GOP MAKEOVER OFF TO BAD START!

This Can’t Possibly Be The Republicans’ Idea Of How To Attract Black Voters!

By Glenn S. Reiner

FOR CHIP SALTSMAN – who recently sent a  2007 parody song called “Barack the Magic Negro,” sung to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon,” to Republican National Committee leaders during Christmas –   to defend his bizarre behavior is absolutely mind boggling!

How could someone with so much political expertise and savvy even try to pull off something so suicidal for his party, especially now?

I can’t even fathom how he actually believed RNC members would find that imbecilic, racially-charged spoof of the classic Peter, Paul & Mary folk hit entertaining.

Saltsman is one of a multitude of candidates seeking the RNC chairmanship, which the committee is expected to name soon. No doubt, this clearly wasn’t the most intelligent strategy to secure the job.

This is a time when the GOP is desperately looking for ways to attract Blacks and young voters in future elections. It was only two months ago when the American electorate — highly fueled by the vote of those two demographic groups — evicted the Republicans from the White House while strongly diminishing their numbers in Congress.

Saltsman, a senior adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, as well as the unsuccessful manager of Mike Huckabee’s failed presidential campaign, left his party with a strike-one count in its quest for broader support outside the Bible-thumping Deep South and Plain States. How he could have thought this asinine stunt would gain his party brownie points with African-Americans or even favor with independents and moderates is beyond comprehension!

Believe me, it’s not my intention to psychoanalyze this human bastion of retrograde conservatism. That would almost certainly take a team of psychiatrists from Geneva.

Just the name of the song – “Barack the Magic Negro” – is so completely indicative of a mindset that has become increasing unpopular over the last 40 years. Just when was the last time you heard African-Americans referred to as ‘Negroes’? Certainly, those born since 1968 haven’t. And that encompasses two voting generations.

Unfortunately, Saltsman’s actions clearly still reflect a portion of the GOP’s thinking — particularly its right wing, although the party itself would never admit it.

Yet, the Republicans as a whole have shown little compassion or concern for the Black population in this country since the Lincoln Administration.

They have forever favored spending cuts and even the total elimination of federal programs that were designed specifically to help minorities earn a fair piece of the proverbial American pie, especially in the realm of education and vocational training. And how have these rotten souls preferred to spend those funds: on tax breaks for the wealthy and their greedy corporations.

The GOP wants to reinvent itself as a more tolerant, ‘Big-Tent’ party — at least on the surface. This is why many of its leaders quickly and publicly condemned Saltsman, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich – who could very conceivably be the party’s nomination for president in 2012.

South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson, another candidate for the RNC’s top spot, has even gone as far as to resign – begrudgingly I’m sure – from his exclusively white country club. Frankly, I didn’t even realize such clubs still existed in 21st Century America, even in the South?

One stark reality is the lack of success the GOP’s proposed face lift will have for at least a half-century. The damage already done has far too much depth and won’t be forgotten for quite a long time!

The vast majority of African-Americans in this country clearly don’t believe  Republicans are even capable of such a transformation – especially given their track record since the Reconstruction.

The antics of the GOP won’t play any better with the younger generation of voters, who have grown up in a society where biracial relationships and marriages have become commonplace. It is obvious these kids are far more liberal than any preceding generation since the highly-successful counter-culture youth of the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Unless the Grand Old Party — which has only shown itself to be old — puts a lid on loose cannons like Saltsman,  not only will it fail at any comeback attempt, but likely could fall into extinction!