Grand Old Pretense

Republican Convention a charade

The parade of African Americans and Latinos seen on the stage of last week's Republican National Convention was a departure from the usual GOP mold and an attempt by the Republican Party to put forward a diverse and friendly face. From Colin Powell, to unknown state legislators, the GOP mustered every minority officeholder and official in their party to march across the stage of the First Union Center and challenge the Democrats' perceived lock on diversity.

Unfortunately for the GOP, the inclusive image presented by their carefully scripted multiculturalism pageant was shattered every time the cameras turned away from the stage and onto the convention's delegates. The sea of white faces in the audience spoke much louder than the professions of diversity coming from the podium.

While the speaker's list of Philadelphia's Republican gathering was replete with Blacks and Latinos, they made up a mere 4 percent and 3 percent of the convention's delegates, respectively. While trotting out every minority speaker possible, including Samoan wrestler "The Rock" - in an apparent bid to seize the critical 10-year-old vote - may have convinced many suburbanites, and possibly a few minority voters, that Republicans are starting to look more like America, so far, it is largely a charade.

The GOP has had some recent success in nominating and electing more minority Republicans to local and state offices, but their numbers still constitute a miniscule percentage of all minority officeholders and minority voters have yet to show much more inclination to vote Republican than usual.

The GOP is hoping to get a larger slice of that demographic with its presidential candidate, George W. Bush, who was relatively successful at attracting minority votes in Texas. Unfortunately for them, Bush seems to think his charm alone will let him take this phenomenon national, as he has not deigned to alter his party's positions on any issues of significant interest to minority voters, only to pledge to "reach out" to minorities.

By "reaching out," Bush seems to mean he will be the first Republican presidential candidate in a generation to eschew the Strom Thurmond-invented "Southern Strategy" of political race-war. That strategy, used to great effect by many Republicans - including Bush's father - sought to build a White Republican majority by scarring Whites with Willie Hortons, "racial quotas," and "welfare queens." That this denigration of Blacks may end is certainly welcome news, but unearthing the decency to drop an overtly racist political manipulation designed to turn groups of Americans against each other hardly seems like any kind of heroic "outreach."

The reasons the Republican Party has fared so poorly among minorities for the past fifty years have not been abrogated, but only glossed over. The broad opposition among GOP members to many programs designed to help lower-income Americans and their vehement opposition to programs specifically intended to help minorities, such as affirmative action, has not changed.

Republicans should be trying to make their party more inclusive and diverse, but need to recognize that use of minorities as window-dressing at their convention isn't enough. GOP candidates should seriously reexamine the positions taken during their race-baiting past, such as opposition to affirmative action, if they ever hope to attract more minority support. Clearly, this and opposition to other programs hugely beneficial to minorities, such as Head Start, is what has hurt the GOP in the past. Taking the interests of increasingly influential minority voters into account is not only the right thing to do, but the politically smart thing to do. To paraphrase Colin Powell, there are more important things to criticize than a program that helps Black kids go to college.