I'm Shocked...Shocked!

You might want to glide over to that fainting couch and have MaryAnn bring over the smelling salts... this might be too much for you, dear heart.

Republicans Fail to Make the Grade with Blacks

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Although the head of the Republican National Committee and President George W. Bush have pledged to make a more concentrated effort to win over Black voters, 98 percent of Republicans in the House and Senate earned an F on the latest NAACP Civil Rights Report Card, compared to only 2 percent of Democrats receiving failing grades.

"[Republican Party Chairman Ken] Mehlman has been out beating the bushes and saying that the Republican Party was appealing for the Black vote, but this is the most powerful evidence and continuing evidence that the Republicans have not realigned their public policy approaches to attract the Black vote," says University of Maryland Political Scientist Ronald Walters.

According to the NAACP'S mid-term report for the 109th Congress, all but one of the 231 Republicans in the U. S. House of Representatives got an F. The exception was Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, who earned a D. No House Republicans got Bs or Cs.

(Bolds mine)

Fail Black America, Republicans, and they will flunk you.

In an attempt to attract Black voters, Republicans have been saying many of the right things.

"Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization," Mehlman said at the annual NAACP Convention last July. "I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."

Many say Republicans are still wrong. Walters, the political science professor, points to statements made by President Bush in his State of the Union address.

"He said, 'A hopeful society depends upon a court that delivers equal justice under the law.' And with respect to the Katrina disaster, he said, 'We must work for the day when all Americans are protected by justice, equal in hope and rich in opportunity,'" Walters recounts. "The Republican Party has taken almost every opportunity to go against these kinds of principles."

Talk is cheap, and no one knows this more than the most marginalized groups in our society. So feel free to continue peddling your snake oil, but don't assume that African American voters are stupid enough to fall for your pitch. Deliberate disenfranchisement, the gutting of social services, nose thumbing during disasters and thinly disguised racism won't win you any loyal voters.

And Republicans must deliver more than rhetoric if they are to successfully reach Blacks, Walters says.

"What is the basis of any party's appeal to any voter? It is the extent to which they believe in that party's vote," he explains. "And there is a very simple answer to the question that we get all the time, 'When will Blacks vote Republican?' It is when they have a reason to."

*Fanning frantically* Oh, someone call the doctor! Miss Mehlman has swooned once again, I do declare!

(Tip 'o the Energy Dome to Oliver. It's a cross-post, it's an outrage...)