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Old 11-17-2012, 02:34 PM
 
Location: Texas
14,975 posts, read 16,385,881 times
Reputation: 4586

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Well, the GOP took a beating among minority voters. That's pretty obvious. What I would like to do is start a dialogue with the minority voters on this forum (those who voted for Obama, obviously if you voted for Romney this doesn't apply to you) about changes the Republicans could make to attract you to their party. Some of you are fairly conservative. For those of you who have the idea that the Republican Party is a racist party, I would like to know why. While I understand there are some Republican voters who are racist and some conservative talk show personalities and the like, I fail to see how Republican politicians/candidates are racist. Even if there are a few isolated cases, I fail to see how the party platform or how the majority or even any minority other than perhaps a very small fringe of Republican politicians/candidates are racist.

I am starting this thread with the very best of intentions. I have been called racist on this forum and I don't understand why. Just because I'm a Republican?!? I have black and Hispanic friends (I'm not just saying that; I just had drinks with a black friend the other day). I have always worked with blacks and Hispanics and have always seen them as the same as everyone else. I am not trying to start any kind of conflict. I am simply trying to start a discussion. I do hope we can welcome more of you in to our party. Yes, we need your votes, but even if we could win with zero minority votes I wouldn't want the GOP to win in that case or even with 20% of minority votes. Does a large group of minority voters fear the Republican Party? If so, why? And what can be done to change this?

Last edited by afoigrokerkok; 11-17-2012 at 02:47 PM..
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Old 11-17-2012, 02:54 PM
 
Location: Rational World Park
4,991 posts, read 4,486,275 times
Reputation: 2375
Well, you can start by listening to Willard Romney's post election comments. First, just because an individual doesn't use racial slurs doesn't mean they aren't racist. Romney pointed out a lot of people who he claimed Obama was going to give "gifts" to and singled out minorities. When in fact, most of the people who would take advantage of healthcare and increased access to school loans are white. Most people on food stamps and public assistance are white and a vast majority are in red states.

Paul Ryan claiming that his ticket lost because of the "urban" turnout that they didn't expect (read lazy).

Attempting to make voting difficult in Florida but shortening early voting minorities generally take advantage of forcing 8 hour waits. All the other voter supression tecqniques focused solely at minorities. It's only from republicans toward minority communities.

John McCain stands up, without facts and implies that a black female Rhode Scholar isn't smart after he selected Palin. Not that she was wrong or had bad intelligence but that she wasn't smart. McCain in the 4 years since the Palin debacle has not said a word about Palin being an idiot as every other person in his campaign has said. But amazingly, one comment into Susan Rice's overt public career he makes this statement.

The Republican Party Chair in Maine who claimed too many black people came to vote and made remarks about knowing all the black people in the town because he plays basketball with them.

These are just a few of the recent racially motivated things that have occured. Most minoritiy adults can identify pretty easily a closet racist. These are republican party leaders to include it's most recent standard bearer. I shouldn't even have to mention talking heads like Rush or the ignorant tea-partiers who are just being lead by the talking heads. I'm talking about republican leadership.

The problem as most are beginning to realize is because republicans sequester themselves in a bubble of foxnews spin, drudge report nonsense and consevative radio blather.
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Old 11-17-2012, 02:56 PM
 
Location: Atlanta, GA
14,834 posts, read 7,345,401 times
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^ You pretty much nailed it.
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Old 11-17-2012, 03:07 PM
 
Location: Montgomery County, MD
3,237 posts, read 3,918,686 times
Reputation: 3010
I'll give you a few bullet points:

- It's the Tea Party, people of all races think they're a bunch of creeps. Republicans play to bigotry, look at Romney associating himself with the birthers demonizing immigrants. For some reason, Republicans often don't see their condescending bigotry.

- Same reason a lot of white conservative leaning voters didn't vote for Romney, he's a Mormon. According to the Book of Mormon, black people are a cursed people and inferior to whites. This message was relayed in a lot of black churches.

- Black people are used to being demonized by Republicans. The GOP tries to keep it under wraps now it was only the 90s when politicians like Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms were still around, running racist ads saying black people are gonna steal your job.

