A recent posting at Right Michigan reminded me of a subject I had been meaning to broach. Dennis Lennox III, who has declared his intent to run for a Michigan house seat points out the republicans have fewer women participating in caucus. His proposal to garner votes for Republicans:
Instead of going after the usual suspects for candidate recruitment, Republicans should commit to having 50 percent of State House candidates be under 35. Additionally, 50 percent of 2010 candidates should be women.
Hogwash.
Identifying and equalizing the outcomes is not a conservative element. And though I might agree with Dennis 85% of the time, this is the thinking that has brought the Republican party so far to the statist left, that it had become irrelevant in the recent election. One commenter on the article actually hit a couple points with which I concur: (Emphasis mine)
The shared values of true Conservatives do not recognize nor pander to ‘groups’, but rather represent a call-to-arms for all Americans, regardless of race, age, gender, religion, or any other group to whom the other political parties pander.
If the GOP wants to win, it simply needs to shine a light on the vast differences between Conservatives and Liberals. Rather than running against an individual, our candidates need to run against the true Liberal beliefs. You know, those wacky beliefs that Liberals, themselves, prefer not to mention until after they’re elected (because they know most Americans would not share their radical views, so they have to keep them under wraps).
The commenter (MichWolverine) Makes the point that must be hammered home again and again.. The Republicans need to focus on educating ALL, so that those who wish to be good stewards of that which the founders gave us, will have the proper understanding and tools to work with. True conservatism denies that there needs to be a special attention placed on any one group to make THAT GROUP important. We are all equally capable of producing ideas, wealth, and producing a future for our children.
Balance, Diversity, Fairness.. These are words which have ill served women, minorities or groups that are taught to feel “slighted” by leftists (statist liberals) or those who seek power through the harvesting of victims. The Al Sharptons, and Jesse Jacksons of the world feed off of the crops of despair they farm. The perceived racism as a result of lesser opportunity due to lifestyle and family structure is fertilized by rewards through the state for maintaining those lifestyles and familial arrangements. The STATE encourages the dissolution of the family through its capitulation to the Al’s and Jesse’s. As one of my favorite writers, Walter Williams notes:
The illegitimacy rate among blacks stands at about 70 percent. Less than 40 percent of black children are raised in two-parent households. Those are major problems but they have nothing to do with racial discrimination. During the early 1900s, illegitimacy was a tiny fraction of today’s rate and black families were just as stable as white families.
Williams writing explains further that the reasons are hardly as the result of conservative views but that the very attempts to mollify the indignant among us merely produces more of the same undesired results.
Tragically, many black politicians and a civil rights industry have a vested interest in portraying the poor socioeconomic outcomes for many blacks as problems rooted in racial discrimination. One of the reasons they are able to get away with such deception is because there are so many guilt-ridden white people. Led by guilt, college administrators, employers and others in leadership positions, in the name of diversity, buy into nonsense such as lowering standards, racial preferences and acceptance of behavior standards they wouldn’t accept from whites.
And as it is with race, sexism’s face begins with those who suggest government, or programs, or active diversity will cure the differences. The left mines the guilt, the politicians till the soil of special interest, the result is always the same. Always.
So, to Mr. Lennox’s suggestion? Nay.
The best possible course of action for Republicans is to remind folks of their PERSONAL responsibility, and that no political organization, government, or special lobbyists can make them as individuals any more successful. That personal excellence is a product of (sometimes) hard work, (always) conscious decision making, and owning up to our personal mistakes and weaknesses. Remind ALL that only THEY have the best interests at heart for their own greatness.
Recruiting women so we can say we represent women? Or minorities because we might otherwise be perceived as racist? It is anathema to conservative principles. It is playing the same philosophical game that has wreaked havoc on the very groups which have been targeted to receive relief. Republicans who expect to lead in the future should have a clear understanding of why diversity for the sake of diversity is wrong.
Outcomes are irrelevant… Opportunity exists for all if it is recognized. THAT is the message and what needs to be delivered by Republicans.
