Elliot Schroeder calls for some analysis of the national election results with an eye towards what might work locally:
“Trump never had a chance in California so it’s makes sense not to cater to it. But for us Republicans behind the blue curtain we have less to stand on. Socially our policies never gave us a majority. Now that the GOP has shifted economically, that is gone too.”
I don’t know that “Trumpism” can’t thrive in San Diego County; he performed five points better here than he did in the rest of the State. While I am not interested in trade wars or supporting minimum wage laws, Trump taught us a lot about engagement. While it’s no secret that he pursued the “white working class” vote, he outperformed Romney with African-Americans — he said he would do that too.
Democratic policies are not working for African-Americans but they almost exclusively vote for Democrats. Local Republicans can win elections, over and over again by reducing the majority Democratic politicians receive from those voters by just 15 percent. In other words, if Republican candidates can earn 30 percent of the local African-American vote, they win.
Saturday Night Live and Tom Hanks parodied Trump voters but brought home a telling message; the “deplorables” and African-Americans have more in common culturally than not. I argue that both cultures want one thing more than anything else; upward mobility. Upward mobility comes from an opportunity to get a good paying job; Democratic policies are exporting good California jobs to Arizona, Washington, and Nevada.
Upward mobility comes from being able to raise a family in safe neighborhoods. Democratic policies make California less safe. Upward mobility comes from an opportunity to get a good education. Democratic policies force families to be wed to schools in their zip code.
Immigration law enforcement, tax and regulatory relief, and school choice are three things our local Republicans should be discussing with everybody but ESPECIALLY with African-Americans. Why? There is a political incentive to do so but, more importantly, it’s the right thing to do.
Presidential candidate (and former Reagan Administration official), Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) talked about the opportunity in 2004:
“In fact, the greatest realignment in modern politics would take place rather quickly if the right national leader found a way to bring the Scots-Irish and African Americans to the same table, and so to redefine a formula that has consciously set them apart for the past two centuries.”
San Diego Republicans can (and should) lead the way. Mayor Kevin Faulconer does an excellent job with this but it’s going to take more than one politician to dramatically realign a political coalition. Republican volunteers need to go to Southeast San Diego and bring Southeast San Diegans into the Republican Party Central Committee. Brian Jones, Brian Maienschein, Joel Anderson, Marie Waldron, Rocky Chavez, Darrell Issa, and Duncan Hunter need to go to Southeast San Diego too.
We have much more to offer African-Americans than Democrats do, but, until we engage them permanently, we won’t be taken seriously.
The moral is always the practical. Republicans should do the moral thing and start taking the message to black communities.