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Home » Meanwhile, in North Carolina…

Meanwhile, in North Carolina…

The New Neo Posted on by

…Obama is losing significant support among African-Americans, not unlike what’s been happening among Jewish voters.

It may be enough to swing North Carolina into Romney’s column.

Note that I wrote that Obama is losing support. But I suppose it’s at least theoretically possible that Romney is gaining support.

After all, just a couple of weeks ago in late May, there was a sprinkling of articles like this one in the WaPo entitled, “Romney campaign begins quiet push for African American voters.” The article’s thrust was that Romney was not going to win over any of these voters—and in fact his very presence offended some, such as 78-old-old Philadelphian Madaline G. Dunn, quoted in the piece as graciously saying, “It is absolutely denigrating for him to come in here and speak his garbage.” But others, such as Bill Galston of the Brookings Institute, emphasized that appealing to black voters would be likely to help Romney seem tolerant in the eyes of white voters, which would enhance his electability with them, at least.

But Tara Wall, a communications adviser of Romney’s, in charge of outreach to African Americans and the most senior African-American on Romney’s team, insists he’s sincere:

…[W[e can’t go in with the mind-set that we aren’t going to win any people over to our side…From a messaging standpoint, we need to be able to communicate and relate to these communities about how they are being impacted by Obama’s policies. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s an important part of the process. It’s not a ploy, it’s not a tactic, it’s part of who we are. We have to show up.

Well, I’ve heard it said that the first thing you need to do is show up.

In the comments section of the WaPo article, I noticed a suggestion that Republicans adopt the following slogan to appeal to black voters: “Come back home.” Of course, people who have no idea what the relative histories of the Republican vs. the Democratic parties were during the days of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Civil Rights up to Lyndon Johnson’s day would scratch their heads in puzzlement at that catchphrase. But a little history lesson about the history of the Republican Party and civil rights wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Comments

Meanwhile, in North Carolina… — 19 Comments

  1. Well, not to be “denigrating”, but if Madaline G. Dunn comes back home she’s going to have to put in some time in that there remedial education.

  2. Hey, N-Neocon: We returned Saturday from 8-days in the Great Smoky Mtns. of western N.C. Few of those down-to-earth country folk buy any of Obama’s grift. Despite the large number of ‘slicks’ in the eastern part of the state, I came away with quiet assurance that NC will be Mitt by a comfy margin. Winter Park, Florida, where this So.Cal refugee calls home had the honor of b’yotch slappin’ the loathsome Alan Grayson out on his bulbous butt in 2010. Our ‘swing state’ will also go for Mitt it now appears. My-O-My, even Minnesota and Michigan are no-longer write-offs for The Boy King. Hmmmmmm…Maybe, just maybe, Americans are beginning to awaken from their coma.

  3. A good source for rebuttals of the racist Republicans narrative is The Myth of the Racist Republicans. Excerpts follow.

    The tension between the myth and voting data escalates if we consider change across time. Starting in the 1950s, the South attracted millions of Midwesterners, Northeasterners, and other transplants. These “immigrants” identified themselves as Republicans at higher rates than native whites. In the 1980s, up to a quarter of self-declared Republicans in Texas appear to have been such immigrants. Furthermore, research consistently shows that identification with the GOP is stronger among the South’s younger rather than older white voters, and that each cohort has also became more Republican with time. Do we really believe immigrants (like George H.W. Bush, who moved with his family to Texas) were more racist than native Southerners, and that younger Southerners identified more with white solidarity than did their elders, and that all cohorts did so more by the 1980s and ’90s than they had earlier?

    In sum, the GOP’s Southern electorate was not rural, nativist, less educated, afraid of change, or concentrated in the most stagnant parts of the Deep South. It was disproportionately suburban, middle-class, educated, younger, non-native-Southern, and concentrated in the growth-points that were, so to speak, the least “Southern” parts of the South. This is a very strange way to reincarnate George Wallace’s movement…..

