How could the party of Lincoln that freed the slaves have so little credibility with African American and Hispanic voters? Cisco Borres, deputy Republican registrar of voters and vice chairman of the Republican Town Committee, writes that Republicans are losing the marketing war to Democrats. He shares a commentary in response to an OIB comment from Ron Mackey, a retired Bridgeport firefighter, who writes often on social issues impacting the city. Mackey observed the other day, “This is how blacks and Hispanics view the Republican Party on the national level, the suppression of black and brown voters, the anti-immigration stance, the attacks on labor unions and government workers … Well what has the local Republican Party done to change that mindset here in Bridgeport? Borres writes “the mistake of many is not the facts it’s the spin on what the Republican reasoning is.” His commentary follows:
Republicans do not wish to suppress the votes of “Black and Brown voters” we only seek to maintain the integrity of Elections by ensuring people do not commit fraud. Democrats argue there is not so much fraud being committed to worry about such things. My question to them would be; How much fraud is an acceptable amount? If requesting that people show state ID and be registered to vote is a racist statement then by that logic banks, airlines and car rental companies are also racist organizations.
In the past two years I have personally registered over 4000 new citizens from all over the world at their swearing-in ceremonies. The United States of America legally naturalizes more citizens every year than all other countries in the world combined, and we should be very proud of that. I can tell you from experience these are the people who are the most hurt by illegal immigration. Some of them, including my Cuban grandparents, spent years on waiting lists, studying and dealing with procedures those who have come here illegally have not had to, and it is this illegal immigration that in many cases has delayed and spat in the face of their naturalization process. I say Republicans are not against illegal immigration on the contrary we simply support legal immigration and proper procedure that is in place to protect its current and future citizens whatever their color.
There was a time in this great country’s history when labor unions became not only positive but necessary to protect workers from the abuse of their respective employers, however as is the case with most powerful organizations they have become abusive themselves over the years, some choking small, medium and large businesses alike into leaving this country altogether or cutting down the amount of employees they can hire. You could go as far as saying Unions and Government are jointly responsible for the unacceptable unemployment rates in this country. In the cases where unions have become abusive there have also been quality issues. When was the last time you have heard of a union worker being fired because they have simply not done a good job or had a below-par attendance record? This comes at a cost to hard-working Americans all over the country who will not “get the job” simply because they were not hired before someone else.
As to the question of what the local Republicans have done to change the mindset of Bridgeporters; have we already forgotten we have run a 100% Hispanic American for Mayor in two of the last three Mayoral races? When was the last time the Democrats have run a “Black or Brown” candidate for the top spot in the city?
The question, in my humble opinion, is not how Bridgeport Republicans can separate themselves from the National party’s ideals, which align with the ideals of “Black and Brown” families in most cases, but how to shed the false perception Democrats have painted on us. After all, The Republican Party was created first and foremost for the purpose of freeing the slaves. Later they became the party of Fredrick Douglas, Martin Luther King, and Luis Fortuño, the current governor of Puerto Rico. If Republicans are guilty of anything it is losing the marketing war to the Democrats who have done a great job of selling themselves on purely emotional stances.
Cisco Borres, so now what are you going to do?
Ron, I think you should be answering this question before you ask any other. “… have we already forgotten we have run a 100% Hispanic American for Mayor in two of the last three Mayoral races?”
A tea party nut job who is against minimum wage laws that benefit the poorest among our city many of whom are Latino or African American. A guy who was against amnesty for undocumented aliens yet supports wet foot dry foot which gives undocumented aliens from Cuba automatic green cards.
Good luck. The party of Lincoln may have freed the slaves in the late 1800s but if you put slavery on a referendum I am certain a huge amount of Republicans would vote to reintroduce it. On a national level the party has been very dismissive of minorities. Fox news is trying hard to put more African Americans on their station. To watch Sean Hannity using African American conservatives to attempt to push their big-tent agenda is just embarrassing. There IS nothing wrong with minority conservatives. The fact they are looked and treated like second-class citizens is just a fact. For brief moment in time I was a registered Republican. The party has become so out of touch it is sad. On a local level, my very good friend Mary Moran, the first woman Mayor elected in Bridgeport and most likely the last Republican to hold office in this city was treated so pathetically by the Republican party. I am certain although she remains a staunch Republican, which gives me great joy in destroying the party platform, I am certain she would not support the party in Bridgeport. Bridgeport is 9 to 1 Democrats over Republicans. It never gave rise to a strong Republican party. I maintain the Republican party has gone the way of the dinosaurs.
