2007 GOP Won't Even Talk to Black Folks

OK, let's do a rewind. In 2006, the GOP wanted to break the Democrats' decades-long grip on the black vote. Now, in 2007, the leading GOP candidates don't want to talk with black folks.

OK, maybe there is something I'm just not getting; let me walk through this. Maybe I'm missing something and I'm sure you will tell me. Now the old guy is not going to attend the GOP Presidential Forum at Morgan State University (a historically black college) in Baltimore, Maryland.

You know the old guy I'm talking about, right? No -- not John McCain, that's the other old guy. I'm talking about the old guy, Fred Thompson, who has become just another one in a line of old guys, who happen to be leading GOP presidential candidates who are shunning the GOP presidential debates.

OK, now, why are these four white guys shunning attendance at a PBS sponsored GOP forum being held in a predominately black city, in a historically black college, dealing with issues of importance to black Americans? No... it can't be... RACE.

As African American blogger Rikyrah of the black political blog Jack and Jill Politics noted, "This is not an isolated incident. In forum upon forum, the GOP has come up missing when it comes to speaking and presenting in front of Black audiences. Only Tom Tancredo has bothered to present himself to a Black audience, where he was received well."

She is not the only one feeling issues of race coming-up with these old line Republicans. "There is a pattern here," Tavis Smiley candidly told the Huffington Post. "When you tell every black and brown request that you get throughout the primary process that 'no, there's a scheduling problem.' That's a pattern... Are we really supposed to believe that all four of these guys couldn't make it because of scheduling?"

I guess Fred Thompson and his Grand "Old" Party don't see "2007 as the Year of the Black Republican." In fact, it appears that Fred Thompson and his Grand "Old" Party see 2007 as a year for "old" white Republicans standing their ground and preparing an old fashioned dish of classic old school race politics for black folks to eat. Let's hope even Republicans will shut down the Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and John McCain madness. These four guys seem to be following the Trent Lott and George Allen approach to race relations and political shenanigans. Maybe they will rethink there collective political stupidity and show up for the forum. But that would be too much to expect in an American democracy -- right?

Comments

[BELLYUP]

White Republicans choose not to show up to
listen to our views, out votes will not show
up on those ballots.

[typedesk]

how about a forum with atheists? It would be nice to know where we stand with this bunch of thumpers

[Vajara]

Can you imagine what would happen if Obama refused to go to white schools to introduce his platform? Look the "R's" are racist as they do not have any interest in improving health, education and human services for minorities and the empoverished. We know that whites are the most impoverished population as they are still the majority of our country. However, there is a greater %age of Black and Hispanics who fall through the cracks in the safety net.

Anyway, it is hard to see a minority person working in the "R" organizations knowing the differences between them. But when we view the national conventions and the leadership groups, minorities are neither very visible nor welcome.

Regardless of our color, we are making a great error and causing great harm to our country and environment when we vote for a "R."

[RealBlackGirl]

Based on the energy surrounding this topic(the comment sections for all blogs related to this topic runs for pages) everyone needs to contact the traditional media and make them address this story. While we are talking to each other, the traditional media is convincing the masses that the real issue is Orenthal (O.J.).

[INQUIRER]

The Republicans won't talk to you? Count your blessings. They won't shut up around the rest of us, and they spew their vitriol, parsimony, and just blind butt-ugly ignorance in defiance of any and all learning, reason, and intelligence until we want to strangle them. And everything they say is in defiance of the facts and the realities. All they ever do is lie.

[grayforester]

It's not that they don't want to talk to black folks, it's just that they're scared of getting caught talking to black folks.

[Woofer58]

Gee, ya think the Republicans are ignoring folks of color simply because they don't have anything to offer them ??

[mddem]

It's really too bad. They're missing out on a constituency that is highly religious, tired of the public education system (Right, Wilson33 in Baltimore?), patriotic and very likely to consider military service.

Those are the elements that motivated the Michael Steeles of the world to take a shot at expanding the base.

So my question back to the GOP is what has changed this year? Are family values, educational choice and patriotism no longer important? C'mon...Andy Card has a whole Roledex full of pro-Bush African Americans enough to pad a nice convention hall. And I'm sure that Armstrong Williams is available to moderate.

[Kungfublood]

Well sure why court the black vote when the black voters simply have their right to vote taken away at the last moment and then even if a few sneak through the screening process, the vote is changed by white GOP pre-programed lie-bold machines that vote for the GOP candidate anyway? So I mean why bother the brother when you were born to sc**w your mother.
(By that I mean the GOP will do ANYTHING to ANYONE of any color for a little more misplaced power and or cash. Except tell a lie. Of course they might misspoke misspeak and spin the earth back into the stone age!

