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Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.)
The Republican Party is well aware of its demographic problem. The GOP relies heavily on older white men, which is a recipe for electoral failure in a nation that's growing more ethnically and racially diverse. And while GOP leaders are once again saying the right things about outreach, challenges clearly remain.
At the House Republicans' annual retreat, for example, there's been a fair amount of chatter today about the party hosting a breakout session on "successful communication with minorities and women" in a room named after a slave plantation.
Of course, the criticism on this really isn't fair -- it's not like Republican officials named the room at the Virginian resort, which has been used by both parties. The party did, however, choose the folks who'll appear on the panel about "successful communication with minorities and women," and the criticism here seems far more reasonable.
[The session will have] a female moderator (Rachel Campos-Duffy), a female consultant (Ana Navarro), a female congressman (Rep. Jaime Herrera Buetler), and three congressmen who are neither female nor minorities: Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Rep. Scott Rigell, and Rep. Frank Wolf.
Yep, three of the five panelists on the House Republicans' session on "successful communication with minorities and women" are white protestant men. No one on the panel is African American.
The larger effort is laudable, but it appears the GOP has a difficult road ahead.
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Well come on now They got them one FE-male , one of them Fe-Male and HIS-Panic and one male HIS-Panic.
Thats diversity . If they shake the bushes I bet they could find a Negro too.
They should have kept Michael Steele
The cluelessness of these turds is bottomless.
Yes sick n tired how would it look if senator Mcconnell of Kentucky were seen trying to garner votes from (deep breath, quietly) Negro's?
Hasn't Anyone else figured out yet that the gop/tp cannot be trusted and that their words are mere dust in the wind ? All that they do is only for their wealthy and special interest groups , they do not care what Americans have to go through , as long as they get what they want with as little effort as it takes for themselves !
You seem to be missing the point. After 200 years of white, Protestant, males, they don't know what a non-white, non-Protestant, non-male looks like.
Yes they do - or don't you see the way that they disrespect the President?
Well in fairness the POTUS is half white and protestant....can you imagine if he really was all black and muslim?
His white half is non existent when dealing with bigotry......it is HOW he looks....BLACK and the GOP treats him accordingly with hatred, disgust, bigotry etc.
The GOP is an educated version of Jim Crow thinking packaged differently...but with the same purpose!!!
Psst, in order to foster "successful communication with minorities & women" you might want to reach out to more you know "minorities & women" groups: NAACP, National Council of La Raza, Latino Justice, 100 Black Men, The Delta's (just celebrated their founding & have chapters all over), National Council of Negro Women, NOW, PLFAG, Asian American groups, The Nation of Islam, just google them - I'm sure they'd all be willing to talk to you.
Yeah nation of islam.......ehhh.....probably not......
You know they're classified as a hate group right, they despise white people. Not at all representative of muslims or african americans. So that's a bit of a slip up there but the point is none the less understood.
Just in case you didn't know I thought that should be said
Because it's not 'how do we include them in the party' it's how do we tell them 'we know what's best for them' and, therefore, vote for us.
You have to see yourself honestly in relation to the environment you are in. The problem for them is that they always had a distorted assessment of who they were and also misjudged the environment. They actually did not SEE the diversity, despite its presence in the media and all around them. By whatever means, their ability to perceive the real environment was impaired and it seems to STILL be that way. They will have to TEACH themselves to perceive themselves honestly in relation to the surrounding environment -- that they are whiter, etc.. that they have a certain world view etc. Their psychology is driven by shutting out or fencing off the other and now that must change and it will be very hard... it goes to their fundamental psychological makeup...
All you needed to do was look at the respective crowds at the conventions.
Nothing More .
That is how they see themselves.
You have it right about honesty of perception. The morning after the election, I overheard one of the conservative Southern ladies with whom I work remark to another that she didn't think she was "that out of touch with the rest of the country."
Um...yes. The Southern, conservative Republican (formerly Democratic) block - the so-called Solid South - is way out of touch. This article in the New Yorker explains some of the reasons why in detail: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2013/01/21/130121taco_talk_packer?currentPage=all
And, when you close the final loop by realizing - as has been circulating today on Facebook - that the 2nd Amendment ended up in the Constitution because the Southerners wanted their own armed militias available to put down slave rebellions, you finally get the entire sordid 237 year picture of generations of anti-American and class-based "I've got mine, so screw you!" politics.
They have eaten white bread sandwiches with mayo all their lives. Now suddenly (to them), someone is saying that they should be using other bread. But they don't know the other bread and using it tastes and looks strange so they just try to use the white bread and talk about the other types of bread and what that other bread theoretically tastes like. But they don't want to use it to make their sandwiches -- they are having a hard time actually trying it, much less eating it regularly. The problem for them also, is that by opening up, they will become fundamentally different -- which will change the awareness and ideas that they have. That might lead to other changes that affect what they begin to value and believe. Cause you see,if all the different breads are not only good, but you enjoy them -- white bread is just never the same again....
That might be an existential problem for them. If in fact they DO whatever it takes to include minorities, then will their base philosophy remain the same or will it have to change? In the latter case, how will they then maintain their identity? It would be a case of massive cognitive dissonance where they would have to deny everything they ever were in order to accept what they had become.
I suggest to these Republican worthies that the first thing I'd do to show minorities that the party is interested in their votes would be to stop passing laws that make it harder for minorities to vote...but what do i know?
