Guys like SC-R Tim Scott figured out how to run as a Black Republican and tap into a sizable split in the Democratic base, beating his lily white rivals by filling a niche with the state’s large base of socially conservative black voters. Allen West, down in Florida, managed a similar stunt to beat out his whiter conservative rivals, before moving to Texas to chair the state’s wealthy and nationally influential Republican Party.
I think they do see black voters as winnable constituency, based on how they align on religious beliefs and economic beliefs. During the late 19th / early 20th century, the GOP benefited enormously from an African American voter base that would support New York / California business tycoons simply because they weren’t racist Dixiecrats. But then Nixon did the Southern Strategy to win the Dixiecrat segregationist rump in the 70s, and they’ve been pandering to them ever since. Bush Jr tried to bridge that gap from 2000 to 2008, identifying a host of POC cronies willing to shill for big business without regard to their skin color. But he ultimately failed when the party went into a reactionary anti-Obama backlash.
There are plenty of Republicans who would love to get back to a kind of color-blind corporate hegemony, because its far more profitable to exploit the entire underclass than to be pinned to a chronically disaffected white middle class male base. But you gotta dance with who brung ya. And its the Used Car Dealership voter that’s powering the Trump campaign.
Guys like SC-R Tim Scott figured out how to run as a Black Republican and tap into a sizable split in the Democratic base, beating his lily white rivals by filling a niche with the state’s large base of socially conservative black voters. Allen West, down in Florida, managed a similar stunt to beat out his whiter conservative rivals, before moving to Texas to chair the state’s wealthy and nationally influential Republican Party.
I think they do see black voters as winnable constituency, based on how they align on religious beliefs and economic beliefs. During the late 19th / early 20th century, the GOP benefited enormously from an African American voter base that would support New York / California business tycoons simply because they weren’t racist Dixiecrats. But then Nixon did the Southern Strategy to win the Dixiecrat segregationist rump in the 70s, and they’ve been pandering to them ever since. Bush Jr tried to bridge that gap from 2000 to 2008, identifying a host of POC cronies willing to shill for big business without regard to their skin color. But he ultimately failed when the party went into a reactionary anti-Obama backlash.
There are plenty of Republicans who would love to get back to a kind of color-blind corporate hegemony, because its far more profitable to exploit the entire underclass than to be pinned to a chronically disaffected white middle class male base. But you gotta dance with who brung ya. And its the Used Car Dealership voter that’s powering the Trump campaign.