    The point of all this is not to deny that Richard Nixon may have invited some nasty fellows into his political bed. The point is that the GOP finally became the region’s dominant party in the least racist phase of the South’s entire history, and it got that way by attracting most of its votes from the region’s growing and confident communities–not its declining and fearful ones. The myth’s shrillest proponents are as reluctant to admit this as they are to concede that most Republicans genuinely believe that a color-blind society lies down the road of individual choice and dynamic change, not down the road of state regulation and unequal treatment before the law. The truly tenacious prejudices here are the mythmakers’..

    The article also points out that beginning in 1952, the first Southern states go go Republican were border states such as Virginia, not deep South states such as Mississippi.

    ”Southern Strategy” Richard Nixon also initiated affirmative action in Federal policies and enforced school desegregation orders in the South. In the words of John Mitchell, Nixon’s Attorney General, “Watch what we do, not what we say.” How could Tricky Dick avoid being devious? It would deny his nature.

  4. Pingback:How to be A Hack - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money

  5. the loathsome Alan Grayson out on his bulbous butt in 2010

    You’re aware that he’s running again in the FL-09 district? time to warm up you steel-toed boots.

  6. I got distracted by that loathsome Grayson character, but I want to mention that Mitt seems to understand that if he wins the election that he will be President to all Americans, and not just those who voted for him.

    Unlike the SCFoaMF Teh Won.

  7. There’s so much to work with to show Obama is alienated from black people. Starting with ending the DC school voucher program is a start. Emphasizing how his policies have resulted in greater harm to blacks than any other group. Gay marriage. His own wealth and Michelle’s unpopular “eat healthy” program. The basic question “What, if anything, has Obama actually done for you? Did Obama help save your house? Did Obama get you a job? Did Obama get you health care or is his plan making your actual experience with health care less profitable? And do you want to look to Obama or yourself for your security?”

  8. The loss of Jewish support appears to be accelerating. Obama’s Jewish Support Drops 22 Points in New York.

    President Obama’s support among Jewish voters in the state of New York has dropped 22 percentage points in only a month, according to the results of a just released poll.
    The poll, conducted by Siena College, finds that currently President Obama has the support of 51 percent of Jewish voters, while 43 percent are opposed to him. Five percent are undecided. That means, Obama’s lead among Jewish voters is at 8 percentage points.
    Previously, in Siena’s May poll, Obama had the support 62 percent of Jewish New Yorkers, while 32 percent opposed him. That means, last month, Obama’s lead among this group of voters was at a strong 30 percentage points

    Compare the 51% support to the ~64% support in the poll that Neo recently cited.

    Don’t get cocky.

    http://neoneocon.com/2012/06/11/jews-cooling-on-obama-sort-of/.

  9. I agree with the history lesson: Let’s talk Strom Turmond and Jesse Holms and, oh, Haley Barbour’s brother, who was a member of the CCC. And, neo-neo, do you link to the neo-Confederate Stacy McCain.

    Enough a a history lesson for me…

  10. timb: yes, of course it’s enough of a history lesson for you. You want to pick and choose your history, and to ignore the enormous parts you don’t like.

    Why, you mean there’s a couple of bigoted people from the South in the Republican Party? Who woulda thunk it?

  11. Meanwhile:
    An interesting visual experiment

    Google images: “Saleswoman”
    http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1503&bih=633&q=saleswoman&gbv=2&oq=saleswoman&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=27382l30013l3l30252l10l10l4l4l0l0l122l240l0.2l2

    Google Images: “Salesman”
    http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1503&bih=633&q=salesman&gbv=2&oq=salesman&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=72819l76420l1l76672l8l6l4l1l1l0l178l178l0.1l1

  12. “Come back home” has another plus characteristic: it subtly alludes to classical ethical values which are traditional American values. Of the group of black voters which would consider voting Repub: most of the group believe in classical ethical values. The Democrat Party does not.

  13. Rasmussen has Romney ahead of Obama 47% to 44%, in Wisconsin!!

    On an other matter commented upon, above:

    “loathsome” is too mild an adjective for Alan Grayson.

  14. The “Lawyers Guns and Money” site would beg to differ with your analysis. (link at 4th post on this thread).

    Quite interesting to stray from the echo chamber from time to time, and dip one’s toe into the comment sites of the left. Let’s just say there is a tad bit of a different perspective.

