SOPHIA NELSON COMMENTARY: It's My Party, But I Don't Feel Part Of It

The moderate Republican commentator and former congressional staffer opines: "Election night was a bittersweet night for me. Like most Americans, and especially as an African American, I found it deeply moving to watch President-elect Barack Obama and his family -- soon to be our nation's first African American first family -- stride onstage for his victory speech. I welcome the positive role models they'll present to black families and the American public at large. But as a black Republican, I was chagrined that the political party I've belonged to for 20 years had just suffered a blistering electoral defeat. And that along the way, it had lost 96 percent of the black vote and 67 percent of the Hispanic vote -- the worst showing for the Republican Party among minorities in its 150-year history. After such a devastating loss, Republicans will have to do some retooling. We'll have to decide whether we want to be the party that believes in smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation, or whether we're going to be a litmus-test party that responds only to the demands of social conservatives. But most important, we'll have to confront our most disastrous modern legacy: our poor relationship with black Americans, the very people the party was formed to protect from the expansion of slavery into Kansas and Nebraska in 1854."

She continues her commentary: "Republicans need to go to black churches, colleges and other organizations to make the case for the party as a viable option for African Americans. It should mentor and nurture young black Republicans on college campuses, teaching them to canvass, providing paid internships and encouraging them to attend party rules and platform meetings, where real political power resides. It should introduce elected black state and local officials to the national donor base to help them build their coffers for future elections. It should recruit blacks in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic and in urban districts, offering a Marshall Plan of sorts to rebuild our cities, encourage entrepreneurship and small business start-ups and promote lower taxes for job creation. And the party can make better use of black veterans of past administrations, just as it does of white Republicans who get recycled and advanced in each new administration -- people like former Pennsylvania Republican committee deputy chairman Renee Amoore; former Atwater aide and George H.W. Bush appointee David Byrd; former George W. Bush appointee Clarence Carter; Sam Cornelius, former chairman of the National Black Republican Council; Thelma Duggin, former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan; and former George H.W. Bush aide Joe Watkins."

My response: Ain't that precisely the job of black Republicans, such as Ms. Nelson, to do? If she wants to see more blacks in her political party, then start knocking on some doors, increase the on-the-ground operation, and work to create the Republican Party demographics that she wants to see. No one is better positioned to convince black folks that they should join the GOP than other black folks.