The Debate at Morgan State: GOP at a Crossroads with Blacks and Hispanics

The GOP debate in Baltimore at Morgan State University, led and moderated by Tavis Smiley, and currently being snubbed by the leading candidates, is a pivotal moment in this election. It is a litmus test for a Republican Party that, in the past, has run away from black voters and only selectively interacted with Hispanic citizens.

At this moment in American history, it is clear that either the Republican Party wisely embraces people of color, or it chooses to be a losing political party in the future. The courage and vision of Tavis Smiley, and his often overlooked but historic Covenant movement, has put the limelight on this dilemma of the Republican Party.

We shall see which choice the Republican Party makes in regard to people of color in particular, but most importantly to their future as a party in the American democratic experiment.

Comments

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Another view:

The candidates who are ducking are wimps who are afraid that the more they have to think on their feet, the faster their shelf life will expire.

[ikkytito]

Hillary Clinton is fast on her feet-a real conteder- hope she goes up against Thompson -the empty suit with the sexy young wife. lmao

[Jane22]

They're just counting the MONEY and who they will lose if thet say the wrong stuff! Plus Reasons comment!

[BUBBY]

Welcome Professor. It is certainly no surprise the cons are ignoring the black population of America. And I don't just mean Katrina. What I want to know is what percentage of the black population that votes, will vote for the cons. It amazes me that gay and lesbian voters cast ballots for a party who despises them. I don't hold out hopes of an aboutface anytime in the near future. BTW I love when you are on Real Time. Your laugh gets me going every time!!

[mommadona]

This is not the Republican Party of a Lincoln.
It is the Republican Party of a McCarthy.
It is the Republican Party of a David Duke.
It is the Republican Party of the C of C
(and you KNOW how that's turned out)

It IS the Republican Party of the Atlanta National Golf Course.

And that is not the Republican Party of a Lincoln.

[brooklyncitizen]

Ehrmmm....Lincoln's been dead for a while.

When exactly was there an "acceptable" Republican Party? Republicans are in crisis and so they should be. They have unleashed tremendous conflict and turmoil in the world and at home. THis was set underway by Nixon furthered by Reagan and we now see it in full bloom under the Bush administration.

THe bottomline is that their policies are indefensible. Completely and utterly.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/17/1411235

[thicky]

Thomas E. Dewey, republican governor of New York and presidential candidate in '44 and '48. He would have been a better president than Truman(the cause of all our modern troubles: Vietnam, the cold war, Israel and the middle east)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_E._Dewey

"Dewey was regarded as an honest and highly effective governor. He cut taxes, doubled state aid to education, increased salaries for state employees, and reduced the state's debt by over $100 million. Additionally, he put through the first state law in the country which prohibited racial discrimination in employment."

". . . Dewey had seemed unstoppable. Republicans figured that all they had to do was to avoid destroying a certain election victory, and as such, Dewey did not take any risks. He spoke in platitudes, trying to transcend politics. Speech after speech was filled with empty statements of the obvious, such as the famous quote: "You know that your future is still ahead of you." An editorial in the Louisville Courier-Journal summed it up:

No presidential candidate in the future will be so inept that four of his major speeches can be boiled down to these historic four sentences: Agriculture is important. Our rivers are full of fish. You cannot have freedom without liberty. Our future lies ahead.[1]"

I can think of a couple Presidential candidates who were even more inept than Dewey.

[shiznit613]

hmmmm....wasnt the democrats responsible for vietnam? Just curious. Nixon, if anything, starting bringing troops home from that war! So to say that only the republicans are responsible, I think the American government(not some specific political party) is responsible for the crap we are in today! It takes two to tango!

[ProfessorDuh]

Right. The Republican Party is not at a crossroads here. It crossed the Rubicon long ago to plant its flag proudly in the realm of bigotry and race baiting.

[lyingtruth]

The coup de grace has yet to be delivered. Iran wants nuclear weapons. Bush and Cheney plan to supply them!

[Prizgar]

WHY on earth should the Republicans bother with the black or Latino votes when they can easily suppress these votes or just plain steal the elections where necessary. And, all without the hapless Dems doing a damned thing about it, or even complaining about it.

Only when Democrats wake up and clean up voting -- making all votes count -- will Republicans behave responsibly.