    I’m in my early 50’s and I have never seen this country so bitterly divided. There is no longer any “respectful disagreement.” Just venom, scorn, and hatred.

  15. The basic question “What, if anything, has Obama actually done for you? Did Obama help save your house? Did Obama get you a job? Did Obama get you health care or is his plan making your actual experience with health care less profitable?

    In fairness, I don’t think it’s any President’s job to “do things” for people, and especially not to save their houses, find them jobs, or get them health care. Those are all individuals’ responsibilities.

    The President’s job is defend the country, and promote policies that allow individuals to deal with the issues above on their own.

  16. timb
    I agree with the history lesson: Let’s talk Strom Turmond.

    Let’s.

    Strom Thurmond is more of a mixed bag than some believe.
    On the negative side:
    1) Dixiecrat candidate for President
    2) Marathon filibusterer against Civil Rights bills
    3) Fathered an illegitimate black daughter. His record is somewhat mixed on this, because to a degree he did acknowledge her and did give her some financial support.

    A more positive view of Strom follows.

    From the March 18,1971 issue of Jet Magazine:

    Sen. Thurmond, the architect of the GOP’s Southern strategy, found his influence in the state was lessened because he could not appeal to blacks. So he added Thomas Moss, 43, of Orangeburg, S.C., to his staff. Moss, a voter-registration expert, will work in the state after receiving several months training in Washington D.C.

    The hiring of Moss kicked off the biggest controversy on Capitol Hill.Not more than ten Senators from the North, many of whom were elected because of the Black vote, hire Blacks in policy making staff posts. A few will hire a secretary or stenographer as an equal opportunity token….
    Neither of the Illinois Senators, Charles H. Percy nor Adlai E. Stevenson III, has a Black policy maker. Neither does Indiana’s Vance Hartke, who boasted that Blacks in Gary gave him the margin of victory…..

    Senators who hire black staffers include Edward M. Kennedy ( D, Mass), Birch Bayh (D., Ind.), Alan Cranston (D., Calif.), Henry Bellmon (R., Okla), George McGovern ( D, SD), Edward R. Brooke ( R, Mass), Fred Harris ( D., Okla), Lloyd Bentson D., Tex.), Philip Hart (D., Mich), Hugh Scott (R. , Pa.) and John V. Tunney ( D., Calif.)

    Only one of those Senators was from a Confederate state, and as Lloyd Bentsen was from the Rio Grande Valley and the grandson of Danish immigrants, he had a slightly different background and set of beliefs from Strom. Bentsen also made the hire about the same time as Strom. Strom Thurmond was the first white Senator from the Deep South to hire a black professional for his own staff.

    Strom also nominated the first black from the Deep South to serve on the federal bench: Matthew James Perry, in 1975.

    Mr. Perry, who was sworn in Feb. 18 as a judge of the United States Military Court of Appeals in Washing ton DC…is the first black lawyer from the Deep South appointed to the federal bench.

    The 54 year old Perry, who in 1974 was a Democratic candidate for Congress and who has been serving on the Democratic National Committee, was nominated fur the judgeship by Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, the 1948 Dixiecrat candidate for President.

    Strom Thurmond: Dixiecrat and segregatrionist who was the first white Senator from the Deep South to appoint a black to his own professional staff and nominated the first black from the Deep South to the federal bench.

    Like I said, a mixed bag.

    http://tinyurl.com/873fkfa Matthew James Perry

  18. For timb, it is history. For me, it is life. If we define a “Liberal” as someone who votes for Federal largess, then “Liberal’ Dems were pretty ardent segregationists. e.g. Sam Ervin, Al Gore, Sr., J. William Fulbright, LBJ, et al. I did not learn this from history books, because they had not yet been written. No, I read it in the newspapers of the day. I also know that Sen Dirksen, (R) Illinois, led Republicans to break the filibuster by Southern Democrat Senators and made passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 possible. Believe me, in its day, it really was a “big f***in’ deal.”

  19. Has anyone else noticed that Obama is a bit of an Oreo? maybe the folks in Carolina are twigging to that. Oh, and let us remember that Martin Luther King and all the other civil rights black leaders of the 1950s were Republicans.

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