Which of these two strategies would attract African-Americans to the GOP...

[Liberté]

Once Barack Obama is out of office, and however that happens, there will be an opportunity for the Republican Party to make up lost ground with black voters, who didn't seem to mind its relative economic conservatism in the first few decades of the 20th century. There are to my mind a few ways they can go about trying to attract them, which I'll label "Strategy 'A'" and "Strategy 'B'". The first comes from a quote of mine on the thread on Herman Cain:


Strategy 'A'

If I were a Republican and I wanted to appeal to black voters, these are the policy issues I would base my campaign theme on, depending on the position I was running for:

1. A repeal of local zoning laws and ordinances that unfairly target black businesses and businesses whose primary clientele are blacks.

2. Decriminalization of marijuana and a determination to ensure that blacks convicted of drug-related offenses are not levied with harsher sentences than whites convicted of the same crime. The 'Schedule' classification system that treats crack cocaine far more severely than regular cocaine is one of the most obviously racist set-ups I can imagine.

3. A willingness to appoint oversight boards over local police which are not comprised solely of white businessmen.

And I'd reach out to the black community through media specifically focused on the black community.

Strategy 'B'

Or you could run a populist campaign, emphasizing the relatively more conservative cultural views of many African Americans while downplaying their economic populism, speaking in their churches and playing to their sense of social alienation and the consequent need to feel more mainstream by setting them against other minorities.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

A would not work and would be unacceptable to Republicans. B would not work.

[Liberté]

A... would be unacceptable to Republicans.

Why's that? It's perfectly in keeping with their newfound emphasis on free-market economics.

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Why's that? African-Americans are certainly more socially conservative relative to whites, though of course that depends on their geographical location.

[Marokai Backbeat]

In some ways haven't they tried B before at least on specific issues? (Abortion and gay rights come to mind.) Obviously not to a very serious degree with any sort of concerted effort but they've definitely tested those waters a few times and it hasn't worked that well. On the national level at least.

[Liberté]

In some ways haven't they tried B before at least on specific issues? (Abortion and gay rights come to mind.) Obviously not to a very serious degree with any sort of concerted effort but they've definitely tested those waters a few times and it hasn't worked that well. On the national level at least.

What do you think about Strategy 'A'? In some ways it's similar to those that Jack Kemp tried and failed to get through at HUD, and I get the impression he was a bit more popular with the African-American community than a generic Republican.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Part 1 of A might work to some level on very local races, but it's not going to do anything federally.

For part 2, view how black areas in California voted on Prop 19. And Republicans wouldn't like it.

Part 3 is also a very local issue that I doubt blacks would trust the Republicans on anyway.

B is basically what the Republicans have been trying for 30 years.

[The Mikado]

Part 2 was basically what Bush tried in 2004, right?  (When, in fairness, he did better with the black vote than any other Republican in 20 years, but that's not saying much)

[Bacon King]

C. Show up at a parade and awkwardly ask, "Who let the dogs out?" to a group of black teenagers.

[Liberté]

For part 2, view how black areas in California voted on Prop 19.

Possibly the part about marijuana, but I think that might be changing as the young black population slowly trends liberal on drug-related issues along with the rest of America's youth. The bit about crack cocaine would probably appeal to any well-educated black voter.

If the Republicans were willing to active campaign and point out that marijuana prohibition actively targets them, however...

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Social conservatives? Probably not. But the Republicans have got to get out of their overdependence on socially conservative voters.

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It depends on how they frame it and how earnestly they campaign on it.

Part 2 was basically what Bush tried in 2004, right?  (When, in fairness, he did better with the black vote than any other Republican in 20 years, but that's not saying much)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46234-2004Oct19.html

Apparently, Bush did quite well for a Republican among blacks, and yeah, that's basically how he did it.

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[specific_name]

Appealing to social conservativism is probably the only likely path, but the GOP can safely ignore the black vote and win elections easily. They really don't need this group, especially considering how hard they would have to work to court them. The black population is concentrated in areas that don't make much sense for the Republicans to be competing in, especially presidentially, but even congressionally.

The rural South and large urban centers are where most blacks live, most of the South is safe Republican if they're winning on presidential level. The only other thing they could gain is a few seats created by the VRA, but it hardly seems worth it. When it comes to urban areas, advertising in media markets like NYC and Chicago is expensive, as well as a long shot. Most of those Northern states are lean D to strong D anyhow, so statewide/presidential races might not be much affected if more blacks voted GOP.