- Republicans ran on making lifes miserable for illegal immigrants so they self deport. Most Latinos have at least a few illegal immigrants in their family and don't enjoy being demonized and having their families broken up and used to score political points.
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Old 11-17-2012, 03:09 PM
 
Location: Texas
14,975 posts, read 16,385,881 times
Reputation: 4586
Thank you for your reply. Are you a minority - just curious? Anyway...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frozenyo View Post
Well, you can start by listening to Willard Romney's post election comments. First, just because an individual doesn't use racial slurs doesn't mean they aren't racist. Romney pointed out a lot of people who he claimed Obama was going to give "gifts" to and singled out minorities.
I don't think he was necessarily being racist. He was simply pointing out that a greater percentage of minorities would receive these "gifts." That is reality. Nevertheless, I think his comments were inappropriate and things like that should simply be unstated. As a Republican what I would like to see is everyone get off of these programs.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frozenyo View Post
When in fact, most of the people who would take advantage of healthcare and increased access to school loans are white. Most people on food stamps and public assistance are white and a vast majority are in red states.
In sheer numbers, more of the people are white, but it is a valid point that a greater percentage of blacks and Hispanics use these programs. The part about the "vast majority" being in red states is simply irrelevant, even if true (and I'm not saying it is). I don't think liberals hating on conservative whites is accomplishing anything and that it's just as bad as conservatives commenting on minorities (and you ignored my post in another thread when I challenged your accusation about who exactly is voting Republican with actual data).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frozenyo View Post
Paul Ryan claiming that his ticket lost because of the "urban" turnout that they didn't expect (read lazy).
They needed to campaign in the cities. Yes, it was lazy for them to ignore them. Republicans cannot take the city vote but they cannot ignore it. It's all about margins.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frozenyo View Post
Attempting to make voting difficult in Florida but shortening early voting minorities generally take advantage of forcing 8 hour waits. All the other voter supression tecqniques focused solely at minorities. It's only from republicans toward minority communities.
I really think all the new voting laws caused a huge backlash and ended up increasing turnout. While I don't think voter ID laws are attempts at voter suppression, I think some of the other tactics are. I don't think these laws are made with racist intent, but instead entirely for political purposes. They are not trying to suppress minority votes, they are simply trying to suppress votes for Democrats. Unfortunately, because Democratic voters are disproportionately minority, minorities do seem to be targeted the most.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frozenyo View Post
John McCain stands up, without facts and implies that a black female Rhode Scholar isn't smart after he selected Palin. Not that she was wrong or had bad intelligence but that she wasn't smart. McCain in the 4 years since the Palin debacle has not said a word about Palin being an idiot as every other person in his campaign has said. But amazingly, one comment into Susan Rice's overt public career he makes this statement.
Sarah Palin is stupid. I find Susan Rice's conduct inappropriate, but I do think she is a smart woman.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frozenyo View Post
The Republican Party Chair in Maine who claimed too many black people came to vote and made remarks about knowing all the black people in the town because he plays basketball with them.
That comment was highly inappropriate.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frozenyo View Post
These are just a few of the recent racially motivated things that have occured. Most minoritiy adults can identify pretty easily a closet racist. These are republican party leaders to include it's most recent standard bearer. I shouldn't even have to mention talking heads like Rush or the ignorant tea-partiers who are just being lead by the talking heads. I'm talking about republican leadership.
I wouldn't call most tea partiers racist, but they are disproportionately racist, though I think this is more because they are disproportionately white and older than anything. A lot of the conservative talking heads need to keep their mouths shut. I don't like what they are doing to the GOP and it goes beyond their effects on the GOP's chances with minority voters.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frozenyo View Post
The problem as most are beginning to realize is because republicans sequester themselves in a bubble of foxnews spin, drudge report nonsense and consevative radio blather.
Well....I say the same about liberals and their MSNBC, ThinkProgress, HuffPost, etc.
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Old 11-17-2012, 03:13 PM
Status: "108 N/A" (set 8 days ago)
 
12,879 posts, read 13,542,551 times
Reputation: 9545
"NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll which has President Obama receiving 94% of the black vote and Mitt Romney receiving – wait for it – zero.
In 1996, even Bob Dole received 12% of the black vote to Clinton’s 82%. In 2000, George W. Bush received 9% of the black vote to Al Gore’s 90%. In 2004, Bush 43 was able to increase his share of the black vote a few percentage points in critical states up to 11%. And in 2008, John McCain with Sarah Palin on the ticket received 4% of the black vote to the President’s 95% with historically high turnout of black voters."