If it weren’t for the outnumbered Bridgeport Republicans, your idol Bill Finch would be the only one voting for (appointing) all members of the BOE. What’s so great of claiming a 9 to 1 advantage and still have low turnouts which would be even lower without the fraudulent AB operations? Steve mentions Fox news and leaves out all the other liberal news agencies spewing nothing but fear of Republicans. We have a Democratic Governor; Democratic majorities in the State House and Senate; all members of the House of Representative and US Senate are Democrats; Secretary of State and on and on are Democrats. What fucking good has it been, Steve? There is more than enough reason for Blacks and Hispanics to seriously consider voting Republican and there is surely enough reason for Blacks and Hispanics to join the Republican Party and push the platform the Democrats have only been promising yet failing to deliver. This country will be less split when the people learn to split their vote.
Joel, I will be as succinct as possible. I will always split my ticket. No party has me or anyone I respect in their pocket. To keep referring me as a Bill Finch sycophant is not insulting to me as much as it is embarrassing for you think so. Just because Democrats outnumber Republicans in Bridgeport as well as the country has more to do with their exclusive religious fanaticism than anything else. The time is ripe for a third party and a real choice. Party affiliation is only good for primary voting. The Republicans cannot make their case to an ever-evolving socially conscious country by continuing their religious rants and the belief for some reason they are the moral compass of the country. Truth be told you may CONTINUE TO ATTEMPT TO INSULT ME BY CALLING ME A FINCH SUCK UP. Truly it doesn’t bother as there is no individual on this blog I am trying to cozy up to. From this point forward just assume I will compliment a job well done and critique when it doesn’t serve my personal purpose. Joel, I think you catch my drift, right? If not I’ll attempt to explain again some time soon. You come across as a real idiot by attacking me. THE GOOD NEWS IS IT DOESN’T BOTHER ME–REALLY–I KID YOU NOT.
Joel–what political party are you affiliated with? Are you a Democrat, Republican or just plain confused? Your postings are just outright gibberish.
As of January 2, 2013, Alejandro Garcia Padilla is the newly elected Gobernador de Puerto Rico.
And your point, Joel? Garcia Padilla is affiliated with the Democratic Party as far as US politics is concerned and with the Popular Dems on the Commonwealth side, NOT a Republican.
Steven Auerbach … From your postings over the past year or so, I have been impressed. You believe strongly in your candidate, but first and foremost you want the best for the City. As do I.
To make a claim even today Republicans would continue to vote for slavery is ridiculous hyperbole that is beneath you.
As to Republicans being a force in Bridgeport, I believe that is much more a case of the middle class leaving cities in disgust. That leaves the stage to the Machine and the those who play off racial gerrymandering and “low-information voters.” Evidence of that would be looking at voter turnout. Incredible apathy and/or disinterest.
In terms of Republicans, how much different is Bridgeport, NYC, Hartford, New Haven, New Britain, etc.?
Denis OMalley, the “low-information voters” are now classified as “gullorant voters.” They are the type of people who are both gullible and ignorant, which leaves them as open prey for the Bridgeport Machine.
You cut off your finger and you are calling people gullible, and your home looks like a fortress out of a mad max movie … get a grip, Joel.
When I vote in Bridgeport the last thing I am interested or follow is the Machine.
How was dinner and drinks with Don Calamari Saturday night? You seem to be mixed up. Try 4-7-8 breathing. Or move. Yes, move. You want to contribute to the renaissance of Bridgeport? You should move somewhere else.
yahooy, did you really believe I was meeting with Mario??? OMG yahooy, say no more. You sir are naive.
Really Joel? “Gullorant” isn’t even a word. Did you skip a dose of your meds today?
