It's Hard Out There For A Black Candidate At CPAC

[Joanne98]

Wandering around the vast and labyrinthine CPAC yesterday, I stumbled into Michael Williams, a Texas Railroad Commissioner (an important elected gig in the Lone Star State) and a Republican candidate for the Senate seat Kay Bailey Hutchison is retiring from.

Last year, I interviewed Williams -- who at the time was among the lucky conservatives to have Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) endorsement in the Senate race that was supposed to happen when Hutchison quit after her run for governor (she didn't, so Williams had to wait.) During our chat, he told me how conservatives need to do a better job reaching out to the African American community, where he acknowledged right wingers have little entre or experience.

When I ran into him yesterday, it appeared conservatives have not made much progress on that front. Ahead of me was a CPAC attendee rushing past, as they are wont to do in this giant place.

"Hey, are you Herman Cain?" the young man asked Williams, referring to another African American conservative running for federal office and attending CPAC.


I asked Williams if that happened a lot.

"Not really," he told me. "A lot of people think I'm a waiter."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/its-hard-out-there-for-a-black-candidate-at-cpac.php

[craigmatic]

1. It's funny and sad at the same time.

[aaaaaa5a]

2. I will be honest and say it...

I have never understood how any minority or woman could vote for the GOP.

[DCKit]

4. Masochistic tendencies? nt

[Ken Burch]

9. Before 1964, it was different(at least for African American voters)

There was a tradition, dating back to Reconstruction, of strong black support for the Republican party(support that wasn't often rewarded, for the record)owing largely to the "Party of Lincoln" myth(which was bogus, since the GOP essentially abandoned everything Lincoln stood for when they ended Reconstruction and left black southerners at the mercy of the Klan), and owing also, to THIS party's eternal shame, to our heritage as the defenders of 'states' rights'(and, of course, slavery) and, let's just say it, as the party of the Confederacy.

In the 1920's the only black member of Congress was a Republican from Chicago named Oscar DePriest. He was defeated in 1932, IIRC, by an early black Democrat because DePriest was a supporter of the Coolidge-Hoover economic policies. Black support for Democrats slowly began to grow in the Thirties, owing to the (partial) help they got from the New Deal(although their eligibility for it was always restricted in order to get the racist Southern Democrats who controlled the major Congressional committees(such as the House Rules Committee, the committee that decided whether legislation should be allowed to go to the House floor for final passage).

But there was still a significant black GOP vote through the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties(Jackie Robinson was a famous example of this).

The GOP destroyed this tradition in 1964, with their nomination of Barry Goldwater on a platform of all-out opposition to the Civil Rights movement(Ronald Reagan, in his earliest national political speeches, repeatedly called Dr. King a "communist")and by its inclusion of right-wing extremists, including Ku Klux Klansmen, as GOP convention delegates. Jackie Robinson became a Democrat that year, and remained so until his death. In exchange for abandoning black voters, the GOP swept the Deep South that year and has essentially held it ever since(other than in 1976, when, largely due to his Georgia residency, Carter managed to win it back).

[rfranklin]

3. He'll be front and center in every TV shot of the audience...

at the next RNC convention.

[rasputin1952]

5. Sad, and unfortuantely true...

There will be a day when we will hear this as an old story, hope it's within my lifetime, but the ties to prejudicial behavior based on stereotyping is a very hard one to break...;(

[golfguru]

6. Was Herman Caine at CPAC?

He is black, and he is running for president.

[EffieBlack]

7. They DO look just alike - them both being black and all

Michael Williams

Herman Cain

Yes, I can see how someone would mix them up.

:sarcasm:

[tblue37]

10. Yep. He gave a fiery, popular speech, calling liberals stupid. nt

[Ken Burch]

8. As long as the GOP is fixated, for Electoral College reasons, with being the "white Southern" party

It will be a tough road for black conservatives. A lot of African-American people with conservative inclinations won't feel comfortable in that party at all, and potential black conservative candidates won't get much consideration from groups like CPAC.