On the historical side. The main reason I suspect African Americans voted for Republicans in the early 20th Century was tied to the past of the party and the strongly segregationist stance of the Democratic Party. That was the era when Democrats were getting insane totals, better than 80-90% in the Solid South, while loosing the rest of the nation by huge margins. The polarization was far more pronounced than our times. Until FDR, I can't imagine blacks coming around to Democrats.

However, there were some interesting incidents during the Populist era in the 1870's and 80's, after Reconstruction when blacks did support populist Democrats when they were occasionally able to vote. I remember reading about it in a book called the Populist Moment by Lawrence Goodwyn, which I highly recommend if you're interested in that era.

[Liberté]

Appealing to social conservativism is probably the only likely path, but the GOP can safely ignore the black vote and win elections easily. They really don't need this group, especially considering how hard they would have to work to court them. The black population is concentrated in areas that don't make much sense for the Republicans to be competing in, especially presidentially, but even congressionally.

The rural South and large urban centers are where most blacks live, most of the South is safe Republican if they're winning on presidential level. The only other thing they could gain is a few seats created by the VRA, but it hardly seems worth it. When it comes to urban areas, advertising in media markets like NYC and Chicago is expensive, as well as a long shot. Most of those Northern states are lean D to strong D anyhow, so statewide/presidential races might not be much affected if more blacks voted GOP.

There are two areas that I can think of where attempting to attract black voters would be beneficial to the Republican Party:

1. The Middle Atlantic. The election of 2008 demonstrated that high enough black turnout in states like North Carolina and (to a lesser extent) Virginia can overcome white backlash politics, and while the white vote did trend slightly towards Obama in both states, it was still low enough that McCain could have won it if the black vote hadn't been at record high levels and of a record Democratic composition. Even Maryland might be competitive for the Republicans if they hadn't failed so completely and so utterly at trying to court the black vote.

2. The Great Lake States, and Michigan more specifically. Republicans have long complained, and rightfully so, that Detroit is a sink for Federal funds that disappear into the void of the auto industry. This is so. As long as they remain anti-union, it's highly doubtful that anything can be done to correct this situation. If, however, Republicans could look the African-Americans of Detroit in the eye and tell them with a straight face and in all honesty that they were concerned about them and wanted to help them, it's possible, however unlikely, that they could improve their margins among them enough to improve their political situation in that state.

There's another, broader and vaguer but still pressing concern: it doesn't help with the electoral map, but it might help with their internal pride as a Party. There are whites like me, poor whites, who still strongly believe in the necessity of political equality between the races yet who dislike Democratic welfarism. I might be more inclined to vote Republican if I didn't feel antipathetic towards the way they treat minorities. And while white voters like myself are an extreme rarity, we exist.

[Badger]

A wouldn't work at a national/congressional race level as issues 1 & 3 are locally controlled (maybe in a mayoral race) while 2 is obviously a non-starter.

Strategy B has been tried with, as Blue noted, miminal sucess.

[Liberté]

A wouldn't work at a national/congressional race level as issues 1 & 3 are locally controlled (maybe in a mayoral race) while 2 is obviously a non-starter.

Do you think A might work enough to at least give local Republican candidates a fighting chance in local-level races and, in doing so, shift some of the black vote over to the GOP?

Bear in mind I'm not making these suggestions because I love the Republicans, but because the stark racial divides of our modern politics legitimately scares me. Something has to give - on both sides.

[CitizenX]

Strategy 'B'

Or you could run a populist campaign, emphasizing the relatively more conservative cultural views of many African Americans while downplaying their economic populism, speaking in their churches and playing to their sense of social alienation and the consequent need to feel more mainstream by setting them against other minorities.

That would not work because African Americans are not stupid.  The only reason social values are used as a campaign tool is to demagogue one group and use fear to obtain the votes of a much larger group.  Blacks know that once the Republican party has vanquished gays, pro-Choicers, immigrants, etc it'll be their turn.

Besides did you see this study...

Oral sex is leading cause of increasing U.S. cancer rates

Researchers found a 225% increase in oral cancer cases in the U.S. from 1974 to 2007, mainly among white men

I don't think that white rug munchers are really going to make too many social conservative inroads in the black community.