Denis OMalley, if I have offended you I apologize. That being said, there is no question in my mind if you put slavery on a referendum, there would be 100’s of thousands of people who would vote for it. I am willing to bet most would be evangelical Christians. The Republican party has a history of being racist. They stick their feet in their mouths constantly. I do not need to fight for the obvious inequities of the Republican party to anyone. They do not even acknowledge Barack Obama is President. You can talk up the Republican party all you want but their platform speaks for itself and they spend way too much time worrying about social issues. The good news is they will not learn about their past mistakes so they really do not represent a challenge to an ever-changing youthful and minority voting block. So I say to Fox news–keep it up!!! Hillary 2016 … locally give up!
It goes without saying the GOP has a credibility problem with the national electorate. And it goes without saying many of the party’s positions appear to favor rich white men at the expense of the civil rights of African Americans, Latinos and other people of color, and women. Mitt Romney didn’t do himself or the party any favor by telling a private fundraising audience 48% of the nation is on some social welfare assistance via the state and/or local governments. (The audience consisted of rich old white “master of the universe” types.)
The Bridgeport GOP is squeezed on all sides, first by the massive registration disadvantage, second by a national and state party that is openly hostile to urban interests (leave the racial elements aside), and third by facing a local Democratic party that is actually quite a large tent ideologically. In any nearby town, a lot of the existing elected officials would be Republicans, but in Bridgeport they can run and win as Democrats (depriving the GOP of potential talent, as well as pragmatists who realize they have more influence as 1 of 30000 Democrats than as an active Republican). Reformers locked out by the DTC have another (more viable) outlet in Working Families. The strategy of cutting deals with the local Dems seems to have fizzled out (played unsuccessfully by Torres and somewhat more successfully by Russo in 2007). So what remains for Republicans are some hard-line tea-party types and a handful of hopeful idealists like Cisco here (who is, by all accounts, a smart and talented guy).
In this situation, I’d be asking myself what’s in a name–if my candidates would do better if they weren’t being associated with unpopular standard-bearers and controversial movements. Do you stay Republicans to influence the direction of the party? Is the affiliation something you treasure that was passed down through the generations? If you’re choosing “stay” over “bolt,” what’s the upside that outweighs the serious problem of not being able to elect any of your candidates over even fledgling minor parties?
Borres complains about illegals and then mentions his ties to Cuba in the next breath. For the last 5 decades Cubans have been crashing our boarders and been given virtually automatic green cards because Cuba is a dictatorship yet people from countries such as Haiti when it was under the Duvaliers or present-day China or Vietnam are routinely sent back. Stop the hypocrisy, Mr. Borres. It is time to end wet foot dry foot … The GOP has no problem with illegal immigrants as long as they are from Cuba.
Interested that a high proportion of boat people from Cuba are white while most “illegals” from other countries aren’t yet the GOP continues to defend wet foot dry foot as most of these people register as Republicans.
It’s 11:45 am. Have you taken your medication?
Have you chopped off any more limbs lately?
Wasn’t the Cuba thing started by Kennedy (D)? Cuban immigrants are legal. The issue is about legal immigration not fair immigration. If you want to end ‘one dry foot’ call Obama and tell him. I wonder if that would start the same ‘anti-Hispanic’ flap that would arise if Bush did it.
I don’t care who started it. The GOP is the biggest champion of this idiotic policy. Considering they don’t offer the same thing to Mexicans fleeing violence it certainly isn’t anti-Hispanic. And they don’t have visas so they shouldn’t be considered legal and if they don’t land they are sent back. And Congress has to repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act.
Auerbach? Seriously???
yahooy–Auerbach; seriously, what????????? Did I say something out of line and untrue?
Most people grab onto one issue and run with it. I.e. gay marriage, guns, abortion, etc. These are nonsense issues and do little to affect the quality of life of the majority of the country. They just seem to make people really upset. For all the gay marriage fuss, how many gay marriages have their been? A few hundred followed up by a few dozen gay divorces. Malloy is spending $17 million registering guns. He could have spread that $17 million across the 170 towns in CT to hire ~2 cops per town but he did not. And if you just don’t register your gun, how will they catch you? You REALLY think they are going to put you in jail for a year? That would be because our jails are not full enough?
If people in BPT continue to be distracted by these nonsense issues you can expect the surrounding towns to surge forward and BPT to languish and fall. We are in control of our own futures. If we want something different we need to do something different. Insanity is going the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Yeah, the rich are just for the rich. Sure they give millions to charity, civic organizations, churches and schools, run the businesses that give most of us our jobs, pay most of the taxes that run the government, but what have they done for us lately? If you are a Democrat anti-gun peacenik or a Republican anti-abortion priestnik and that is your biggest problem, you are doing a lot better than I am.
