No issue has been weaponized by the left and the Democratic Party like the issue of race. Their goal has not been to bring Americans together or to make progress where racial harmony or equality is concerned, but to divide us and pit us against one another, more often than not at the expense of racial harmony and equality. Along with their allies in the mainstream media, they work overtime to convince much of America that Republicans are racist and filled with hate. This is an incredibly bold lie when one considers the history of both the Republican and Democratic parties, one of which was founded to end the evil of slavery, while the other filled the ranks of the KKK and blocked civil rights legislation for decades. But the left has never lacked for chutzpah and does not possess a sense of shame, so the strategy should not be a surprise.
The bad news is that this strategy, carried out now for decades, is proving largely successful. The Democratic Party claims the African American vote as entirely its own even while taking it for granted. And far too many Americans are quick to believe the worst about Republicans simply due to their party registration. Predictably, this intense effort to divide us against ourselves has also frayed and decayed our national fabric, leaving our nation divided at a time when it is so critical that we be united. How then to fix it?
I propose that the Republican Party fix it once and for all with an intense and sustained dialogue on race, history, and our nation’s fundamental values. This will be a challenge because anyone who has paid attention to the topic knows that some Republicans are simply terrible at talking about the subject, and the left/media will want to focus all of its attention on any mistakes that are made during the conversation, as opposed to having to cover the conversation itself.
Still, it would be incredibly healthy for the country to spend several months talking about this and virtually nothing else. The effort and conversation should reach such a level of saturation that everyone in the country will become a part of it.
First, Republicans should always make it clear that not only is racism unwelcome in the party but that it is un-American and an evil that our party was created to oppose. Along with this, it should be clear that it formed and, in many respects, continues to form an integral part of the Democratic Party and its political calculations. It is racist to divide us by color, it is racist to create animosity on the basis of color, and it is racist to pit one group against another for dollars or access to programs or any other public or private benefit on the basis of color.
Second, those who trade on race and those who make a career or a living from racism should be exposed, shamed, then shunned until they are driven from the public square. That goes for publicity whores like Richard Spencer and race hustlers like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton alike. If people knew how Jackson, Sharpton, and their ilk made their millions through actual racism and manufactured division, it would become untenable for corporate America to continue to subsidize or reward them.
Third, every substantive issue that touches on race should be exhaustively debated, whether it be affirmative action, or criminal justice reform, or access to quality education, or access to gainful employment, or access to financial capital for those who would want to start or grow a business, etc. Clearly, this would be a very long list, but that is why this conversation should take months to do properly.
This conversation should not end until it is clear that public opinion is moving thanks to an outpouring of truth, history, and informed debate. There is far too much truth and history on the side of the Republican Party for this not to work.
That does not mean that this process will be entirely pleasant. There will be characters and issues whose history are intertwined with the GOP for whom apologies and clear unequivocal denouncements must be made. This is nothing to be afraid of and should be embraced. In a country as large as ours and in political parties as large as ours there are bound to be a certain number of idiots or people with genuinely evil intent. So long as they are dealt with quickly and properly by political parties, the parties themselves will not be held responsible by an understanding public.
At the end of the day, the Republican Party’s commitment to equality of opportunity compares very favorably to the Democratic Party’s commitment to forcing equal outcomes, so long as the American public understands that the Republican Party wants that opportunity for all Americans. Today, too many Americans who occupy the ideological center are convinced that Republicans are somehow mean or hateful. This is due to the endless drumbeat from the left that insists that Republicans hate you if you are old or young, or black or brown or whatever, or gay or straight, or fat or skinny, or right-handed or left-handed, and on and on.
Americans who do not understand the history of the parties and who are denied honest coverage of the party’s positions on issues and how they actually impact our daily lives are predictably turned off by what they perceive as mean-spiritedness or hate. If people think you’re bad they won’t want to listen or talk to you. This is why the left works so hard at this lie. They know that if they can control how people feel, they can control how they think and ultimately how they vote.
Fail to engage any longer and allow an increasingly diverse national population to grow up accepting the lie as truth, and you condemn the GOP to permanent minority status and the United States of America to a dismal future as the socialist dumpster fire the left wishes for us all.
Expose that lie once and for all, and the lying crooks that are spreading it, no matter how long the conversation takes, and you will dismantle 80% of the Democratic Party’s message while gutting their hold on voters whose best interests lie clearly with the concepts of “liberty and justice for all” that guide the Republican party. After all, it is Democratic policies that lock poverty into certain neighborhoods, create a culture of dependency, fight to deny parents and their kids school choice and access to quality education, place abortion facilities in minority neighborhoods, encourage illegal immigration that undercuts the wages and standards of living of minority workers more than anyone else, and so much more. It is time to hold them accountable.
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