Being a former member of the Republican party, I don’t often indulge my occasional desire to offer the GOP messaging advice. But every time I hear Barack Obama say something like this . . .
It took time to free the slaves. It took time for women to get the vote.
. . . I wish the Republicans would response with an ad that says: “Yes, it took time to free the slaves. Time and a Republican president. One who had the courage of his convictions.”
As for women’s suffrage, the debate about the relative timing and importance of enfranchising women versus enfranchising blacks took place almost entirely within the Republican party. You know the famous episode in which Susan B. Anthony was arrested for illegally voting? The evidence against her was a note she sent to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, informing her that she had “positively voted the Republican ticket — straight.” Take that, Rahm.
Frederick Douglass should be as much the face of the Republican party as Reagan and Goldwater.
If the GOP had any brains (I know, I know!) it would spend a fair amount of money reminding the world: This is what a radical Republican looks like:
