The GOP's new hue

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

For a generation, the Republican Party's demographic problem has been summed up in three adjectives: too old, too white, too male.

That’s why GOP officials are thrilled by the prospect of a South Carolina gubernatorial nominee whose profile boasts another three adjectives—young, Indian-American, female.

Suddenly, the historically monochrome Republican Party is flashing a few glints of color, with thirty-eight-year-old Nikki Haley the most prominent representative of a class that represents something of a breakthrough.

The congressional and gubernatorial primaries held so far this year have put the GOP on the verge of electing an array of diverse new faces to high office, which stands to upend the party’s country club image and perhaps even diminish one of the most enduring punch lines in American politics.

This won't solve the GOP’s deep structural problems in a rapidly-changing country—namely the party’s weakness among young and non-white voters—but the unusual crop of candidates plays against stereotypes of the party in ways that are a vast relief to top Republican strategists.

There has never been a non-white female governor in the nation’s history—yet the GOP could elect two in November. New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, an Hispanic, won her party’s nomination last month and South Carolina’s Haley, who got just under half the vote in her primary Tuesday and is the heavy favorite in a runoff later this month.

In the West, where Democrats made significant inroads in the last two election cycles, aside from Martinez Republicans have nominated a pair of women to run for governor and Senate in California, a woman to run for the Senate and an Hispanic to run for governor in Nevada, and there are competitive female gubernatorial and Senate candidates in Arizona and Colorado. In Hawaii Lt Gov. Duke Aiona, who is of Chinese, Portuguese and native Hawaiian descent, is running for governor.

In Florida, 39-year-old Cuban-American Senate hopeful Marco Rubio became such a hit among conservatives that he forced a once-popular governor out of the party and is already being talked about as having a place on a future national ticket.

And after lacking a single black Republican in Congress since 2003, Republicans are fielding a number of African-American House candidate—including one, Tim Scott of South Carolina, who would be the first Deep South black Republican since Reconstruction.

"Our party is going to be lead by younger and more diverse elected officials," crowed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who lent his support to a number of the candidates, in an email. "They are united in embracing a rollback of government’s power, American entrepreneurial capitalism and a zeal for reform."

In the short-term, a diverse group of GOP officeholders next year would translate into a new set of potential surrogates for the party’s presidential candidate in 2012. Particularly in battleground states, having a woman or minority statewide official could help in those communities where Republican White House hopefuls have lagged.
________

The real victory here is one in diversity of thought, as women and minorities who break with liberal orthodoxy are commonly branded as "Traitors".

[pinz]

This article should be sent far and wide as an example with how racist, sexist and arrogant the mainstream media is. Haven't we left stereotypes of race, gender and ethnicity back in the 20th century?????

[Argyle58]

This article should be sent far and wide as an example with how racist, sexist and arrogant the mainstream media is. Haven't we left stereotypes of race, gender and ethnicity back in the 20th century?????

 

It is quite possible that the post "Great Society" age has finally emerged and the racial/gender minorities are finally beginning the understand the difference between the Liberal and Conservative philosophies...:

 

Liberals: We define the American Dream and strive to provide it.

 

Conservatives: Define your version of the American Dream, and we will strive to help you achieve it.

 

I hope that my version of the story is correct, and that the trend continues.

[pinz]

Me, too, Argyle, me, too.