Republicans’ diversity twilight zone

Republicans enter 2015 with new hope after winning control of the Senate. Looking ahead to the presidential campaign season, a GOP victory in 2016 will require larger voting blocks of women and minorities. Minority inclusion has been a crisis for Republicans. Former head of the Republican National Committee (RNC) Ed Gillespie once said, “Minority Inclusion is a top, top priority.” The pledge was a lie and complicated by embarrassing racial episodes. Washington Post columnist Colbert King noted in a 2004 op-ed that “There’s little room in the GOP for African-Americans who, while believing in free markets and self-help, also see racism as an obstacle to progress.”

{mosads}Now-former Republican Sophia Nelson once emerged as a clear solution to the diversity problem. An African-American lawyer and active in GOP politics for two decades, Republican leaders failed to showcase Nelson’s talents and independent thought. Nelson’s support group was the GOP’s direct link to professional African-American women. Sophia’s 2009 article, “The GOP’s Last Chance,” chronicled black Republicans’ alienation. “All of them were loyal and had much to contribute, but they were not given opportunity to advance within the party. In the end, they got tired,” Nelson noted.

Meanwhile, illegitimate players in the diversity game emerged. Tara Wall was appointed to numerous positions at the RNC and Mitt Romney’s campaign, but Wall had little contact with the black community. She proved to be a positive megaphone for the GOP’s failed efforts.

I met Wall at a steakhouse. She boasted of lavish dinners and travel with Republicans. When I mentioned black Republicans Paul Clinton Harris, Dylan Glenn and Nic Lott, whom I wrote about in a 2005 piece, Wall was dismissive, saying “They are not true conservatives.”

Meanwhile, Harris could have run for statewide office in Virginia. In another piece, I wrote about Lott losing Mississippi’s 34th District state Senate seat by just 68 votes in 2007. If the GOP diversity effort were legitimate, Lott would be in elected office. President George W. Bush’s adviser Karl Rove personally failed to place Lott into a political appointment during eight White House years.

With growing social media, Republicans’ hatred has further damaged outreach. First Lady Michelle Obama’s ancestors were compared to an escaped gorilla by GOP activist Rusty DePass. Welcome to the GOP’s twilight zone. These incidences are revealing. When a white Republican attacks a GOP minority candidate, the damage is immeasurable. Illinois congressional candidate Erika Harold had that experience. The Harvard Law School graduate had won a Miss America title. However, her candidacy was sabotaged by former Montgomery County, Ill. Republican Party Chairman Jim Allen. Allen referred to Harold as a “street walker” in an email to the Republican News Watch website.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called for Allen’s resignation, but the damage was already done. Harold, who spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2004, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and was endorsed by the Chicago Tribune, lost the GOP nomination. Priebus’s famous Growth and Opportunity Project report insists on spending $10 million on candidates like Harold. Where was the Republicans’ overwhelming investment in Harold’s race?

Three ways to fix the GOP’s minority outreach:

1. Control the racists. Remove the most dangerous voices permanently from the GOP and any visible leadership role. Republican leaders should sign a legal document agreeing to resign from the GOP if they make hateful comments. People like Laura Ingraham, who played a gunshot sound after Rep. John Lewis’s (D-Ga.) speech at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, must be excommunicated from the party. 

2. The old guard must go. The days of Ed Gillespie and Tara Wall must come to a dramatic end if genuine diversity can take hold. I liked “Jurassic Park,” but dinosaurs like former RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson should be banned from any diversity effort. Real black Republicans like Sophia Nelson must be placed in leadership roles, not just posing for photo opportunities.

3. End false claims. Every so many years, Republican leaders will claim to have raised and spent millions on diversity recruitment. Republican rabble-rouser Peter Roff publishes glowing pieces about Gillespie championing diversity at the GOP for U.S. News and World Report. Well, Ed, where are the minority recruits and money for candidates? No journalist has ever asked where the money trail ends. The Republican Party is already suspect in the black community. Presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) found skepticism when he spoke at Washington’s historically black Howard University.

So while America desperately needs new black leaders to address community-related issues, the GOP has failed to promote them. As I noted on an XM Radio interview, the GOP must abandon failed policies to capture this demographic requirement in order to win a national election.

Mwine is an investigative journalist who covered the White House for Politics In Color and the National Examiner. He has appeared on Sirius XM Radio’s P.O.T.U.S. channel to discuss his White House observations. He advises attorneys, politicians and church leaders in crisis media and public relations. Mwine can be reached at politicsincolor@gmail.com.