[Liberté]

Strategy 'B'

Or you could run a populist campaign, emphasizing the relatively more conservative cultural views of many African Americans while downplaying their economic populism, speaking in their churches and playing to their sense of social alienation and the consequent need to feel more mainstream by setting them against other minorities.

That would not work because African Americans are not stupid.  The only reason social values are used as a campaign tool is to demagogue one group and use fear to obtain the votes of a much larger group.  Blacks know that once the Republican party has vanquished gays, pro-Choicers, immigrants, etc it'll be their turn.

I'm against it myself. I could never vote for a Republican Party that abandoned any and all pretense to political individualism; I can barely vote for them now. But it would work to some extent. Bush made it work, as I showed above.

[Person Man]

Bush made B on a very small scale, but I don't think that winning 9% of 13% of the electorate to winning 12% of 13% of the electorate helped him get from 48% to 51%.

Basically, they would need to push B hard-core ...as in make the only difference between them and the dems be abortion, gays and immigrants. ..and even then, I think blacks would still know that they will be thrown under the bus. Having blacks vote GOP is like asking ranchers, mormons, Wyomingites and evangelicals vote Dem.

[Liberté]

Bush made it work, but I don't think that winning 9% of 13% of the electorate to winning 12% of 13% of the electorate helped him get from 48% to 51%.

But it helped, and not just with blacks themselves, but with voters like me who are turned off by the GOP's sometimes shrill bigotry on the subject.

I still think trying to assimilate African-Americans into the marketplace is the next logical step. Jack Kemp thought it could be done.

[Person Man]

...and yet some Black leaders think that Blacks should go the way of Asians and build a stronger self-segragated community in the United States based on their unique culture and work ethic.

[Liberté]

...and yet some Black leaders think that Blacks should go the way of Asians and build a stronger self-segragated community in the United States based on their unique culture and work ethic.

Largely, I'd suspect, because they do not feel any currently established political organization has allowed them to truly and finally break into everyday white society as equals and partners.

As long as the black community is associated with welfarism and, frankly, parasitism, they will not be accepted by all whites. Unlike the Republicans, I lay the onus for this on the whites who feel that way and not the black community. But the fact remains that something has got to give. I feel that a market-based assimilation, quiet and steady, could serve to destroy those stereotypes and those barriers and finally achieve a modicum of real racial harmony in this country.

[Meeker]

The GOP is not going to make inroads in the African-American community for at least another generation. The nomination and election of Barack Obama by the Democratic Party guaranteed that.

[Liberté]

The GOP is not going to make inroads in the African-American community for at least another generation. The nomination and election of Barack Obama by the Democratic Party guaranteed that.

If you'd like to be technical about it, they're going to make in-roads with the first election Obama isn't on the ticket for.

[tpfkaw]

Hilariously, Jack Kemp's proposal for blacks was to reduce taxes, but only for blacks.

Einzige continues to amuse.

[Liberté]

Hilariously, Jack Kemp's proposal for blacks was to reduce taxes, but only for blacks.

1. Actually, his plan was to create tax-exempt zones which just happened to be in majority-black neighborhoods.

2. I'm not advocating it as a policy I endorse on my own ideology, but one that Republicans might feel comfortable with. I don't know if you know this, but I'm not a Republican.

3. I'm not advocating Kemp's policy at all. I'm calling for the removal of zoning restrictions that unfairly target black businesses.

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Don't you have a Minuteman group to join?

[tpfkaw]

2. I'm not advocating it as a policy I endorse on my own ideology, but one that Republicans might feel comfortable with. I don't know if you know this, but I'm not a Republican.

It sure sounded like you were:

I still think trying to assimilate African-Americans into the marketplace is the next logical step. Jack Kemp thought it could be done.

You also seem to be rather more likely to vote for Republicans (especially of the standard neocon variety) than I am, whereas you are less likely to vote for libertarian ones.  A little odd.

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Are you kidding?  Not if there are other zoning restrictions on other people!  In fact, no zoning restrictions anywhere can be reduced on anyone until all zoning restrictions are simultaneously eliminated for everyone!

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Don't you have a Minuteman group to join?
[/quote]

Nope, I'm working on my Southern Manifesto.

[Liberté]

It sure sounded like you were:

Do I endorse trying to bring African-Americans into the market? Absolutely. I think it's rather frightening that you don't.

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I'm willing to vote for Gary Johnson, who is the libertarian horse in the GOP race.

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I don't disagree. Thus the subtitle of this thread: