by Herman Cain
Most members of racial minorities support Democrat candidates, and many view the conservative policy agenda as hostile toward protection of their rights. The Republican Party could expand its base of supporters exponentially if it worked toward educating the public on its positive contributions to the civil rights struggle, coupled with the positive things it is doing even today. Potential voters would then be willing to listen to other policy solutions Republicans have to offer. In business you look for a sustainable point of difference between you and your competitors and then market and promote it until the cows come home.
Republicans will not capture the politically homeless and expand their base with the "build it and they will come" mentality or a strategy that employs the constant use of negative and divisive political rhetoric. Too many people do not pay attention to politics on a day-to-day basis, and they do not take time to connect political headlines to the facts. This is why it is so easy for perception to become reality in politics. Perception has to be deliberately managed.
Winning Voters Is Not Black and White . . . It's Green
At the heart of most people's version of the American Dream is a desire to achieve economic freedom. They also want to live in a nation that values the rule of law and protection of our moral foundations and to live in a nation that actively defends its citizens through military superiority from those who want to destroy our freedoms.
The version of economic freedom, like the version of the American Dream, varies from citizen to citizen. Achieving economic freedom could mean starting or expanding your own business, having enough money to invest or save for your children's future, or acquiring a level of financial security. Whatever your definition of economic freedom is, achieving it begins with controlling your own money.
The majority of U.S. citizens will never be able to control all their own money and work toward economic freedom as long as federal, state, and local governments continue to tax inheritance and incomes at disparate (or what government likes to call "progressive") rates and impose mountains of needless regulations and compliance costs on small businesses and large corporations.
The tax codes at all levels of government are used by politicians as tools for social engineering and to reward specific interests with credits for specific behaviors. The Social Security system has been abused for decades by Congress as a method to raise funds for members' favorite pork barrel projects in their districts to the point that the system will soon be fiscally insolvent. Instead of demonstrating leadership by addressing these problems and inequities head on, most of the solutions we hear about amount to slight cuts in marginal tax rates, more tax credits and deductions, and raising the Social Security retirement age to avoid having to make the politically dangerous decision of actually fixing the problems that undermine our nation's economic foundation.
If members of Congress were gamblers in Las Vegas, we would say they are playing with "house money." Unfortunately for us, we the people are the house and the money they play fast and loose with is our money, taken from us in the form of taxes every time we receive a paycheck, an investment dividend, an inheritance from our family members, or a Social Security check.
Our potential for achieving economic freedom is diminished further every day that we do not demand a complete replacement of the federal tax code and a complete restructuring of the Social Security system. The majority of individual citizens will never be able to achieve economic freedom and their American Dream as long as they are not allowed to control every penny of the money they earn.
Today, U.S. citizens from every demographic background are graduating from trade schools, colleges and universities, and graduate school programs at a rate their parents and grandparents likely thought impossible. People from all backgrounds are using the power of the diploma to climb the corporate ladder and start their own businesses. They are purchasing cars, condominiums, and homes at levels their parents only dreamed of. They are saving and investing for their futures and their children's futures and building their own wealth.
At the same time, millions of citizens who have achieved first-generation wealth are receiving an education in the famous School of Hard Knocks. Each time they receive a paycheck and see how much is deducted off the top in the form of payroll taxes, find out that they have to sell the family business because they cannot afford to pay the inheritance taxes, or find out that this year they have to pay the arcane and insane Alternative Minimum Tax, they realize the staggering financial impositions placed on U.S. citizens by their own representatives in government.
Congressional Republicans must follow President Bush's lead and act immediately to institute the reforms necessary to allow greater access to economic freedom for all citizens. In future elections the politically homeless will support candidates who can articulate common sense economic policies that reduce government control of our money and regulations on small businesses. The politically homeless will also be looking for candidates who will not start to back-peddle as soon as they take office. The politically homeless are looking for real leaders.
In future generations, a higher percentage of citizens will be able to build wealth because of increased access to educational opportunities, employment opportunities, and instruments for financial investment. They will demand that government fiscal policies support a modern economic infrastructure and that these policies represent present-day realities, not the economic realities of 1913, 1935, or 1965.
One political reality that will ring as true in the future as it does today is that congressional Democrats will attempt to block any economic policies that increase the opportunity for all citizens to achieve economic freedom. Democrats simply cannot control our lives if they do not control our pocketbooks. Republicans must seize on the current opportunity they have for leadership on economic policies and enact the reforms that will demonstrate to loyal Republicans, curious Democrats, and the politically homeless that they are serious about our nation's economic future.
