I know what you’re thinking, “But Corey, we JUST got a black president and he’s a Democrat!” and that’s true and I’m not discounting that. BUT, the Republican party is broken into a million little pieces right now and they’re looking for someone, something, anyone, anything to bring them back together… and that could be us.
Let me me put it into another context. The Repulican party is like a woman who’s just been through a very nasty break-up with someone they thought they were going to be with forever, the American people, and now they’re on the rebound. Now, this may be news to some, but the best time to take advantage of someone’s raw emotions is when they’re on the rebound. They’ll compromise their beliefs, their standards, their core values in search of the happiness they once knew with a person who no longer wants their affection and attention. And that’s where black people come in. Now’s the time to come in and take advantage of the emotional instability and get them to come on over to our side.
*Sidenote: Fellas, you know I’m not lying here. Women do all kindsa crazy shit after a break-up and they’ll date ANYBODY. Hell, one of my exes became a Jehovah’s Witness after we stopped dating.
Back to the show…
As black people, many of us have taken issue with the direction of the Republican party for decades, from Goldwater’s opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to Nixon’s “Law & Order Campaign” of 1968, to the Reagan Era and the demise of the inner cities, to both Presidents Bush and their general neglect of all things black in America (Katrina, anyone?), not to mention the “Culture Wars” and Lee Atwater’s Southern Strategy designed to play to the fears of white America of black progress. We all know that, but remember that until FDR, black people had voted solidly Republican since emancipation because its the party of Lincoln.
So why go back now?
Well, because after the Obama administration ends, the Black Folks Gravy Train with the Democratic party will come to a screeching halt. There will be no need for special consideration for African Americans because the idea of a racial agenda will not jibe with the post-racial reality of the party and the paradigm it will come to represent. Policies that specifically benefit black people are going to slowly go away and the post-racial politics of the future won’t tolerate one group or one ethnicity standing alone or as a monolith . SImply stated, the black voice will be diminished.
Here’s where the Republicans come into play. You see, the secret is that the Republicans have been talking about things that black people like for years (lowering taxes, building small businesses, empowering the individual over the government), its just that they never properly articulated it to black people and the people that were doing the talking for them really just sucked. Its like when you take a trip to Canada and after you get there you realize, “Hey, this place isn’t so bad after all.” Now, if we get in on the ground floor of the reformation of the Republican party, we can make sure they don’t forget about us in the future.
Now’s the time to start pushing for things that black people want, but Democrats haven’t yet delivered on.
-Rebuilding our cities: Have you been to Detroit lately? The benign neglect of that city and its infrastructure is a direct result of one party having a lock on power in it for years. Without real competition from a competing element for votes, Democrats were able to push the same agenda via different candidates and effectively get nothing done for a very long time. If there were a real and viable black Republican opposition that was proposing a real alternative based on conservative principles of the free market, perhaps it would kick the Democrats into getting things done. Same goes for Baltimore and other cities where winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to winning the general election.
-Supporting black business: Its not that Democrats are anti-black business, its just that they haven’t had to be pro-small business in black communities because most of the affluent blacks in a given neighborhood are politicians and, you guessed it, Democrats. Instead of using government as a base to empower, many black politicians have used it merely as a base of power and a means to accrue personal wealth. And since there’s no alternative and no one really speaking to the fact that black businesses help bring down crime by emploing would-be thieves and drug dealers, the same people get elected over and over again. Republicans, black Republicans can fill that void by presenting real alternatives through market based solutions. Think about the number of black millionaires that hip hop has produced… wouldn’t it make sense for them to be Republicans and for the party to reach out to the hip hop community to speak to the value of prosperity and business as a means to economic growth versus the government?
-Tax/Business policy: Back to my previous assertion. Would it hurt the Republican party to speak to the hip hop community in regards to the toll taxes take on growth of small business and how government interference inhibits one’s ability to “ball outta control”? Hell, that’s the slogan right there… Less Regulation Allows You To Ball Outta Control… There are a lot of black people who aspire to own businesses and the Republican party can recruit them if they know what they want.
-Less government: This is a real easy sell to black people… Less government means less bullshit from the man. We all hate the man. Vote Republican and we can get the man out of our shit. Game, set, match.
What I’m saying here is pretty simple. We can pull the mother of all house flips on the Republican party right now because, well, they really need the help and they don’t know who to turn to.
Whaddyasay?
