From Pine View Farm

Jindal Bells: Why They Won’t Ring in Washington Dept. 0

Shorter version: By embracing Richard Nixon’s odious Southern Strategy four decades ago, the Republican Party finds itself today backed by historical reality into a corner where it is outnumbered and trapped.

Picking public faces of color, such as Michael Steele and Bobby Jindal, cannot erase a history of appeals to bigotry, prejudice, and nativism.

David Swerdlick at The Root:

Republicans have rolled out their rising stars of color—Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele—and so far, they have mostly demonstrated that they’re pretty much clueless about how to connect with people of color.

Republicans’ long-term problem isn’t Jindal’s recent decision to oppose the president by signing on to Rush Limbaugh’s “I hope he fails” mantra, or that Steele could face a premature vote of no confidence . . . .

The “elephant” in the room is post-Goldwater Republican reliance on antipathy toward minorities among the hallowed voter demographic known alternatively as Reagan Democrats or “real” Americans. And in the present-day reality of an Obama world, it takes more than a loquacious black dude or true-believing, Indian-American public policy whiz to bootstrap that party into the 21st century.

Share

Comments are closed.