Linda McMahon gives most of her money to her political campaigns … spare me.
Yeah, she spent a lot on her campaign. He also has: Fishburne Military School, Sacred Heart University, East Carolina University, Close Up Foundation, Get R.E.A.L. program, Special Olympics and SmackDown! Your Vote campaign.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_McMahon
BRG–Do you ever get tired of being wrong?
Two expensive private institutions. She gives very little to programs that help the poor and what she does give pales in comparison with what she spends on self-serving spending like her campaigns and even the buildings at those schools named after her. It is publicity for her family business.
OK. I do not think she should give her money to anyone. I, personally, do not believe in charity. I believe you never get something for nothing. You always trade. In the case of charity you are trading your priceless dignity for a few shekels. Maybe 8 silver pieces, usually less. I have never even collected unemployment but maybe I am just lucky.
I was just pointing out she does donate to charity to the tune of $8 million. You don’t like her charities, she did not donate enough, her donations are self-serving and she did not donate anything to you, but ‘oh well.’
SPY. I truly hope you are not a weapons owner.
Yup, I own a few. Hand gun, rifle and shotgun. A regular one-man arsenal of democracy
Try not to shoot yourself.
I try to not let anyone shoot me.
The mindset in the City is Democratic. Not a big surprise where street money gets the young to a primary and then tell their friends about it by cell phone. Such a deal, dude!
That same primary had fellow Democrats at the Democratic ONLY Primary asking which line had the Republican candidates. Will you read that sentence again, please? (It’s those demon Republicans, the ones who have not been in office for years, by the way who are responsible for all our ills, I guess.)
It’s a battle for minds and mindsets. And it is first of all a battle to determine whether the local elected are using their minds with integrity (or their naked self-interest) in spending public money year in and year out. Whom do you trust, readers? A story from Sherwood Forest or revelations from a bow-tied Bozo on OIB who cannot nudge a City Council person to answer a question or discuss an issue in genuine dialogue? What do they fear? I have no power. I only advocate OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE and TRANSPARENT and I am trusted by righteous citizen taxpayers and even some City employees. What does that say about the environment we find ourselves in today? Time will tell.
Yawn!
Here’s an interesting read for Mr. Borres and like-minded OIB’ers.
www .theamericanconservative.com/articles/revolt-of-the-rich/
This story is written like this stuff is new. The Robber Barons of the 1900s did the same things and they were a lot richer, economically, than the rich of today are. Of the top 25 richest people in the world only 11 are American and slipping.
I have no problem voting for a Republican, I voted for Chris Shays until he kept supporting the war. Let’s look at the history of the Republican Party and civil rights and remember these two names, Dixiecrats (the term Dixiecrat is a portmanteau of Dixie, referring to the Southern United States, and Democrat) and Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ).
Harry Truman established a highly visible President’s Committee on Civil Rights and ordered an end to discrimination in the military in 1948. Additionally, the Democratic National Convention in 1948 adopted a plank proposed by Northern liberals led by Hubert Humphrey calling for civil rights; 35 southern delegates walked out. The move was on to remove Truman’s name from the ballot in the South. This required a new party, which the Southern defectors chose to name the States’ Rights Democratic Party, with its own nominee: Governor of South Carolina J. Strom Thurmond.
We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one’s associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one’s living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights.
The platform went on to say:
We call upon all Democrats and upon all other loyal Americans who are opposed to totalitarianism at home and abroad to unite with us in ignominiously defeating Harry S. Truman, Thomas E. Dewey and every other candidate for public office who would establish a Police Nation in the United States of America.
Finally, the impact of the 1964 act on the American political scene was profound. Bill Moyers, a former aide to LBJ, recalled, in a statement during a 1990 symposium at the President Library: Lyndon B. Johnson.
The night that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, I found him in the bedroom, exceedingly depressed. The headline of the bulldog edition of the Washington Post said, “Johnson Signs Civil Rights Act.” The airwaves were full of discussions about how unprecedented this was and historic, and yet he was depressed. I asked him why.
He said, “I think we’ve just delivered the South to the Republican Party for the rest of my life, and yours.”