The Republican Party’s problems with civil rights and respect for minorities go way beyond a single offensive GOP lawmaker sparking another racial controversy. Although, one has to admit, there have been plenty of those of late — Trent Lott’s mess, Barbara Cubin comparing African Americans to drug addicts, Cass Ballenger admitting to having “segregationist feelings,” Haley Barbour hanging out with a racist, segregationist group, the list goes on (and on).
The GOP’s troubles in this area are historic and systemic. And stories like this one on the front page of the Washington Post help prove the point.
When Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Tex.) took charge of an independent political fund called American Dream PAC in 1999, he made clear that its mission was “to give significant, direct financial assistance to first-rate minority GOP candidates.”
Since then, only $48,750 — or 8.9 percent — of the $547,000 the southwest Texas congressman has raised for his political action committee has gone to minority office-seekers while more than $100,000 has been routed to Republican Party organizations or causes, including a GOP redistricting effort in Texas, a legal defense fund for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) and Bonilla’s reelection campaign. Most of the remainder of the money went to legal fees, fundraisers in Miami and other cities, airline tickets, hotels, catering services, consultants and salaries.
In fact, Republicans barely made any effort to use the “American Dream PAC” for its stated purpose.
Bonilla concedes that controls over the fund were lax. Last July, the political action committee’s treasurer pleaded guilty in a San Antonio federal court to embezzling $119,021 between 1999 and 2003. She was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
The thefts were not discovered until almost four years after they began. “It was a black mark on my judgment,” Bonilla said in a recent interview.
Perhaps Bonilla would be wise to avoid complaining about “black marks,” given the context of the controversy.
To be sure, this PAC is scandalous and should be the subject of an investigation. These committees are not supposed to raise money under false pretenses, telling donors that the funds will be used for one purpose, and then turning around using the contributions for something else. Fundraisers are not allowed to deceive donors about the nature of their contributions, but that certainly seems to be the case here.
And in Bonilla’s case, this PAC’s funds went to help just about everything except “first-rate minority GOP candidates,” including his own campaign re-election efforts.
But just as big an issue, and one that I find personally infuriating, is the entire practice of the GOP machine pretending to have any since interests in minorities. As Jesse Berney recently noted on the DNC’s blog, Republicans are using minorities as political props.
There are those who suggest the Republicans are cynical in their efforts to broaden the base to minorities. “It’s really all about white swing voters, and that’s what is so offensive to me,” says Faye Anderson, a former vice chair of the RNC’s minority outreach committee. “Republicans have a race problem. The white swing voters will not support a party that appears harsh, so they use black and brown faces to appeal to white voters, not to take care of those [minority] voters.”
Indeed, for every group Republicans form to allegedly expand outreach to minorities, I’ll show you another conservative organization that has a far different purpose. The African American Republican Leadership Council, for example, doesn’t seem to have any African Americans. The Black Alliance for Educational Options was created by wealthy white conservatives to serve as front group for public funding of private schools.
The Republicans’ alleged interest in minority communities is hollow when it’s not entirely fictional. GOP consultants insist every election cycle that this is the year minority voters break with the Dems and join the Republicans and every year they’re proven wrong. Considered in context, it’s fairly easy to see why.