Now that most of the ballots have been counted and recounted, Republicans are finding themselves out of power. For more than eight years, Republicans have been a driving force in Washington, and in 2000, they had the White House, House of Representatives, and the Senate. One can argue that they even had the Supreme Court.
Under Republican guidance, we are finding ourselves in two wars that seem to make no sense, in the midst of the worst financial crisis since 1929, and at a loss in world confidence.
Party leaders and political pundits are asking themselves, and the nation, what happened? Where does the party stand? Political pundits have already put several faces upon the screen as potential leaders of the party. These people include governors Sarah Palin (Alaska) and Bobby Jindal (Louisiana) as potential leaders. There were also several senators included.
What struck me the most about these shows and the potential Republican leaders, was the absence of color. Yes, Virginia, there are some Black Republicans.
For the most part, the Republican Party and the nation have taken these people for granted, often leaving them out of key decisions and debates. In one of the first presidential debates, Allan Keyes angrily pointed out to the moderator that she never allowed him any time to answer questions. African Americans have traditionally labeled these people as Uncle Toms, and threatened to kick their asses (Remember all of the death threats that Black guy got for telling John McCain to go after Obama?).
But wait one hot minute. I think that African Americans and Americans need to give these Republicans of color a deeper look. One of the main reasons that the Republican Party has fallen so low is their pandering to Evangelical and Fundamental Christians. These people, in the guise of Christ, have proved to be the most divisive and exclusivist sects of the American population. They have often embroilled and entangled politicians in pointless social debates, and have used the power of rhetoric to scare people into thinking that their "values" and "morals" were constantly under threats of obliteration. In addition, many Evangelical pastors banked on the fact that most Evangical Christians are both Biblically illiterate, and prone to voting on the heart instead of the purse.
Meanwhile, it was the African American and Latino Republicans who separated themselves from these social arguments and debates. Though I did not agree with their views, I have heard people like Shelby Steele, Bob Parks, Jennifer Carroll, Ward Connerly, Deborah Honeycutt, and others offer real Republican Conservative solutions to things that matter like: health care, equal opportunity schooling and employment, crime prevention and control, and welfare reform. Often, these people were ignored by their own national party, and demonized by the African American communities that they would like to serve.
We should stop demonizing our African American Republican brothers and sisters. They have a right to their own opinions, and thoughts. Anyway, African Americans are traditional social conservatives. We tend to vote Democratically because we often carry our empty purses with us to the voting booth. While we treasure family values as much as the next evangelical Christian, we also know that we need a strong economy with good jobs and opportunities to provide for our families.
African Americans and other minorities also need people with power on both sides of the aisle to agitate for what we want.
The national party should pay attention to these politicians. These politicians offer plausible solutions to very realy problems without becoming entangled in Evangelical Christian rhetoric. Why aren't they held up to be the Republican Standard Bearers? The fact that they are not, is one of the many reasons that African Americans have not voted Republican, and why the party has lost its way. It used to be a party of inclusion. Dr. Martin Luther King was a Republican, and so was Fredrick Douglass. Now it is the party of religious fear, ignorance, and intolerance.
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