Monday, October 1, 2007

SOMEONE HIRE THE REPUBLICANS A DEMOGRAPHIC STATISTICIAN: By Sanjay Puri


The leading Republican Presidential Candidates: Giuliani, Thompson, Romney and McCain were a no show at last Thursday night’s Republican debate at Morgan State University. It is shocking to see the lack of foresight about the changing electorate demographics in the Country by the Republican leadership. Being a party of Southern white voters is not going to win them too many Presidential elections in the future.

If the Republicans hired demographic statisticians they would have told them that currently African Americans and Hispanics comprise about 80 plus million out of 300 million Americans, add another 10 million Asians and they are basically over 30 percent of the population. Also future trends show that one out of two new born in this country is a Hispanic. So these statisticians would tell them that it is a demographic suicide to alienate these fast growing minority groups.

Being a no show at key minority events is a slap on the face of these communities since these events are symbolic to them of their growing maturity in the political process. The Presidential candidates are taking the approach that they are not going to get too many African American votes in the case of the Morgan State University so why bother. Well it could be a self fulfilling prophecy for the Republicans since their share of the African American vote could be lower than usual in 2008.

Their strident tone in the immigration debate in the Senate and the continued anti immigration positions by these Presidential candidates in the primaries will cost them dearly with the Hispanic vote and also campaign support from the affluent Asian community. They don’t get it that just like anti-immigration groups don’t like immigration and don’t make the distinction between legal and illegal immigration, pro immigration groups consider Presidential candidates who are against illegal immigration as being against immigration. The Republican leadership needs to be reminded of Pete Wilson in California and Proposition 187. Several key states besides the two coasts are impacted by the immigrant vote in places like South West and Mountain West USA.

The leadership of the Republican Party which is not running for the Presidential race or aligned with any of these candidates should step up and clearly speak about this issue and establish ground rules for the future. Mandating some presence and participation at key minority political events even if they are not in the friendliest atmosphere is a must if they want to be a party that can produce a presidential candidate that is going to look for support from the entire nation. Right now they way the political map is configured, between the African American, Hispanic and Asian communities the Republicans are getting positioned to write off over 30% of Americans and look to win a majority of 51% of support from 70% of the votes. Do the math, getting 51% from 100% is hard enough, 51% from 70% is impossible. They might wring out a bare victory in 2008 but the future looks very bleak.

The irony is that if you put aside the issue of Iraq which finds deep anguish in most Americans, there are minorities who are fiscally conservative and emphasize family values. But the Republicans have not really reached out to them and they feel that the reaching out has been mainly for campaign funds and not a systematic approach of nurturing them. Having Sen. Martinez and Lt. Gov. Steele in key positions at the Republican Party helps but Sen. Martinez could not get his own party lined up on the immigration debate.

The Republicans are at a key defining moment,, it is time for their sharpest minds like Ken Mehlman, Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, Haley Barbour and others to decide whether they want to be a party of the present or of the future since they are about to be wiped out by a demographic explosion which even a amateur demographer can advise them on!
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Sanjay Puri
Chairman USINPAC

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is nothing new...if you look at how the Republican candidates have dealt with even the Indian community they haven't been very warm or receptive. You can see even the messages from candidates time and time again only Romney has made any sort of an effort for this. I think there are many fiscal republicans in the community but at the end of the day if they aren't respected they don't expect a check or a vote!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Puri's post strikes me as very naive. Does he think that every minority group in this country should have their own dedicated debate? Should we demand a national debate to focus on only issues important to Indian Americans? Is USINPAC asking for that? I think an amateur pollster or even casual observer could explain how that in primaries especially, candidates focus on forums and messages that mobilize their base. As I mentioned in an earlier post, USINPAC has a very good track record reaching out on a bipartisan basis, and the ball is clearly in the court of some of the Republican Presidential candidates now. Mr. Puri's post certainly does not advance this cause.

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding me? We're BROWN do you guys not understand that? We are minorities and the only minorities the Republican party cares about are the rich and it does not take a genius to figure that out. Do not expect them to start caring anytime soon.

Anonymous said...

i didn't give you permission to use my artwork i would appreciate it if you would remove it or at least give me credit.