As part of his well-wrought series of articles on the Georgia Senate race, the Guardian‘s Paul Lewis talks with the minority outreach staffer the RNC has sent to Georgia in hopes of getting their African-American vote up into the double digits this November. His name is Leo Smith, and he has an interesting approach to his job:
He believes African Americans are naturally inclined to a conservative belief system, in tune with the Republican focus on the family and free-market economics. Republicans, he says, are already capitalising on this, pointing to the recent $25m grant by the billionaire Koch brothers to the United Negro College Fund, which gives students financial aid.
“We need to make Charles Koch not sound like something you snort, but something you can aspire to be like,” Smith said. “What is wrong with wealth? Nothing.”
Oh brother. But that’s not all.
Leaning forward, Smith adopted a stage whisper, re-enacting one of the quiet conversations he says he often has with African Americans.
“Do you really hate rich fat cats? But what if you had an opportunity to be rich fat cat tomorrow. Would you take it?” Switching to a different voice, he added: “Yeah! I would!”
Smith concluded: “I never went to a black person who said that they don’t want to be a rich fat cat.”
I think Leo Smith should get out of the way and just let Herschel Walker–a rich fat cat himself, I assume–take charge.
