There is no question the GOP's minority outreach program is, well, having a rough start. (Being white as freshly fallen snow, for example, isn't very helpful.) But most would agree that it is essential. After all, if the party doesn't reach out beyond its lily-white base and attract more non-whites, namely the ever-growing Latino population, it faces demographic extinction.
I said "most," not "all," because plenty of Republicans can't or won't go along with that theory. (See this column from the always racist Pat Buchanan, where he all but calls for a renewed Southern Strategy, this time aimed at Latinos.) And now comes Phyllis Schlafly (yes, she's still breathing), who's been on quite a roll in the last month or so on the subject of immigration reform, from saying immigration reform is "suicide" for the GOP because immigrants all want handouts to lameting that today's immigrants are "less patriotic" than past ones (gee, maybe because they're not as white as previous generations?) to claiming that Mitt Romney lost last November because of high drop off in white voting, a claim that the NY Times revealed to be patent B.S. Oh yeah, and that's along with this charming interview where she once again attacks her favorite target, feminists (the "most destructive element in our society" in her mind), indulges in some good old gay bashing (despite herself having a gay son) and calling the IRS scandal worse than Watergate because Watergate "was just an ordinary little break in to an office." She's been busy.
But back to the subject at hand, which is the GOP minority outreach program. Judging by her comments above, you can guess what Schlafly thinks about immigration reform. And her views on GOP minoirty outreach are not much more enlightened than Pat Buchanan's:
But in an interview this week with conservative radio program Focus Today, Schlafly just came right out and said it. Calling the GOP’s need to reach out to Latinos a “great myth,” Schlafly said that “the people the Republicans should reach out to are the white votes, the white voters who didn’t vote in the last election.” Schlafly accused the Republican “establishment” of nominating “a series of losers…who don’t connect with the grassroots.”
“The propagandists are leading us down the wrong path,” she said. “There’s not any evidence at all that these Hispanics coming in from Mexico will vote Republican.”
Ah, yes, the mythical "white voters who didn't turn out last election" demographic. You know, the "silent majority." Looks like Pat isn't the only geriatric Republican racist looking with longing at the Nixon years.
Here's the problem, though. That hidden white vote that Schlafy is talking about, the one she thinks is just lurking out there like an untapped oil reserve? IT. DOES. NOT. EXIST. That's what the term "mythical" means, Phyllis.
I'll let Steve Benen sum it up:
Look, this isn't complicated. White voter turnout rates have been pretty steady over the last few presidential-year election cycles, and both John McCain and Mitt Romney won the support of a majority of white voters. Indeed, it wasn't especially close -- McCain won 55% of the white vote in 2008 (en route to losing the election badly), and Romney did even better, winning 59% of the white vote (en route to losing the election badly).
Schlafly is under the impression that there's this untapped reservoir of conservative white voters, just sitting at home, waiting for the Republican Party to reach out to them with a message they'll like, and if Democrats are really lucky, GOP officials will take Schlafly's advice seriously.
Because as the nation becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, conservative dead-enders who still see an emphasis on white voters as the key to electoral salvation are kidding themselves
Precisely. And while Schlafy is right that there's no guarantee that new Hispanic immigrants will vote Republican (attitudes like yours don't help any, Phyllis), they have no choice but to at least
try. Because relying only on white votes just doesn't cut it in 21st century America.
But don't tell that to Phyllis. She's still stuck somewhere back in the 11th.