Chicago Republicans

On the whole, Republicans can be truly awful at reaching out to Black Americans.   The important lesson is that we trip on our own stereotypes and presuppositions, not those of the recipients.  

To a certain degree, America reinvents itself every day.  Like ancient Heraclitus, who said you can never step into the same river twice, to Darwin, who realized that species adapt to conditions to survive, to Einstein, who said that movement can alter time and space, on the morrow our country will not be exactly the same as today, for  things move, and change, all the time.  Fortune favors those who look for opportunity in movement, and the change.

Several in the GOP want us to approach Black Americans as the party of Lincoln that won the Civil War.   Sadly, this has the same relevance as presenting people with a dead elephant – it’s a strong Republican symbol, all right, but it’s sure not moving.   People are hurting now.  Families are getting desperate now.  Gunfire is erupting across the city now.  History lessons simply will not do.   Besides, that argument lost credibility in the famous Southern Strategy of the 1960s and 1970s, in which the Democratic white vote of the Solid South since the Civil War became the Republican white vote of the New South.  Blacks know very well who those people are, and who their ancestors were.  

Many still want to work the churches and pastors.  No doubt Blacks can think of lots of reasons not to like Republicans, but in the several political forays I have made to the South Side and West Side over past eight to ten years, I have always been received with welcome and a certain polite and open gentility that is certainly gratifying.   After all, if Republicans want to drive down and talk to them, the pastors are  happy to receive us, and even agree with us as required to be a good host.   As a result, I have seen a long line of Republican candidates return home stating that they were going to “break through” because “the pastors are with us,” only to see the Wards go 95-99% Democrat, every time.

What do you think the approach should be?  I know what I think, and I have found that others are thinking along the same lines, so the Chicago Republican Party is seeking to move in a specified direction for the upcoming election season to try and make a difference.  

To be continued . . .