Sunday, April 13, 2014

Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee...

...spoke at the Freedom Summit in New Hampshire yesterday. From an article in the Times (my emphasis):

Mr. Paul offered up his message of making the Republican Party more ecumenical by reaching out to Americans who feel conservatives do not look out for them. And in doing so, he offered some blunt advice.

“The door’s not going to open up to the African-American community, to the Hispanic community, until we have something to offer,” he said, adding that Republicans should care more that minorities are so overrepresented in the prison population.

“But your kids and grandkids aren’t perfect either” Mr. Paul said. “The police don’t come to your neighborhoods. You get a better lawyer. These are some injustices. We’ve got to be concerned about people who may not be part of our group, who may not be here today.”

And I agree. 

But I also have a little advice for Sen. Paul: If you really want to be the presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 2016, drop this line of thinking from your stump speech immediately. This will never appeal to today's GOP. Ask yourself, do you know any Republicans who would agree with him on this? I don't. "Minorities are overrepresented in prison." I concur; but I'm not a Republican. And talking like that to the GOP base is a political death wish.  

Doesn't Sen. Paul know his audience?

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