How can they be expected to reach out to people of color when they wo'nt even accept an invitation to dinner with what they see as the White House butler?
The first thing Republicans need to learn about minorities and women is that just like angry white men, minorities and women have problems they consider important. If you want to attract minority and female support you have propose rational and effective solutions to those problems. Before you can propose rational and effective solutions you have to understand the problems you are trying to solve. That requires listening. When was the last time you saw an angry white man listen to a member of a minority group or to a woman?
The central problem for repubs is that they don't see their policies and ideology as a failure....instead, they see it as solely a messaging problem. They believe that if they simply had candidates and politicians who could more clearly communicate their ideas, the American people would suddenly wake up, slap themselves on their collective forehead, and say, "NOW I see what they meant, and I agree with them 100%". In other words, when they talk about how their "brand" is in trouble, it's no different than some huckster selling a crappy product simply deciding that changing the packaging will get more people to buy the same old crap. If repubs want to see their brand become more and more unpopular, and watch their party sink into irrelevance, keep up the stupid game of "rebranding". If they want to be an honest, dynamic player in solving problems, they need to return to the fact-based world, not the world of World Net Daily and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
Is it just me or does Adam Kinzinger look like the kind of Republican moron who will never get laid?
Oh, he can get laid...prostitutes are not that difficult to find. When I was in the military, some very unlikely guys were able to get laid because they had the money to do so.
The Republicans will find it next to impossible to diversify because of they have a long history (since the early 20th century) punctuated by a lot of discrimination against minorities. The only way they will diversify is when they have become a party so small that they have no choice but to make a strategic alliance(s). This is what happened after Kennedy was elected and Nixon played the Southern strategy. Then Catholics and conservative southern Dems were welcomed into the party of WASPs. When a few more states like Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin go solidly blue in multiple consecutive elections, the Republicans will be locked out of three regions with the highest number of very populous states, the Northeast, Midwest and the West Coast. That leaves Florida and Texas and those states demographics do not look promising for Republicans. The second tier of states is Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico and the demographics do not look very promising there. Throw in Louisiana and North Carolina also as potential battleground states. Gerrymandering has its limits and with demographics changing, there will be a point when gerrymandering will not be enough.
Given that today's "Republican" is the reorganized and rebuilt Confederate White People's Party, it's unlikely they'll change till their democraphic dies out.
^Wait, there are too many white people there too?!
The bit about angry old white men isn't quite inclusive enough. The voting patterns of the last election showed that there are substantial numbers of angry old white women as well, since Romney got the majority of the old white female vote, too. It behooves the progressives to reach out to that group as well and show them that progressive ideas are good for them, too. The angry old white male contingent is a lost cause.
Another "I got mine, to hell with everybody else" troglodyte.
And we get a perfect example of exactly how out of touch with reality conservatives are. We get a talking point along with a projection of themselves.
No, no, no the more accurate translation is peoplw aren't white are lazy and women are stupid whores. White power.
It's in an obscure dialect of far right troll(likely unemployed) extremist
Bubble boy posts projection again.
whom...'
It's a ludicrous combination of whining, narcissistic self-pity and totally egocentric self-congratulation.
Or as people who aren't in a bubble call it....................Being a conservative republican, always has a handout while whining about handouts.
This makes it easier for them to use the term "those people" when talking about minorities.
I'm not expert by any means, but a quick search shows that the 3 "white men" representatives all won election in districts that voted for Obama and 2 of the 3 succeeded Democrats. It could be they are on the panel becuase they have successfully communicated core Republican tenets to women and minorities in their district.
Then there is reality.
Rachel Campos Duffy is the wife of one "Struggling" Rep. Sean Duffy (R), who complained at a town hall meeting here in WI how hard it is to get by on $174K a year. You might remember these two idiot teabaggers from The Real World - Boston. They have been on The View, etc.
My inner optimist wants to believe that they weren't able to actually *find* credible/effective minorities willing to sell their souls to contribute to this panel.
The realist in me is resigned to the fact that these folks have accepted and embraced their deep seated belief that white protestant males are superior and therefore know best about any and all topics.
Well come on which party was it that put together a panel to discuss the needs of womens contraceptive needs made up of nothing but men, after all conservative males know more about womens vaginas then women will ever know.
Let us not forget about GWB's appointment of Dr. W. David Hager to head up the FDA's Reproductive Health Advisory Committee.
This man who has been quoted as saying that epidurals or any pain relief during childbirth is against scripture because in genesis, as part of the punishment of Eve, and all of us tricksy, witchy, sinning daughters of Eve, we must all bear the pain of childbirth. He was also vehemently pro life. And as a practicing OB/GYN, he wouldn't prescribe birth control even for medical reasons to unmarried women.
And GWB is not a true conservative as far as these Tea Party Republicans are concerned.
*spit*
And then there is reality why don't you climb out of your bubble and join reality so you stop posting nonsense.
Worse than you think Steve. I will pass over the gender confusion of "female congressman" and note that the congresperson in question is Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler http://herrerabeutler.house.gov/ who is not named Jaime Herrera Buetler. Inability to spell Spanish surnames does not contribute to "successful communication with minorities ..." . Oooooops
via Hunter http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/17/1179881/-GOP-retreat-roundup-Lessons-in-what-not-to-say
In the unlikely event that they get hanmered again in 2014, they can say "the 'Buetler' did it".
Clearly, the Geico caveman understands diversity better than the Republican party.