As a former Republican who is now an Independent, I can understand why those outside the party view it as a good ol' boys club that caters primarily to those of the white race, especially those who relate to the southern values system. A couple of months ago, I was chatting with a fellow co-worker who is a devout Republican and he was making the comment that the "viscous left wing lunatics" have painted his party as primarily catering to just white folks.
I commented that when you look at Fox News which does cater to the right (nothing wrong with that), the anchors are overwhelmingly white, the opinion shows are all lean, if not directly fall, to the right hosted by white folks, the one big lefty, Colmes, is no longer on the one "balanced" show and the one remaining is always talking about setting up rallies with the music being provided by pretty much just country & western types.
He disagreed and said that Sean Hannity also includes many R&B and pop folks in these shows. I replied that I had never seen that since I have been watching for the past several years. He said to keep watching and I will see it. Well I have been checking Sean out from time to time on his radio and televsion shows and it just reaffirmed what I had said in the beginning.
Today I was on KFMB's web site looking for podcasts from Rick Roberts who I enjoy listening to even though I may not agree with many of his political views. On Ricks page is an ad touting the "Freedom Concerts 2010." Well he does have some non-country folks playing there. Unfortunately, it is two bands who just reinforce the "primarily catering to just white folks" image. Both are Southern Rock Bands, one of whom, Lynyrd Skynyrd, is closely associated with flying the Confederate Flags at their concerts, which I am sure is a real attraction to those of Americans of African descent.
While the Republican party may say they are trying to reach out to those outside their perceived demographic, what they are seen doing seems to suggest otherwise. When I showed this to my co-worker, even he had to utter an expletive deleted.
Donny