The Hopeless Stupidity of the Republican National Committee

Last year, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee announced plans for the RNC to spend millions of dollars and endless man-hours on “minority outreach” programs into black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Other than endanger canvassers by sending them into dangerous “hoods” and barrios, this program has achieved nothing beyond confirming the RNC’s practice of squandering funds donated by supporters. I do not make this allegation flippantly.

When I lived in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1983 to 2009, I got to know a wealthy black couple who often attended Republican functions. When I asked why they were Republicans, the wife candidly replied, “Because the lines are shorter.”

In the same vein, someone once quipped that all a black has to do is deliver a pizza to Republican headquarters in most counties and they’ll try to groom him for public office. The current RNC leadership seems particularly susceptible to opportunistic blacks who feign allegiance to GOP principles in order to benefit themselves.

This is not to suggest that there aren’t some genuinely honorable and principled blacks who have found a home in the GOP. The difference is that they didn’t have to be recruited to be part of a “team photo.” They managed to find their own way into the party because they were attracted by its message and philosophy.

I suspect those who must be recruited — and are attracted by whatever benefits the RNC offers — will pretend to be loyal so long as the benefits continue while continuing to vote “Democrat.”

Colin Powell is a good example of a black man with little or no allegiance to Republican principles who, nonetheless, is usually the first in line to accept any favors the GOP offers. Although he publicly supported Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, a great many “establishment” Republicans and RNC-types actually wanted to draft Mr. Powell for a spot on the national ticket in several recent elections.

The same mentality was at work when a black, former Alabama Congressman named Artur Davis, who served eight years as a Democrat in the House and then ran as a Democrat for Governor, was invited to speak at the Republican National Convention in 2012. This should have created a storm of protest and been denounced as an affront to loyal Republicans–such as Joe Arpaio or Phyllis Schlafly, to name just two–who have fought on the front-lines of America’s culture wars for many years, with few perks and little recognition.

Instead, they were preempted by a Democrat with an American Conservative Union Lifetime Rating of 22 percent, and whose last year in Congress earned him a 7 percent rating. (He was getting significantly more leftist and partisan toward the end of his Congressional career, but this was no deterrent to the RNC.) What kind of GOP “leadership” would choose someone like that to address the Republican faithful, and how much did they have to pay him in the way of an honorarium?

When it comes to race, the RNC seems to be hopelessly naive and foolish. One scam that must have cost Republican contributors tens of millions of dollars over the years was the RNC’s earlier version of its minority outreach effort to the so-called “black Republican” constituency.

This has always been a pipe-dream and an utter failure: It is widely accepted that blacks voted nearly 95 percent for Barack Obama in 2008, and came close to repeating that level of support in 2012. In fact, the official statistics are certainly underestimates, and more accurate figures could be close to 98 or 99 percent. The reason for the undercount is that a common method for estimating the racial vote is to count any precinct that is all black, and use the voting records in these areas as part of the calculation of racial support for each candidate.

In fact, it is common to count precincts that are 90 to 95 percent black as 100 percent black, and even some areas thought to be all black may have a number of white voters. Many of these are people who were too stubborn to leave when their neighborhoods began to change, and have now lost so much equity in their homes they can’t afford to leave. When these whites vote Republican they are counted as “black” Republicans.

When I worked as a St. Louis Election Judge and Election Observer, I often saw whites who lived and voted in what were presumed to be “all-black” areas. That’s because I routinely volunteered for polling places in areas where most Republicans dare not tread, in order to combat voter fraud. This phantom “black” vote for Republicans helps nourish the RNC’s fantasies.

Despite endless RNC solicitations by mail, e-mail and telephone each year, my wife and I refuse to contribute. Instead, as we politely explain to telephone solicitors, we give directly to conservative Republican candidates because we do not trust the RNC.

This may be a way to reform the Republican Party: deny contributions to a leadership that has failed to earn our respect and appears wholly unable to overcome its own stupidity.