Opinion
Even in Defeat, Republicans Still Don’t Get It
W
ith the elections now
over, I am stunned with
the postmortum coming
from the Republican Party and the
lack of substantive analysis from
its operatives.
Those who follow my writings
know that I have written exten-
sively
about
the
shifting
demographics of our country and
the need for Republicans to ade-
quately address this issue. For
this, I have been constantly criti-
cized by fellow Republicans, not
for the substance of what I wrote,
but for sharing my views with the
public.
Romney was by far the biggest
loser of this election cycle. How
is it possible in the 21st century to
run a national campaign with no
Blacks or Hispanics of conse-
quence on staff? Well, Romney
managed to do it. And you won-
der why Blacks voted against
Romney to the tune of 93 percent
and Hispanics 70 percent? These
groups were often not voting for
Obama, but against Romney. The
sad and unforgivable part was
Romney and his team were not
even cognizant that they had no
people of color on staff. Republi-
G OVERNMENT A FFAIRS
Raynard Jackson
cans are so used to hiring all of
their friends and children of their
friends, that they have truly
become colorblind or just blind to
people of color.
Let me be clear: When I say on
staff, I mean people with hiring
authority, budgetary control, or
the ability to get a meeting with
the boss put on the calendar.
But, it’s not just Romney. The
RNC, under Reince Priebus, has
no Blacks or Hispanics in power-
ful staff positions; the House
Campaign Committee, under
Congressman Pete Sessions?
Ditto. The Senatorial Committee,
under Sen. John Cornyn? Ditto.
So, this issue of lack of diversity is
a structural thing that permeates
every level of the Republican
Party.
The second biggest loser was
Black Republicans. The harshest
criticism of me has come from
Black Republicans who are look-
ing to be validated by Whites in
the Republican Party (most of
them are in Texas, Florida and the
D.C. area). Whites in the party
know they can count on them to
validate the most extreme behav-
ior and rhetoric coming out of
their mouths.
I believe I am the only Black
Republican with a national media
platform who called for Romney
to remove John Sununu as nation-
al co-chair of his campaign
vention over the summer. I am the
only one who called for Sarah
Palin to sit down and shut up
regarding her “shucking and jiv-
ing” comment about President
Obama. These are just a few
examples.
So, to these Blacks that have
their daggers constantly aimed at
my back, you should know that I
have helped to raise more than $
How is it possible in the 21st century to
run a national campaign with no Blacks
or Hispanics of consequence on staff?
Well, Romney managed to do it
because of the racist language
about President Obama. I am the
only one who harshly criticized
Romney and Priebus for not hav-
ing any Blacks or Hispanics on
staff. I am the only one who criti-
cized Romney for speaking before
the NAACP without having a
message or anything substantive
to say. I am the only one who crit-
icized the Party for its dearth of
Blacks and Hispanics at the con-
300k for Romney’s campaign and
since December, have helped raise
more than $ 1million for Republi-
can candidates this cycle. In other
words, I have earned the right to
criticize my party.
Post-election, the party leader-
ship is talking without saying
anything. Republicans are saying
things like: “We need to do a bet-
ter job communicating our
conservative message to minori-
ties.” What? Are you kidding
me?
Why has the media never asked
these Republicans to define what
“conservatism” is? But, this high-
lights the Republican’s problem
when it comes to diversity. They
want to come into our community
and tell us what we have to
believe, as opposed to asking us
what we believe and use that as
the basis of building a mutually
beneficial relationship.
Until the party actually starts
hiring minorities on every level
of the party, spending money
travelling to meet with minori-
ties, and tone down the
incendiary language coming
from our party, wewill never
make any advances with the
minority community.
So far the party is talking loud
and saying nothing.
Raynard Jackson is president &
CEO of Raynard Jackson & Asso-
ciates, LLC., a Washington,
D.C.-based public relations/gov-
ernment affairs firm. He can be
reached through his Web site,
www.raynardjackson.com.
LV’s
continued from page 3
The OLCC refutes any claims that LV’s was unfairly tar-
geted.
According to an email statement from public affairs spe-
cialist Christie Scott, “While it may be true that there are
historical problems with drugs in the Boise neighbor-
hood, the charges in this case stem from the activity
occurring at the licensed premises. The neighborhood is
changing, and that creates tensions. Nevertheless, neither
the neighborhood history nor the neighborhood tensions
were the basis for these charges.”
The most recent charges were compiled from a period
between March and September where undercover police
officers were observing the bar. Charges revolved around
drug activity on the premise, including people smoking
marijuana in the smoking area and an employee selling
crack (For a copy of the OLCC’s charges, go here).
Van says he was already on probation in January and get-
ting ready to fight those charges. At that time, he had gotten
a letter from the OLCC, listing four charges, three of which
he was at the bar for.
In one particular incident, he says he called the police
about women doing drugs on the premise but they didn’t
respond in a timely manner. He had one of the women
kicked out but when the police came around later, they
found the ladies behind the building and he was cited for it.
Van says he was going to court to fight this when the
most recent charges came.
In the case of the men smoking marijuana in the smoking
area, he says he kicked them out as soon as he was alerted
to it.
“How are you going to charge me for when someone
does something and I kick them out?” Van asks.
He says that incidents of people buying drugs from the
bar were actually cases where undercover officers went to
people playing video poker and those people took them to
areas away from the bar to buy drugs.
Van takes issue with the use of undercover police because
he says there was no communication with him, even while
he was making efforts to curb the bar’s problems.
“Why did you let a case build up secretly when I was try-
ing to clean things up?” he asks. “Rather than take time to
support me they wanted to see it shut down.”
He says that he was supposed to have a hearing in Octo-
ber about the charges from January but it turned into battle
over his liquor license after the latest incidents. Van didn’t
find it economically feasible to fight, considering he’d
already lost 65 percent of his business and there was no
sign of the OLCC easing restrictions.
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November 14, 2012
The Portland Skanner Page 5