The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) has responded to clear evidence of the voting public’s exhaustion with diversity-obsessed politics by launching a program intended “to grow the Republican Party from the ground up with more diverse candidates and elected officials,” according to a press release.
“We’re incredibly proud that women and minorities led the way to a historic 2021 election year,” said RSLC President Dee Duncan, “and are excited about those from all walks of life who are already jumping in to help us finish the fight in 2022.”
In a promotional video accompanying the release, however, Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina appear to reject the premises that would justify overt diversity-and-inclusion initiatives.
“What’s so unique about American identity, is it’s not a skin color,” said Rubio. “Never has been. Never should have been. It’s not an ethnicity.”
“Most Americans,” added Scott, “what they’re looking for really is the content of your character, not the color of your skin.”
The same message-confusion was on display in a Washington Post op-ed touted by the RSLC, in which Henry Olsen, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, argued that “there has never been a better time to be a woman or minority Republican than today.”
Why? Because, Olsen wrote, “primary voters don’t care about a candidate’s gender, race or ethnicity . . . So long as a candidate largely shares the party’s mix of conservative and populist beliefs, that person is in the hunt.”
Chronicles associate editor Pedro Gonzalez has warned that establishment Republicans are determined to learn the wrong lessons from Glenn Youngkin‘s populism-driven victory in Virginia.
“The survival and potency of populist political movements will depend upon perpetual vigilance, as well the as discipline and accountability of the people it empowers,” wrote Gonzalez. “It must be guided by the Middle American radicals, not GOP establishment advisors or pundits.”
