Politically ancient conservatives convene

Since the Conservative Political Action Conference has rolled around yet again, I’ve determined they need some help.

CPAC is a convention where some of the most passionate, politically active conservatives come together to hear speeches, attend panels and discuss elections for the next year.

I cannot help but feeling that CPAC is becoming a Convention of Politically Ancient Conservatives.

When you talk about political parties and their strong points in terms of support, there’s generally a  distinct line separating Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats garner overwhelming support from women, gay people, blacks, Latinos, Asians and people ages 18-29.

Republicans meanwhile grab the majority of voters who are white, Christians, gun-owners, men and ages 45 or older .

Speaking from the position of an objective, political campaign worker, the Republican Party needs to try to appeal more to minorities if it wants to secure the White House in 2016. The ability for the Democrats to get minority voters to the polls is too formidable a force to try and overcome with old, white Christians alone.

So when I read there was going to be a panel at CPAC this year about diversity and minority outreach, I was moderately impressed the Republican Party was finally acknowledging the need to appeal to minority voters.

But there were two big problems with the panel. First, the panel — which focused,
mind you, on diversity and multicultural outreach — consisted of five white men.
As both a white man and someone who is politically competent, I must say — damn, that was stupid.

The second big issue with the panel was that no one went. John Hudak, a political
writer for the think-tank Brookings, tweeted a picture of a large ballroom with the panelists on the stage and maybe two dozen audience members.

Out of a conference of thousands upon thousands, just a couple dozen is a pathetic number by any standard.

The room only started to fill up towards the ending of the diversity outreach panel as members came to hear the next presentation by the President of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre.

Unfortunately for Republicans, this seems to be the general consensus of the Republican Party and its supporters. They don’t seem to care about getting the support of minorities.

When your political leaders — from candidates to campaign managers to volunteers — refuse to even entertain the idea of reaching out to minorities, it sends a message. The Republican Party doesn’t need the support of gun owners. It needs the support of minorities.

The only way the Republican Party is going to start overcoming its reputation as a party of old-fashioned, bigoted, misogynistic, old, white men is by both working to pass legislation that helps minority groups and working to change its tone about those same groups.

But when you both refuse to have minority members of your party speak on a panel about diversity and refuse to attend the same panel, you aren’t moving forward far.

The Republican Party needs to learn that it can’t rely on Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., or Dr. Ben Carson to be its token minority leaders. It needs to actually try to seem like it cares about the groups whose votes it needs to win.

Otherwise, it might as well just hand the Democrats the White House.

­ajguenth@indiana.edu