This May Take a While

Jonah Goldberg
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‘Outreach’ is the new word that O stands for in GOP post-election. But initial evidence suggests this effort may take a while. From TPM Reader TL

So, I know that comments on the demographics of the electorate are so 3 weeks ago. But this was so rich it shouldn’t be missed.

Today, The Corner linked to a conversation with Jonah Goldberg and John O’Sullivan on “the problem of demographics for the Republican coalition.” The pull-quote in the link explained that if the GOP is to win over asian-american and latino voters, it it must “persuade them to think of themselves primarily as Americans.” I can’t understand why they’re having trouble, given this keen understanding of the voters they’re trying to reach.

Indeed, getting Asians and Hispanics to try being Americans for once may not be the best way to Republicanize these outlanders. Actually the full quote is possibly better.

“I see that the way we will get the Hispanics and the other groups, the Asians, as part of the Republican Coalition is to get them first part of the great American Coalition. Make them think of themselves, not make but, persuade them to think of themselves primarily as Americans. Restore the overarching, all-encompassing concept of an American identity, which we used to have, which we knew how to bring about and which in the last 20 or 30 years very largely as a result of the democrats wanting to emphasize ethnicity rather than American-ness. We have lost that and frankly one of the reasons we have not regained it and doing very badly at the moment is because the Republicans have neither had the imagination nor the courage to think how they could appeal to these other ethnic groups as Americans and craft an appeal that won them over. They have got to do that.”

Good times.

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