Facing an increasingly diverse electorate that re-elected President Barack Obama over Republican challenger Mitt Romney last year, Republicans on Wednesday launched a push to identify female and minority candidates to run for state and local office around the country.
The “Future Majority Caucus,” spearheaded by the Republican State Leadership Committee, intends to invest what is being described as “significant” resources to supporting and electing Republicans to down ballot posts who aren’t white and male.
“The way for the party to grow again is to elect more Hispanics and more women at the local level,” said Republican New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, the party’s highest-ranking elected Latina, in a conference call announcing the project. “We need to look into the communities and make sure those elected officials look like the communities they represent.”
Yes, a big problem for the GOP is that they’re lily-white and male-dominated in a much more diverse society. But that’s not the cause of the GOP’s problem, that’s the consequence of it. Women aren’t going to like crazy-assed rape theorizing and slut-shaming from a woman anymore than from a man. Likewise, an African-American candidate who argues that Trayvon Martin got what he had coming to him isn’t going to go far either. And a Latino candidate who runs on a “go back where you came from!” platform isn’t going to have a lot of success in that community. Let’s not even talk about their problem with Muslims.
Republicans don’t have a lot of minority and female candidates because of the policies of the Republican Party and the things Republicans say. Getting someone other than white men to do and say these very unpopular things isn’t going to help any. Republicans continually fail to grasp that they have a policies problem, not a PR problem.
Sooner or later someone in GOP leadership will have an epiphany and figure this all out. But that day will probably not come any time soon.
