IF YOU'RE OUT OF LUCK OR OUT OF WORK, WE COULD SEND YOU TO JOHANNESBURG

The New York Times has gathered together a number of commenters to address the question "What Next for the G.O.P.?" One is Kiron Skinner, who was a foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney's campaign:





Here's her genius idea for how the GOP can do African-American outreach:

Win Over Blacks Via the Military

... The G.I. Bill of 1944 helped change the landscape of black America. Indeed it has been argued that the G.I. Bill provided the foundation for today's black middle class and the education of the generation of African-Americans behind the civil rights movement....

The U.S. military continues to be the pathway to a stable future for millions of Americans, including African-Americans, who have fought in every American war and now comprise 16.9 percent of the armed forces. African-American women are enlisting at the rate of twice their percentage of the population.

Gov. Mitt Romney outlined a defense policy that would add 100,000 active-duty troops, among other increases in the military. The Republican Party should make the case to African Americans that the future of the United States' defense posture has significant pocketbook implications for them and for all Americans.

Really? That's how Republicans can win the black vote -- by saying, "You guys are cannon fodder, and under a Republican president you'll have much more opportunity to be cannon fodder"?

And, of course, this flies in the face of GOP orthodoxy. Don't Republicans always tell us that only the private sector can create jobs and prosperity? And yet here's Skinner calling for a big-government solution to the economic struggles of the black community. (Then again, it's been noted, by Paul Krugman and others, that Romney frequently touted the economic benefits of the military buildup he was planning, which made him a "weaponized Keynesian.")

During the primaries, Kiron Skinner backed Newt Gingrich. So I guess she thinks the government should give African-American kids jobs as school janitors and then, if that doesn't work, the government can ship 'em off to war.