If Republicans are to win new voters now and in the future, they must fight for those votes with the assumption that every citizen is a potential supporter of their policy agenda. Secondly, they must assume that voters are smart enough to get it when they say it the right way at the right time. Thirdly, Republicans must keep the media and the public focused on the big issues and the aggressive solutions.
Controlling the national policy agenda requires winning presidential and congressional elections. Republican campaign strategy cannot rely forever solely on the votes of White conservatives. Republicans must cast a wider net and attract the support of racial minorities who will comprise the growing numbers of those citizens willing and able to accumulate wealth. The good news is that Republicans do not have to change their ideology and pander to specific groups as the Democrats so often do. They just have to do a much better job of telling their story.
In addition to the president and Republican members of Congress, responsibility for helping all citizens achieve economic freedom also falls on our nation's religious leaders. Our nation's religious institutions and houses of worship are for millions of citizens the primary source of information on cultural and political affairs. Religious organizations are often a highly influential source of information regarding which political candidates and policies their members will support.
Contrary to the advice of most mothers everywhere, politics and religion do mix, and we should feel comfortable discussing both topics. Politics and religion are not mutually exclusive issues. Those who want to destroy this nation want us to think they are. Anyone who takes the time to read the founding documents of our country can conclude this reality for him or herself. Our moral foundations provide the inspirational basis of our great country and are the precursor for achieving personal economic success and the maintenance of the rule of law.
As a primary influence in the lives of millions of U.S. citizens, religious leaders and organizations have a duty to educate their congregations on the impact of politica
l issues in their lives. Unfortunately, too many religious organizations and religious leaders are either reluctant to educate their congregations on the political issues and the political process, or they act as overly zealous surrogates of a particular political party in an attempt to keep their members chained to tradition and the political ideologies of their ancestors.
Still other pastors are gun-shy of the line between what is permitted according to the tax code for nonprofit organizations and what is considered political. As a result, they play it safe and do nothing. This is yet another example of how the tax code interferes with doing what is in the best interest of people. Replacing the income tax code with a national sales tax would eliminate this problem.
In his book Scam: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson discusses at length how many Black pastors and the so-called Black leaders have forged a partnership with the Democratic Party that is now ingrained in much of Black social, religious, and political culture. Rev. Peterson writes, "These pastors have often been responsible for leading their congregations astray. Instead of looking to God, they are taught to look to other gods--the god of government programs or the god of the so-called black leader. This puts most Blacks right in the pocket of the Democratic Party, which has become a god for many as well" (59).
Rev. Peterson's insightful and eye-opening book details the scam perpetrated on Blacks by the so-called Black leaders, such as Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, and Joseph Lowery, since the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. For more than forty years they have taken advantage of the trust Blacks place in their spiritual leaders. The self-appointed Black leaders, in conjunction with some unfortunately unscrupulous church leaders, have convinced many Blacks that White racism is the cause of their problems and that support of the Democratic Party's liberal social and economic policies is the key to lifting one's self out of poverty.
Rev. Peterson convincingly makes the case that more Black pastors across the country need to get off the Democratic plantation and engage their congregations in an honest, educational discussion of the most important social and economic political issues. They must discontinue advocating the politics of groupthink founded and still mired in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and instead focus on the issues of elementary economics, personal responsibility, education, and economic freedom. Black pastors have an enormous influence on their congregations and the ability to help end the cycles of government dependence and economic slavery so prevalent today in many Black communities.
Religious leaders from all denominations also possess the ability to teach their congregations how to organize at the grassroots level of political involvement and influence social and economic policies. One does not have to tell people how to vote, but one can help people become a more informed voter. The potential for positive change is enormous if church leaders and their congregations put behind them the notion that politics and religion are not related.
Despite the negative rhetoric we hear every day from liberals, economic opportunity and prosperity are available to every citizen who possesses dreams and the willingness to work hard to pursue them. Most citizens realize that, even in the presence of government policies that restrict our ability to build wealth. The only barrier to economic success is personal initiative and determination.
More and more people no longer view issues and candidates through race-colored glasses or vote based solely on their religious affiliation and past tradition. President Reagan demonstrated in the presidential elections of 1980 and 1984 that Republican candidates can win the support of traditional Democrat voters with common sense economic policies. The success of President Reagan's fiscal policies allowed millions of citizens to build first-generation financial security and wealth and in the process created lifetime supporters of the Republican Party. I am one of them.
