Karl Rove: 'More white voters alone won't save the GOP'

Political guru Karl Rove had a very interesting article in Thursday's Wall Street Journal that basically laid out the reason why the Republican Party must reach out to minority voters:

As immigration reform grinds its way through the U.S. Senate, the main focus has rightly been on the legislation's policy consequences. But there are important political implications, especially for the GOP, that are worth examining.

He backs up his statement with facts and figures, and notes:

The reality is that the nonwhite share of the vote will keep growing. As the American Enterprise Institute's Henry Olsen pointed out in a recent speech, the nonwhite vote as a share of total voters has increased in every presidential election since 1996 by 2% (much of it Hispanic) while the share of the white vote has dropped by 2% each election.

If the GOP leaves nonwhite voters to the Democrats, then its margins in safe congressional districts and red states will dwindle—not overnight, but over years and decades.
...
Immigration reform is a top issue for Latinos as it is being debated in Washington, according to a March Latino Decisions poll. But their other major concerns—the economy and jobs, and education reform—are the same as the rest of America.

Nor will support for immigration reform solve all of the GOP's challenges in appealing to Hispanic voters. Republicans also need compelling messages on jobs, economic growth, social mobility and education. They also must show up. GOP pollster Jan van Lohuizen's focus groups found a major Latino complaint is that they never see Republicans in their communities to make the GOP's case.

Will the GOP listen? Time will tell.

'The GOP and the Conspiratorial Mindset'

The post, "The GOP and the Conspiratorial Mindset," pulls some current political issues out of the shadows as is typical of writer and DC attorney Doug Mataconis who has never been afraid to face difficult subjects head on. His latest post at Outside the Beltway addresses the split going on within the Republican Party.

He began his post by noting the conspiracy theories that have floated in groups that have moved into the GOP:

Ever since Barack Obama became President, indeed while he was still running for office, there has been a cottage industry of conspiracy theories on the right making seemingly outrageous allegations about the President. They’ve ranged from the now familiar birther conspiracy that, even with the release of the President’s long-form birth certificate, still refuses to die, to claims that the Administration was conspiring to confiscate weapons from legal gun owners. For the most part, though, these conspiracy theories were mostly the province of the Internet and a segment of conservatism that most mainstream Republicans tried as best they could to distance themselves from.

His comment, "Mainstream Republicans tried as best they could to distance themselves from" the constant conspiracy theories, resonates. He then documented that some Republican elected officials have bought into those conspiracies, something that may appease a small but vocal portion of the population.

It reminded of an event in Augusta County in 2009.

In April of 2009, one of the first tea party rallies was held in Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton with a group of about 50 gathering to declare their disapproval of ObamaCare. Immediately following that small gathering, another rally was held at Expoland in Fishersville. The building filled with citizens against one-size-fits-all health care who cheered as speakers talked about fighting against its passage in Congress.

Then the truthers began speaking about 9/11 and accused the U.S. Government of being behind the attacks on the Twin Towers. It was a stunning turning point for those attending. Almost in unison, at least three-fourths of the crowd rose from their seats and began filing toward the doors, many shaking their heads and wondering who had organized the event. The organizers were the Constitution Party, another of the groups that are part of the overall tea party federation. Their conspiracy theories drove a previously enthusiastic crowd, concerned about fiscal responsibility, out the doors.

Mataconis ended his post with this sobering comment:

This isn’t to say that every Republican and every conservative is a conspiracy theorist or a birther, of course. There are plenty of them who aren’t and who have a perfectly rational opposition to the President and his policies that doesn’t include the need to allege that he’s involved in some vast conspiracy to destroy the country. The problem is, as it always has been for the past four years, is that these voices tend to get drowned out by the shrill voices of the Obama Derangement Syndrome crowd, and it’s that crowd that becomes associated in the public mind with the party and the movement. That is the price the GOP is paying for giving these people space to grow rather than denouncing him in the manner that they should have been.

I saw Bush Derangement Syndrome from liberals during the administration of President George W. Bush, and did not like it. Now I see my side of the aisle doing the same to President Barack Obama. Sadly, those loud, angry voices tend to drown out the voices of others who understand that this country can better move forward with rational, pragmatic, bipartisan leadership.

See Pineapple contributor Kurt Michael's latest humorous political cartoon: "Pineapples and Coconuts: Angry Coconuts."