July 16, 2015
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There’s no harm in trying to reflip that script, which is exactly what Trump was doing by parading, in front of news cameras, the families of people murdered by illegal aliens. But that’s just a start. Affirmative action should be put back on the table. It’s still alive and kicking as policy, though weakened, and it’s still unpopular among blue-collar whites. GOPs need to push to have the Democrat candidates asked about racial quotas and hiring preferences at the debates. Here, Republicans need to flip the Democrats” script. After all, Democrat-friendly media hacks have long mastered the art of asking Republican candidates hot-button questions about moot issues: “Would you ban contraception?” “Would you put rape victims in prison if they aborted their baby?” Well, affirmative action is hardly moot. “Do you support racial quotas in universities, and preferential hiring practices based on race?” That question should be forced upon Clinton and the other Dems.
In theory, reaching out to the “angry white male” demographic is a solid plan. I say “in theory” because in practice it just isn”t going to work. Getting a little bit racial will only work if it can be done tactfully and with skill. And the GOP no longer breeds candidates who understand tact or how to skillfully convey a point when the choice of words matters as much as the overall idea being conveyed. GOP politicos have grown stupid and clumsy, in part because of a base that sees tact as weakness and subtlety as surrender. Anyone not willing to rush the cannons, sword drawn, in a suicidal death charge is automatically dismissed as a “RINO.” Reckless self-ruination of a campaign via clumsy wording and thoughtless remarks is rewarded as bravery. And let’s face it, Trump’s “Mexican rapist” remarks were clumsy and poorly phrased, even if his overall point is defensible.
Trump wasn”t “telling it like it is.” Rather, he was mush-mouthing an important notion that a more skillful candidate might have been better able to express. Except the GOP has almost no rhetorically skilled candidates, and the base not only doesn”t demand them, it reviles them.
If the GOP tries to reinvigorate its appeals to the “angry white male” demo, it will inevitably do so poorly. One of the problems with the GOP’s approach to abortion is that if you get an abortion restrictionist talking for a long enough time, he”ll always end up saying something stupid and quotable (for the other side) about rape. If Republicans want to once again start speaking on a national stage about issues like immigration, crime, and affirmative action, the sad reality is that the end result will be lots and lots of idiotic, poorly phrased quotes for Democrats (and their media lapdogs) to repurpose as anti-GOP missiles.
It’s inevitable with today’s GOP, where the problem isn”t the message, but the messengers.