Winning voters is not black and white . . . it's green.
History and the Facts Are on Your Side--Use Them!
In fighting the war to protect our nation's economic and moral foundations, the Republican Party has on its side the unparalleled weapons of history and facts. It was members of the Republican Party who educated the nation on the horrors of slavery and who fought and died in a war to guarantee slavery's end. It was Republicans who led the fights in Congress in the 1950s and 1960s to guarantee basic civil rights for all citizens of the United States. It was conservative fiscal policy under the administration of President Ronald Reagan that set in motion the longest peacetime economic growth in our nation's history.
Whether the fight has been for the end of slavery, for the protection of the guaranteed constitutional freedoms for all citizens, or for economic policies that lessen government control of our money and allow all citizens to work toward economic freedom, it has always been Republicans who have been on the right side of history and have been relentless advocates for the policies we know in our hearts to be right.
Republicans must consider it their daily mission to educate the public on the positive effects of a conservative policy agenda, and they must remain resolute when advocating their policy agenda in Congress. Republicans must continue to expand their customer base and give the politically homeless reasons to support Republican candidates and their policies--and not just more reasons to oppose Democrats. Republicans must continue to explain their positive policy agenda in terms of the human benefits derived by enactment of their policies.
Republicans can no longer afford to lose ground in the battle for the votes of the politically homeless to Democrats who fight with the weapons of distortion, negative rhetoric, and outright lies. Fortunately, the prevailing conventional wisdom that members of the politically homeless decide which political party to support based on the number of Blacks or Hispanics, Catholics or Jews one sees standing behind a given party's leaders is mistaken. Support for the Republican Party is increasing among members of all demographics based on the positive facts of the conservative policy agenda.
In the 2004 campaign cycle, numerous conservative 527 organizations such as America's PAC, Council for Better Government, and Hispanics Together paid for tens of thousands of television and radio advertisements on Black radio and Spanish language media outlets in the battleground states to inform voters on the truth about President Bush's policy agenda and to counter the negative claims made by Democrats.
According to Richard Nadler, president of America's PAC, conservative 527 groups ran twelve thousand advertisements on Spanish language media in support of the conservative message and Republican candidates. In the states where the advertisements ran, President Bush secured more than 47 percent of the Hispanic vote, compared to an average of 36 percent in the states where the groups did not place advertisements.
Bush also increased his support among Black voters in five of the battleground states in which America's PAC placed advertisements. He received 12 to 16 percent support from Black voters in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. These numbers were significantly higher than Bush's 11 percent support among Blacks nationally.
The advertisements placed by conservative organizations to tell the truth about the Republican policy agenda to Black and Hispanic voters focused on numerous conservative issues, including protection of traditional marriage, tax reform, school choice, abortion, strong national defense, and faith-based social services. The significant rise in support among Black and Hispanic voters for President Bush's policy agenda clearly indicates that when voters hear the truth, versus distortion and lies, they are willing to support conservative candidates.
It is also important to note that the vast majority of issue education and voter outreach efforts directed toward racial minorities has been done by organizations not directly affiliated with the Republican Party. The Republican Party itself must demonstrate that it is willing to use its vast resources to reach out to minority voters and educate them on the realities of the conservative policy agenda. The party cannot continue to remain "missing in action" from th
e battle for the votes of all citizens.
There is still much more work to do. In the absence of a dedicated effort to educate the public on the realities of the Republican agenda, the perception still exits among people like Scotty and others like him that the Grand Old Party cannot relate to the struggles of common folk. I have a suggestion:
The Republican Party should change the meaning of that old acronym from Grand Old Party to Government Of the People. Government Of the People means that Republicans believe people make better decisions for themselves than government. It means they believe people know how to spend their hard-earned money better than out-of-touch bureaucrats in Washington. It means they believe people want a fair chance to succeed, pursue their American Dream, and achieve economic freedom. Government Of the People should become the new slogan of the Republican Party and a welcome sign for any American who believes in themselves and a bright future for this great country.
In 1858, President Abraham Lincoln stated in his "House Divided" speech,
Our cause, then, must be entrusted to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends--those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work--who do care for the result. Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen thousand strong.
We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all them to falter now? Now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful.