Why Romney is so unpopular with black voters | New York Daily News

The arrival of the Tea Party put the last nail in the coffin. G W Bush's Faith Based Initiative was popular with the Black Church, Even though I personally didn't agree with it, I understood that Religion was an area that traditional Conservatives and some Black voters had common ground. Republicans can seize this moment an instead of saying they want to cut programs that minorities depend on, they should use language that tells minority voters they want to make those programs serve them better.
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Old 11-17-2012, 03:14 PM
 
Location: Texas
14,975 posts, read 16,385,881 times
Reputation: 4586
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhenomenalAJ View Post
I'll give you a few bullet points:

- It's the Tea Party, people of all races think they're a bunch of creeps. Republicans play to bigotry, look at Romney associating himself with the birthers demonizing immigrants. For some reason, Republicans often don't see their condescending bigotry
How did Romney associate himself with the birthers? Are you talking about his relationship with The Donald? As far as immigration, there is a difference between legal and illegal immigration. Even most liberals see that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PhenomenalAJ View Post
- Black people are used to being demonized by Republicans. The GOP tries to keep it under wraps now it was only the 90s when politicians like Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms were still around, running racist ads saying black people are gonna steal your job.
Robert Byrd was a Democrat. He was in the Senate until his death in 2009.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PhenomenalAJ View Post
- Republicans ran on making lifes miserable for illegal immigrants so they self deport. Most Latinos have at least a few illegal immigrants in their family and don't enjoy being demonized and having their families broken up and used to score political points.
I don't think most Latinos have at least a few illegal immigrants in their family, but I do think most at least know a few. A lot have some in their families, but I wouldn't say "most." Illegal immigration is a problem that needs to be dealt with regardless. Would you suggest that the GOP simply ignore it? Even the Democrats at least say they don't think it should be ignored. Remember Obama deported all those illegals (even though he changed the way deportations were calculated, he was touting his record on deporting illegals). Why is Obama OK even though his administration broke up their families?
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Old 11-17-2012, 03:16 PM
 
Location: Dallas
490 posts, read 648,030 times
Reputation: 251
I am a black person who voted for Obama in this election and it's the first time I have ever voted for Democratic president. My reasons are because I do see the country recovering from the recession.
I also voted democratic because I got tired of all the negative verbiage coming from the GOP. I conservative had/have friends who knew I was leaning toward Obama and I was amazed at the treatment I got from people who were telling I was voting for the demise of America and much worse. I just got tired of it. And I agree with an earlier post that there was a lot of racist "code" speak. It was disgusting. I never felt that when I voted GOP.

So call me whatever you want for my thoughts but I can tell you I'm not the only person who voted for Obama partially because the GOP came across as close minded, racist, people from the 1950's.

So what can you do earn BACK my vote? Realize that not all minorities are poor deadbeats. Learn that if you think outside the box you might get some of those 47% that you otherwise ignore. Be more compassionate about America and the world. I just got this feeling that conservatives are very unforgiving elitists and I prayed to God I wasn't that way when I believed in what the GOP stood for. The past 4 years thought me a lot about my country, and myself.
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Old 11-17-2012, 03:16 PM
 
12,223 posts, read 6,390,535 times
Reputation: 9362
If the GOP would encourage a raise in the minimum wage instead of consistently being in opposition,that would go a long way. A few marginal businesses might suffer or cease to exist but for the millions of minorities that do these jobs, it means a lot.
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Old 11-17-2012, 03:19 PM
 
Location: Texas
14,975 posts, read 16,385,881 times
Reputation: 4586
Quote:
Originally Posted by thriftylefty View Post
"NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll which has President Obama receiving 94% of the black vote and Mitt Romney receiving – wait for it – zero.
In 1996, even Bob Dole received 12% of the black vote to Clinton’s 82%. In 2000, George W. Bush received 9% of the black vote to Al Gore’s 90%. In 2004, Bush 43 was able to increase his share of the black vote a few percentage points in critical states up to 11%. And in 2008, John McCain with Sarah Palin on the ticket received 4% of the black vote to the President’s 95% with historically high turnout of black voters."
Why Romney is so unpopular with black voters | New York Daily News
As it turned out, Romney received more black votes than zero and actually more than McCain. But black turnout (an overwhelming majority still for Obama obviously) was actually up I believe.

Quote:
Originally Posted by thriftylefty View Post
The arrival of the Tea Party put the last nail in the coffin. G W Bush's Faith Based Initiative was popular with the Black Church, Even though I personally didn't agree with it, I understood that Religion was an area that traditional Conservatives and some Black voters had common ground.
I agree with this despite being more socially liberal than most Republicans. I think it would have been a better tactic with Hispanic voters (I really think the whole "compassionate conservatism" thing is a big part of why Bush got more than 40% of the Hispanic vote in 04 and that his pro-amnesty stance was only a very small part of why).

Quote:
Originally Posted by thriftylefty View Post
Republicans can seize this moment an instead of saying they want to cut programs that minorities depend on, they should use language that tells minority voters they want to make those programs serve them better.
Well, here's the thing, we do want to get rid of these programs (or at least true fiscal conservatives do, and Bush really wasn't one). But what I think could be done is increased messaging specifically geared towards black and Hispanic voters on plans to spur job growth and on the fiscal conservatism in general.
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