A blog post from professor Jack Pitney, identifying ways that the Republican National Committee has previously attempted to bring minorities and young voters into its fold has, so far, earned more than 3,000 page views.
The blog, which draws on content from a textbook written by Pitney and CMC colleague Joseph Bessette, gives examples of the rather bumpy ways the RNC has attempted over the years––and still, now–– to win over minorities, women, and young voters. Pitney, the Roy P. Crocker Professor of American Politics, posted the blog on Sunday, March 17, under the headline: GOP Outreach: A History. The examples begin at about 1977 and move forward through December 2003.
“Pitney’s list is a stark reminder that the attempt to expand the party’s membership outlined by Republican National Committee Chairmans Reince Priebus Monday follows many others that have come up relatively empty,” writes National Public Radio’s Frank James. James featured Pitney’s timeline in a March 19 blog for NPR called: Scholar Outlines the Long, Rocky Road of GOP Outreach Efforts.
"We've seen this movie before,” Pitney said in an interview. “The Republican National Committee has frequently mounted outreach efforts over the past several decades. The big question is whether this time will be different.”
The textbook co-authored by Pitney and Bessette, who is the Alice Tweed Tuohy Professor of Government and Ethics, is called American Government and Politics: Deliberation, Democracy, and Citizenship and is based on the idea of “deliberative democracy.”