The GOP -- The White People's Party?

Has the party of Lincoln, Radical Reconstruction, and Teddy Roosevelt become the "White People's Party"? A Washington Post article this morning raises just this question -- or more specifically party leaders are beginning to wonder about the practices and rhetoric of the leading GOP candidates.

They have consistently turned down opportunities to debate before minority groups. This is on top of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that is being used to satisfy a nativist base. Listen to former VP candidate Jack Kemp:

"We sound like we don't want immigration; we sound like we don't want black people to vote for us," said former congressman Jack Kemp (N.Y.), who was the GOP vice presidential nominee in 1996. "What are we going to do -- meet in a country club in the suburbs one day? If we're going to be competitive with people of color, we've got to ask them for their vote."

Indeed!

I close with this from Tavis Smiley, scheduled to host one of those snubbed debates:

"When you reject every black invitation and every brown invitation you receive, is that a scheduling issue or is it a pattern?" he asked. "I don't believe anybody should be elected president of the United States if they think along the way they can ignore people of color. That's just not the America we live in."