Is the Republican Party Becoming Too American?

Old White men are just itching to take away your rights and build separate restrooms for them “colored folk.”

We’ve got a problem, old White men!  At least, the conventional wisdom these days says that the Republican Party has a big problem. And really, when I say old White men and Republicans, isn’t it really just a distinction without a difference?  The GOP is becoming way too White.  The implication of course is that the racist platform of the Republican Party (like the respect for life, rule of law, and free markets) is driving minorities away from the party in droves.  How do we know this?  Why, just ask Politico, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the LA Times, Salon,  Slate, and any other major media publication.  The GOP is ruining the party by becoming too White in a country that is increasingly brown-ish.  There are just millions of Blacks, Asians and Hispanics who are ready and rearing to become goose-stepping TEA Partiers, if only Republicans weren’t so gosh-darned racist.  It’s great advice, except it’s not true.

Election results would seem to bolster the claims that Republican policies can’t appeal to minorities.  After all, CNN exit polls showed that Barack Obama won the support of 71% of Hispanic voters, 93% of Black voters and a healthy majority of any variation of Asian voters.  But, the Republican Party is not becoming more “White.”  At least, not in the sense that Republicans are gearing their policies and message specifically toward (and thereby only appealing to) Whites.  Rather, White People are becoming more Republican, and in that distinction there is a difference.