"Not in my neighborhood": my weekly column

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This is my weekly newspaper column, published today. Also available online at:

http://cumberlink.com/articles/2008/12/04/opinion/columns/rich_lewis/doc4937ea815b9fe483759251.txt

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Diversity would help the Republicans
By Rich Lewis, Sentinel Columnist, December 4, 2008
Last updated: Thursday, December 4, 2008 11:50 AM EST

You can find dozens of explanations for why the Republican Party was so badly beaten in November — and there is probably some truth in all of them.

But in the end, all politics comes down to who got the most votes — who put together the broadest coalition or, as the cliche goes, built the bigger tent.

The GOP failed simply because its tent had shrunk to the size of an umbrella — leaving whole groups out in the rain.

“This party can no longer hope to reach Hispanics, African Americans and other minority groups — we need to just do it,” Florida Gov. Charlie Crist told the Republican Governors Association a few weeks ago. “Embracing cultures and lifestyles will make us a better party and better leaders.”

Others, including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, both moderates and rising stars in the party, echoed those sentiments at the conference.

Randy Pullen, the chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, hit the same nail on the head in his column this week: “We Republicans should cherish diversity of thought, of ways and of will. Differences can be worked out by encouraging tolerance for divergent views.”

But a survey from the Pew Research Center released on Tuesday suggests that Crist, Jindal, Pawlenty, Pullen and their allies face an enormous task in getting rank-and-file Republicans to embrace their message.

The survey hints at a deeply ingrained resistance to “diversity” among Republican voters that may block the party’s moderates from bringing in those desperately needed new groups and ideas.

The telephone survey, conducted from Oct. 3-19 among a nationally representative sample of 2,260 adults, asked whether the respondents would rather live in communities where people were “mostly like themselves” or where people were significantly different.

The question was posed in five different ways — and the results are very revealing.

Question 1: “Would you prefer to live in a community made up of mainly people with your political views or a mix of political views?”

Only 49 percent of “conservative Republicans” and 35 percent of “Republicans” said they would want to live in a place where their neighbors had varying political views. In contrast, 65 percent of both “liberal Democrats” and “Democrats” — and a whopping 74 percent of independents — said they preferred a community with mixed political views.

Question 2: “Would you prefer to live in a community made up of mainly people who are the same race as you or a mix of different races?”

Only 52 percent of Republicans chose racial diversity, but 73 percent of Democrats did so.

Question 3: “Would you prefer to live in a community where many people share your religion or there are many different religious groups?”

Only 44 percent of “conservative Republicans” and 46 percent of “Republicans” would want to live near people of varying religions — while 73, 66 and 67 percent of liberals, Democrats and independents respectively would prefer that diversity.

Question 4: “Would you prefer to live in a community where most people have to same socio-economic status as you or where there is a mix of upper, middle and lower classes?”

Here the numbers are quite a bit closer — 59 percent of conservatives and 57 percent of Republicans chose the mixed community, with 71, 63 and 63 percent of liberals, Democrats and independents doing so.

Question 5: “Would you prefer to live in a community with many immigrants or few immigrants?”

Very small numbers of conservatives and Republicans (14 and 16 percent) would want to live near immigrants — while 44, 32 and 24 percent of Democrats and independents would prefer to live among them.

The researchers then looked at all the responses and produced a summary table of “who’s for diverse communities” — which is the percentage of people in each group who gave “pro-diversity responses” to at least four of the five questions: 32 percent of conservatives, 35 percent of Republicans, 65 percent of liberals, 58 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of independents.

That is a remarkable spread — a 20-plus point difference between the two parties with independents lining up consistently with the Democrats.

The survey is only suggestive, but what it suggests is that Republicans are very uncomfortable around people who do not vote, look, worship or earn like they do — or who come from other countries. Significant numbers of Republicans don’t want these outsiders living on the same street or, presumably, under the same political tent, and surely that wariness/hostility gets communicated to the members of those “out” groups in a variety of ways.

Republican Party leaders were especially alarmed that young voters, those 18-29, favored Barack Obama over John McCain by a 2-1 margin. Interestingly, in the few cases where the Pew Researchers broke down their results by age, young voters preferred more diverse communities.

The heads of political parties both lead and follow the rank-and-file but can’t go too far either way. And this is the challenge that Republican moderates like Crist, Jindal and Pawlenty now face. They recognize that pandering to those resistant to diversity will likely result in more electoral disasters. On the other hand, if they push too hard for diversity, they risk an uprising that will split the party apart.

Pawlenty told the governors association the GOP must “put the ‘Welcome’ mat out for all Americans” and be “thoughtful and respectful” when it comes to the views of others.

But saying it at a conference might turn out to be a lot easier than selling it on the street.

Rich Lewis’ e-mail address is: [email protected]