Chris Jepson: Obama's Winter Park headquarters opens Sept. 7

Gays, blacks and women. I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend why a gay man or a black woman or women in general would claim or want membership in the Republican Party. What is going on? What have Republicans the last 50 years represented that would have you, as an African-American, gay or female, identifying with them? I simply do not understand.

Depending on the specific state, anywhere from 85 percent to 96 percent of Republican Party affiliation is white. The Republican Party is the party of older, white, male America. Which is fine. All Americans have the right to associate with their like-minded brethren. I want it no other way. Such polarity, however, suggests underlining values that make the Republican Party exactly what it is, the party exclusively of old, white, straight America.

I am frankly stunned (shocked!) that there is a group such as the Log Cabin Republicans purporting to represent the interests of gay and lesbian Republicans. Why belong to a political party so at odds with who you are as a human being? Not only at odds but aggressively militant (see GOP platform) in opposition to gay rights.

Oh, I imagine the indignant responses now, “Jepson, the gay and lesbian community is about more than just sexual identification.” Un-huh. As well we all should be. We all have issues (economy, environment, banking reform, etc.) that concern us but to belong to a political party that for the past several decades has vilified you and your “choices” begs the question, “Why?”

Whenever I witnessed African-Americans at the Republican convention (all six or seven of them), I wondered, are these individuals bereft of memory? Did they just fall off the bus (homage to Rosa Parks) so that they do not recall President Nixon’s 1970 Southern Strategy (see: Kevin Phillips) of picking off disaffected Southern whites, disillusioned with the 1960s civil rights initiatives? It is a strategy still very much in play and one that has state Republicans nationwide attempting to suppress minority voter turnout. Shameful. As one critic observed about the oddity of black Republicans, “Isn't that like black Klan members?” Harsh? Unfair? Tell me again the exact intent of Nixon’s Southern Strategy.

I wonder about the mindset of gay and African-American people who identify with Republicans. I don’t get it. Anymore than I do with women, in general, who align their futures with the Republican Party. Again, for thousands of years, men have run roughshod over women. It has only been in the last several generations that American women have achieved anything like equality with men. Someday historians will proclaim that one of the most significant developments of the entire 20th century was safe, effective and readily available birth control for women. It changed everything. Undeniably. Yet Republicans eagerly restrict your daughter’s fundamental right to control her own body and fertility.

I suggest the Stockholm syndrome as an explanation as to why some women align themselves with Republican values. Drink the Kool-Aid long enough and you eventually do “embrace” the shackles that bind your thinking and limit your freedom. You end up identifying with your oppressor. Yet, it can be different.

Join a better future and attend the Friday, Sept. 7, (5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.) grand opening of the Winter Park headquarters for the re-election of Barack Obama. The Obama office is again in the Fountain Building, at the corner of Morse Boulevard and Denning Drive. Jacqueline Jones and her quintet will be entertaining. Bring your enthusiasm and your checkbook.