An Opportunity for the Republican Party

[Trapper John]

I am on Newt Gingrich's email list and I just received this from his site. Like some of the Conservatives on this site and as one already said, I wish that Big Newt had disciplined Little Newt better and that he didn't have some the baggage from his relationships with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - he would have been my choice as the Republican Party's nominee in the last election. But that's water under the bridge.

I really like the entrepreneurial approach to addressing the poverty issue. This, IMO, is an excellent opportunity for the Republican party to redefine itself, get out in front on an important social issue, and still be true to Conservative values- or at least as I see them.

The idea of pairing members of the Black Congressional Caucus and Republican members of Congress to host one another in their district is one of the best ideas I have heard towards building understanding and cooperation in the Congress.

The text from that email is posted below.


Dear Friend,

I was very privileged to be invited to participate yesterday in Tavis Smiley's "A Vision for America: A Future Without Poverty" at George Washington University.
This two and a half hour discussion was televised live on C-SPAN and will be carried over four nights on PBS next week.

Tavis is celebrating his tenth year as a regular on PBS. I have always found his interviews to be fair and open to new ideas and new information. He reminded me that I was his second guest in launching his series ten years ago. (Bill Cosby was the first.) We have formed a genuine friendship and mutual engagement in the hard process of developing bipartisan solutions to great challenges.

When he asked me to participate I was delighted. Poverty in America is a large and growing problem. Any American who believes we were endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness has to be upset that so many million Americans are unable to lead full lives.

Tavis had assembled a remarkable group to discuss poverty including some passionate folks who had spent their lifetime trying to help the poor. In the course of the evening, two really useful steps emerged. First, after a powerful description by Mariana Chilton of the hard work and courageous efforts of many women in poverty to develop more entrepreneurial attitudes it occurred to me that it would be a significant step forward to rethink all assistance to the poor from the standpoint of encouraging and facilitating entrepreneurial behavior. I was deeply impressed last September by the opportunity to talk with Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank. His courageous development of micro lending with loans as small as $27 led to a revolution in access to credit for the poor in Bangladesh. Today there are Grameen-like facilities operating in over 40 countries including the United States.

An empowerment model would change a lot of American laws and regulations about entitlements, disability, food stamps, Medicaid, etc. It would rethink every rule from the standpoint of encouraging independence, enterprise, and effort.
Second, we were very fortunate to have the newly elected Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio on the panel. In the discussion we agreed that a big step forward would be to match up the 42 members of the Congressional Black Caucus with 42 Republican members of Congress. Each would host the other for three days in their district.
The process of talking through and planning the visits would in themselves give members and their staffs a lot of opportunity to get to know each other better.
The actual visits would be very educational for both members and their staffs. There are a lot of differences between the districts and constituencies of much of the Congressional Black Caucus and many of the House Republicans.
Listening to each other’s constituents and visiting each other’s supporters and communities would expand both sides understanding of concerns and needs.

These two steps are both helpful innovations at a time when we need to rethink our approach to helping the poor leave poverty and we need to regain bipartisanship and communication across party lines.

Tavis Smiley deserves a lot of credit for bringing us together. The panel, featuring Dr. Cornel West, Congresswoman Fudge, Dean John Graham of the Indiana University School of Environmental and Public Affairs, Jeffery Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia, Jonathan Kozol, who writes on public education, Rose Anne DeMoro, head of the nurses’ union, and Mariana Chilton of the Drexel School of Public Health. You can watch on Tavis Smiley’s show on PBS all next week.

Your Friend,
Newt

[Stiletto11]

I think we need a Constitutional Caucus but there would be only 4 or 5 members.

[Dusty]

I think we need a whole new Congress. Clean sweep. Make 2010 look like a libdem victory.

[The Reaper]

I hve serious doubts about Cornell West's ability to address this problem set with anything approaching an open mind.

I am not familiar with the other esteemed members of the panel, but unless the others were centrists and West was a foil for Newt, it sounds to me like the panel may have been composed of people of a common mindset.

Since the CBC routinely ostracises conservative black Congressmen, I am not exactly sure how they would be paired up with conservative white Congressmen.

The one positive thing I did take from the article is that at least someone is communicating and proposing new ideas for outreach.

Just my .02, YMMV.

TR

[Sigaba]

Professor West and Mr. Smiley have been two of the current POTUS's most consistent, determined, and articulate critics. While the former tends to voice his thoughts before thinking them through more often than I would like, the latter tends to balance him out when they're working in tandem.

IMO, both men represent a dynamic that remains misunderstood and under appreciated by the Republican party. Namely, blacks in America, like other cohorts, are interested in ideas and policies that improve their sense of self efficacy and make the burdens of everyday life more bearable. Concurrently, they are, if one cares to listen, a politically and intellectually diverse group that often articulates the same criticisms of liberals that conservatives do.

MOO, one of the biggest stumbling blocks in any dialog between blacks and Republicans will center around the role of the federal state in our every day lives. To me, the GOP can do a lot to overcome this obstacle by stepping away from some of the vitriolic rhetoric and stereotypes that are increasingly common place and take a look at its own storied history. Simultaneously, many participants in the conversation would benefit if they were to cease viewing those holding opposing viewpoints as objects.

My two cents. YMMV.

[PSM]

Originally Posted by Sigaba

To me, the GOP can do a lot to overcome this obstacle by stepping away from some of the vitriolic rhetoric and stereotypes that are increasingly common place...

Good strategy; become wimpier than they already are.

Pat