[Mack20]

Nice try mom. Looks like you need a little help. It’s Augusta National, not Atlanta National. And to help you out a little more, Duke and his KKK affiliation was thrown out of the GOP years ago. What about your pal Senator Robert “Sheets” Byrd. Wasn’t he the KKK grand wizard of West Va. or some such thing? All your Democratic friends in WVA keep re-electing him over and over. Same with Ted “my neck hurts” Kennedy, who left a poor young woman he was fooling around with to die. He simply behaved like the coward he is. He was more concerned about his political career than her life. Shame on you democrats in Massachusetts for re-electing him over and over and over and over……

Bottom line is you neo-Marxist liberals have no moral compass and therefore keep re-electing your flawed, dishonest, immoral, and despicable politicians. Here are some more examples: Marion Barry, Ray Nagin, Barney Frank, Bill Clinton, all those Fords from West Tennessee, Dan Rostenkowski, and Congressman William Jefferson, the freezer king from New Orleans. I could go on and on but you get the point. Sure, the GOP has had its share of rotten apples over the years. The difference is we throw our bad apples out as soon as we spot the first worm. You guys keep re-electing yours again and again. Next time I’ll give the lecture on honest Abe. You people don’t have one ex-President that even comes close. Eat your heart out!

[Kansas Evans]

Well, I'm sure you must be very proud of Pres GWBush.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Oh poor, sad, deluded Mack20 wrote - "Sure, the GOP has had its share of rotten apples over the years. The difference is we throw our bad apples out as soon as we spot the first worm." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Tom DeLay was referred to the 'Ethics Committee' (such as it was) numerous times and instead of being 'Thrown Out' he was rewarded. Just like Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham, Denney Hastert, Ted Stevens, Dolittle and Issa from California, etc. etc. ad nauseaum, ad infinitum...

He also wrote "... Congressman William Jefferson, the freezer king from New Orleans." - The Democratic Leadership removed Rep. Jefferson from every influential committee position he held when he was indicted.

Dontcha hate it when you get FACT-CHECKED!

[CriminallySane]

"Ted “my neck hurts” Kennedy, who left a poor young woman he was fooling around with to die."

Yep - he's killed exactly the same number of people while driving under the influence as has First Lady Laura Bush. Moral equivalence there?

And Abe Lincoln has to be doing about 600 RPM about now, seeing what's happened to his party.

[mommadona]

Well, you see, long ago, in a far away time, I used to be a Republican.

Wow! Now I'm a neo-Marxist! Just goes to show you how far of a right-kink the "Grand Ol Party" has taken.

And, thank you for the assistance. AUGUSTA National Golf CLUB....the minute I typed and hit post, I knew it was goofy.

[bick]

all republicans are defective. it's a fact!

[SensibleAmerican]

A lot of times people are 'victims' of their own shenanigans. A lot has been made of Karl Rove's "brilliance" but I think he was a lucky crook! Fixing 2000 was crooked and not brilliant and 2002/2004 had Bush with the 9/11 wind still in his sails!

What Rove did was, take the Nixonian "Southern strategy" and took it so far extreme that it turned into a "Southern White strategy" and right now the GOP is just a "Christian right wing nut white party"!!

The common belief then was, if you take the South you take the Country. The first President that the evangelicals endorsed was actually Jimmy Carter! They then turned to Reagan who set the momentum for the Christian Right-Neocon alliance. A majority of Independents took to this alliance. That is when the blacks started to get neglected while turning into a major socio-economic force

The hatred manifested in the last immigration debate has now turned the hispanics against the GOP

The current GOP presidential contenders are now stuck in their own quagmire and are just compounding this problem. As they continue down the Karl Rovian path of self destruction, I will not be surprised if a majority of America turns from 'red' to 'blue' primarily while the 'deep red' turns 'purple' ...

[ikkytito]

Great comment momma -couldn't say it better myself.

[JHD]

The historical truth of Lincoln freeing the slaves is that he did it mainly to keep England out of the civil war. Slavery was so unpopular in England that they couldn't easily side with the Confederacy after the North freed the slaves. He also wanted to send the freed slaves back to Africa! The GOP is the party of Lincoln but that doesn't make them any kind of friend to the African American people. They were the masters of spin way back then as they are today.