[1will]

The Republicans stole the election because of DieBold. Okay. Somehow though the Dems took the House and Senate in 2006. Did they steal the election using DieBold or did all of the Republicans forget how to preprogram the machines that November?

[TruthAndConsequences]

Well, at least the Republicans are being more honest and true to themselves than the bullshit show of diversity they usually put on, especially at their conventions. Or would people rather have the bullshit act?

From Clarence Thomas and Condoleezza Rice to Michael Steele, 99 percent of black Republicans are forsaking their heritage for craven, selfish opportunism.

If the Republicans believed in African Americans and their rights, they would be endorsing, rather than fighting, statehood for the District of Columbia. But no, not if it means a Democrat might get elected, heaven forbid!

The reality is extreme bias is hard-wired to the Republican strategy. I think we all know that's at the heart of all the high dudgeon now in the right wing about illegal immigrants. They've moved on to that because they found that the gay-baiting that worked so well in '04 was no longer effective last year. I've yet to hear a Republican who's worked up about illegal immigrants from Canada, usually it's a stereotype named "Juan."

[1will]

Maybe when we have 12 million illegal Canadians in the US then Republicans will get worked up about it. Until then lets concentrate on "Juan."

[ChicaOfLight78]

Actually, the democrats are concentrating on Juan and thus winning. By 2008, voting "Juans" will make some red states blue.

Remember that.

[esquire07]

If Republicans had it their way, Segregation would be back everywhere. It is already starting in Schools, thanks to the right-wing-racist trash on the US Supreme court.

I hope black Americans unite as strongly as they did during the Civil Rights movement and take down the Right Wing Republican Trash machine.

[1will]

All the Supreme Court did was strike down BS social programs that didn't work. These forced integration schemes did nothing but bus a very small minority of kids accross town for no other reason then politics. Do you really believe your kid is so much better off because 5% of his classmates are of a different race?
You can move anywhere you want. If you don't like your school system then move to a different neighborhood. If you can't afford to move then your kid is stuck going to the local school. Thank Jesse and the Democrats for fighting Bush's School Voucher Program. Had that program passed poor kids could have changed schools without moving.

[JohnJames]

What could a Republican candidate possibly say that would garner applause from a black, or any non-white, audience without simultaneously alienating the party's base? - the base that will give or deny you the nomination. I'm not complaining. What could be more fun than watching the GOP slowly commit demographic suicide?

[Nommo]

Watching them quickly commit demographic suicide.

[DeeLight]

The old ruling class, open to white men only, realizes in its inner-most being that it has become an anachronism.

The world has changed around them and they find themselves bewildered.

They have lost their self-identity and don't know how to act because they can no longer freely subjugate those they deem different from, and therefore less than, themselves.

They are struggling under a feeling of pure fear and a lack of knowledge regarding their relationship to the rest of humanity.

They have no idea how to relate to people as equals. They only see themselves as the masters or rulers of everyone else.

Sad really. Those who cannot adapt are destined to become extinct.

[Hoelder]

Now when did you think the GOP cares? The majority Black vote is in cities that are already Democrat. The GOP does not care about low income and lower middle class at all. Would you vote for them even if they pretend to care. It is all in the numbers. The south is firm in GOP hand. The target states are Ohio, Florida and California. In CA the Republicans try to change the electoral college to get at least some votes via initiative. Of course they don't do the same in red states. The GOP has already pissed on the shoes of Hispanics. The Cubans will vote for them anyway. So its lily white America all over again. That's their calculation. That's appalling.

[mommadona]

I'm just wondering what country they really live in.

I'm also wondering why African-Americans just don't WALK AWAY from the whole cabal and WORK AGAINST THEM for a change.

I'm also wondering when good, Christian African Americans are going to realize that not all white "Christians" give a damn about them as a person.

You have some koolaide drinkers in your own camp that need to be kicked in the butt and out the door.

[ChicaOfLight78]

I agree there, momma.

Many impoverished minorities need to stop depending on religious beliefs so much and start investing in themselves, their neighbors and a "heaven" in this life. I've noticed that skeptical, existential and educated minorities do much better than those that depend solely on their religious convictions. I'm a minority, an atheist and a scientist in Southern California and I make a very good wage! I wish more minorities (and poor whites) would stop investing in religion and more in their education and in themselves! Your life in this world is worth making the effort to improve it dramatically with school and a future. Let's do it!