Why wouldn’t they feel more kinship to their own children than to foreigners/outsiders who sort of agree with them on some things? They may wish their kids were more like the Mexicans, but they’re not giving the farm to the Mexicans!
Have you ever met a [del]human[/del] mammal?
Does anyone else think it might be the end for the GOP? Kind of like the GM of politics?
Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, J.C. Watts, and Michael Steele notwithstanding. And they married a few mestizos along the way.
You strike me as someone who goes for the cheap demagogue because it makes you feel good. Sort of like the Detroit city council.
I’m not prepared to argue whether or not Social Security is some sort of Ponzi scheme. What I am pointing out is public perception.
Public perception is formed by people’s life experience. What most people perceive is that Social Security checks arrive regularly in the hands of family or friends or neighbors; while they’re aware of the argument that SS will run dry in time, the present reality is that it may be a small amount but it’s nevertheless a reliable lifeline for many folks.
The stock market has shown to the public over the last several months: (1) a spectacular plunge in values, not only for sophisticated investors but for millions of people whose pension funds, 401(k)s, IRAs, and so forth have dwindled frighteningly, wiping out years of gains in mere months; (2) prominent giant financial institutions on the brink of going belly up; (3) crooks caught stealing millions and even billions not only from sophisticated investors but also from charities; (4) obscene compensation to Wall Street and bank executives even as their companies go deep into the red. Nothing in this is going to persuade people that the market is a safer place for them.
On preview: Good luck with communicating your theoretical benefits of privatization to people confronting the stark present realities.
The GOP is not monolithic. My mother is a serious religious right Republican, & not at all racist. She would have loved to see the GOP nominate a black candidate for President. She doesn’t recognize just how much of the party is Dixiecrats & racialists in fact.
The preserve-white-power pack call themselves “conservatives,” (look up Council of Conservative Citizens).
The Jesus freaks & Bible thumpers are often legitimately theologically & religiously conservative, so they call themselves “conservatives,” too.
The internationalist/imperialist wing are “conservatives,” sometimes with a “neo-” attached.
Pat Buchanan is also styled a “conservative,” although he’s explicitly opposed to the latter group. He’s a cultural conservative, of course.
Then some people use “free-market conservative,” to mean pro-economic growth–which is silly, just say you’re pro-growth–but they do.
And of course, there used to be “law-and-order conservatives,” but apparently the Sicilian Mafia is somehow allied to the GOP now, & you don’t hear about that as much.
So a politician says something about appealing to “conservatives” & trying to support “conservative values,” & no one knows what he means. But some people in the former groups will think he’s talking about them.
But socially “conservative” blacks (most) & Mexicans (some) know better, usually.
ETA: (For the record, I was raised a law-&-order Jesus Freak/Bible thumper, & yes those are words we used for ourselves. But I make a much better Green than a Republican in the present environment.
Hispanics are not a minority in L.A. They are a plurality. And the current projections show that in 30-some odd years, the entire country will be that way and whites will be a minority. So yeah, if the GOP wants to do well it needs to get a lot browner.
I didn’t say anything about their own children.
Edit: Unless you’re saying all young white people are the “children” of all old white people? 
It’s refreshing to realize that a younger generation of citizens is coming along that has little or no racial bigotry, yet identifies themselves as conservative.
The problem is, those who identify themselves as conservative may not identify themselves as Republican.
The Republican Party has a regressive leadership at the top that is turning off young, intelligent people on the party. Bemoan the political correctness in this country all you want, but at least it created the conditions by which a generation of people could grow up and develop more progressive social views towards different people. People my age can be open and progressive while still recognizing when certain people or groups go overboard with their message of tolerance. I think the Republican Party is too old, on average, to have reached that point yet.
In the Nixon tapes, there is a point where Nixon and his staff come to a revelation. They said we don’t need them. We can win elections without courting the blacks or minorities.
Since that time ,they have maintained an adversarial relationship with blacks. Now the numbers aren’t there and they have to try to widen their base. Of course they have to overcome generations of ill will their actions caused. Good luck with that.
Also I should add that a lot of Hispanics, especially second and third generation, are all for some sort of immigration reform and tightening of the border. But they just didn’t like how the Tom Tancredo/Lou Dobbs/Bill O’Reilly crowd hijacked the debate and seemed to lay blame for all of America’s social ills squarely at the feet of illegal Mexican immigrants.
That’s only 2/4 elected officials.
Neither of them currently in elected office, either. Btw, Watts quit the House when he realized he was being used as a token. Steele owes his current position mainly to that reason. Powell is in the process being excommunicated by party’s current leadership (Cheney and Limbaugh). Rice chose not to act as a leader or the Iraq invasion would have happened without her or not at all.
And Steele’s highest elected office (maybe only elected office, I’m not sure) was as Lt. Governor - in otherwords he rode the coattails of some other guy into office. How many voters do you think even knew who he was when they saw his name on the ballot?
I’d be curious if anyone could see a way for the GOP to increase its share of the minority vote while still being against interracial transfers like affirmative action and welfare. Like I said, I don’t see cultural affinities as overriding the immediate practical benefits of Democratic programs to minorities.
Marginalize its movement conservatives. Rush should be the first over the gunwale.
This.
The blind spot many non minorities have is when someone says ‘Republican’ to blacks or hispanics they hear ‘party of white racists’, and no amount of logic twisting and spin is going to change the fact that the GOP attracts an unabashed and unashamed racist and racialist element.
The only chance the GOP has of attracting more minorities, especially blacks, is to jettison the racists from the party, in a public, unambiguous way. At this point, however, a not insignificant percent of those who consider themselves party loyalists remain proudly racist, unfortunately, and since, in my view, the GOP needs its racists to survive, it’d, perhaps, result in a fatal blow to the party.
Add to this the rampant xenophobia the party tolerates and, in some ways, promotes, conveniently focusing its ire solely to those of Hispanic, Afro-caribbean, and Arab and Muslim ancestry, and my conclusion is the party’s downward drift is all but inexorable.
The GOP is the party of the bigots and anti immigrant types. If they soften their stance on blacks they risk losing a segment they can count on. They have to bring in enough black voters to compensate for the ones they may lose. They will carefully do the calculus and decide which way will make them more competitive. Then they will skip principles and go for the votes.
It’s how the GOP has won elections for more than 30 years. Now the numbers don’t work anymore. The problem is that it’s so ingrained in the bones of the party that they can’t ditch it without pissing off a huge chunk of their base.
Y’know, in an interview after the most recent presidential election I heard more than one tearful catch in Condi’s throat, and it wasn’t because McCain had lost. If Obama offered her a job–any job–she’d jump at it.
The GOP could start by selecting an African-American as their party chair. Preferably one with a hip-hop attitude. Yep. That oughta work out just great!