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Inside the Newsroom: Republicans rethink and regroup By Chris Peck, Memphis Commercial Appeal The nation's Republican governors went to Florida last week, not for a tan, but to try to soothe the hurt of the scorching the party took in this year's presidential and congressional elections. The question on the governors' lips: Whither the GOP? Does the party have a future? Will the ideas of a conservative opposition still float the boat of a nation where more people voted for a Democratic presidential candidate than at any other time in 40 years? While the bigwigs ponder their fate in Florida, a road trip to Tennessee might be in order. Despite President-elect Obama's massive win nationally, he didn't win in Tennessee. In the Obama tidal wave Democrats increased their numbers in the U.S. Senate by at least five, but Lamar Alexander, Tennessee's popular incumbent Republican senator, easily won re-election. Tennessee Republicans also won majorities in both chambers of the state legislature for the first time since 1869. The deep red roots of Republicanism still run through Tennessee's rural counties, entwine older white men and hold fairly strong in the suburbs. And this very pattern has been at the heart of the GOP's Southern strategy for the last 20 years. But can this be the party's future? Probably not. Because America is headed in a very different direction. The fastest growing minority in the United States, and in Memphis and the rest of Tennessee, is the Hispanic population. Barack Obama won big with Hispanics. And African-Americans. And Asians. White men over 60 voted for John McCain, but white men ages 18 to 45 voted for Obama. This post-baby boomer crowd is now the country's fastest growing demographic. Yes, the richest of the rich voted for McCain. But the number of Americans earning $100,000 a year or less is growing -- and voted Obama. The rural vote went for McCain, too. But fewer people live in rural America today. Meanwhile, the urban and suburban population grows larger by the day and Obama won their votes. Republicans looking for a future may find a learning moment right here in Greater Memphis, where we are fast becoming what America will be in the future: younger, less white, more urban and poor. Yet deep in this urban blue heart of the Obama landslide, some Shelby County Republicans continue to prosper. In the days after the presidential election, I spoke with two successful Republican politicians to get their take on where their party should head. ''If Republicans want to win in the future they have to address issues of real concern to the entire urban community,'' suggested Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons, a proud Republican who has eyes on the governor's office. ''These concerns are pretty obvious: crime, safe neighborhoods, better schools, more and better jobs.'' ''And while I can go speak to a predominantly white audience in Collierville about these issues and they are supportive, when I go speak to a predominantly back audience I get a great sense of urgency on these issues. The Republicans have to address that urgency,'' he added. In other words, don't let the Republican Party become a bastion for white privilege. Newly elected Memphis City Councilman Kemp Conrad was even more blunt. ''On major issues the Republican Party has lost its way,'' he said. ''If you look at the map, the Republicans dominate the rural areas and the Democrats dominate the urban areas, because the urban areas face challenges that the Republicans frankly have not addressed.'' Conrad then ticked off the challenges facing the Republican Party: to help move people out of poverty; to help make cities safe; to help reduce racial and class tensions; to include more people of color, more women, more young people. Conrad recalled an old saying ''that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. So what Republicans need to do right now is show that they care.'' Republicans like Gibbons, Conrad, Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell and state Sen. Mark Norris make an effort to go into black, Hispanic and poor neighborhoods to talk and listen. These Republicans genuinely believe they have some better options for solving community problems. And they aren't afraid to go deep into the community to share their ideas. ''Republicans shouldn't be carbon copies of Democrats,'' explained Gibbons. ''We should be proactively talking about conservative principles and show how they can be applied to the problems of the entire community.'' Gibbons talks often about the need for personal responsibility. He offers up a healthy dose of skepticism about big bureaucracies actually helping solve community problems, when volunteer and neighborhood efforts can be more effective. He's tough on crime, particularly in African-American neighborhoods. And wherever he shows up, he says the GOP needs more people of color running for office. Will the national GOP learn the lessons that Republicans in Shelby County have mastered? That remains to be seen. But we have models right here, in an Obama-voting populace, of how Republicans can survive and thrive.
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