the slaves, passed the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act of the 1960s. They'll rabble rouse on about how the famed civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. Not even providing proof that it ever existed that King voted for a candidate without facing the very same issues such as the infamous poll tax. The very same Republicans who would attack Jesse Jackson, Joesph Lowry and the NAACP but say there's not racist and they believe in King's dream.
The Republicans being at this retreat are trying to figure out what went wrong!
They tried to pass legislation that required identification at the ballot box (to prevent voter fraud). That didn't work. People working for Republicans were caught throwing away ballots, publishing the wrong dates on election mailers, and trying to sign up only first time Republicans. Then some Republican will bring a camera to an event in Ohio, Florida and Colorado to scope out the Black or Hispanic person. They'll use the ignorant Black or Hispanic person to represent the mindset of likely Democratic voters as "gubmint" dependents.
They tried to end early voting. Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin wanted to end early voting because they didn't like the advantage it gave President Barack Obama. So they wanted to keep the lines long and keep people from voting. It's didn't work. It rallied many civil rights groups and progressive agitators to push on! It help the president win Ohio and later Florida, two states that determine an election.
The Republican state leaders are bragging about gerrymandering districts that make it harder for Democrat or other political party member to win. They may have lost the presidency and a chance to retake the U.S. Senate, but they'll have the power in the House of Representatives for years to come. Despite the Republican having a slim majority in the House and tougher fight in the Senate, they will try to undermine the general public because of their stupid "principles".
Los Angeles Times comic satires diversity in the Republican Party. |
Currently, the House Democratic caucus is made up of nearly half minorities (47 percent), versus a GOP House caucus that is 90 percent white men. (The Senate is more problematic for both parties, with just one black Senator — Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina.) When it comes to women, the calculus is much the same: more than 30 percent of the House Democratic caucus is female, versus less than 10 percent of the Republican House membership.
And while there are 41 black Democrats in the House, with Tim Scott of South Carolina getting a promotion to the Senate by his state’s governor, and Allen West losing his seat in the last election, there are no black Republicans in the House — and thus, there will be none at the plantation on Friday.
Back in 2009, when Democrats sojourned at the former home of the Burwells and their slaves, their caucus had much the same makeup. For many black Americans, being able to go to a former plantation as a paying guest is something of a psychic triumph. Even better when the guest is the first black president of the United States.
Meanwhile the Republican National Committee, which in December launched an initiative to increase party diversity, (which did include an African-American committeeman from South Carolina and two women — including a Latina — among its six members,) has come under criticism from its former chairman, Michael Steele, who accused the current chairman of all but shutting down efforts he launched to reach out to minorities.
And then there’s the matter of policies like voter ID laws and billboards that cropped up in RNC chairman Reince Priebus’ home state of Wisconsin as well as in Ohio, that seemed aimed at frightening minorities away from the polls. Throw in harsh messaging on immigration, and you begin to see that the party’s problems won’t be solved at a retreat — unless the result of the retreat is a dramatic course correction.
That course correction could still happen — and African-Americans, Latinos and women would surely welcome it.
But for now, optics matter, and they are a combination of place and personnel. It’s not that Republicans can’t hold their retreat anywhere they like — it’s that they shouldn’t be surprised when the picture that’s painted — of a diversity-challenged party choosing that particular location to talk about minority outreach — draws a few jeers.
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