Posted on 07/14/2010 2:36:34 PM PDT by KeyLargo
Local black conservative candidates challenge misguided
July 14, 2010
By Fran Eaton
This week at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual convention in Kansas City, attendees are expected to pass a resolution condemning alleged racism among national Tea Party supporters. The NAACP points as evidence to offensive rally posters, supposed shouted racial epithets, among other complaints of movement discrimination.
Indeed, the Tea Party movement has voiced strong opposition to the biracial U.S. president's policies, but local black conservatives say their positions have nothing to do with race. They are upset about economic and social policies that they believe are destructive.
"CBS took a poll that a majority of the people in the Tea Party are old, rich, white men," Tea Party leader George Pearson, who is black, told Tea Party ralliers at the April 15 gathering at the Will County Courthouse.
"CBS: I'm a middle-aged, middle-income black man, and I'm tired of what the United States government and the Congress has been doing to this country."
"I served this nation in the U.S. Navy," Pearson said. "I have an obligation to support and defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic -- I will work against those that disregard the founding principles of this country."
Pearson then introduced a friend whom he is supporting in Illinois' 43rd Senate District - Republican Cedra Crenshaw, a black accountant who has faced stiff opposition from Will County Democrats. Despite Crenshaw having almost twice the number of required signatures on her candidacy petitions, Michael Kaspar, the Democratic Party's chief counsel, challenged her petitions before the Will County Board of Elections last week.
The Democratic majority on the elections board ruled against Crenshaw's ballot access. The 37-year-old Bolingbrook resident is now appealing to the courts to be reinstated on the November ballot.
Similar challenges to two other General Assembly candidates failed in Cook County, so Crenshaw is hopeful her appeal eventually will allow the voters of the 43rd District a choice.
But Crenshaw started her battle as "just one mom" against the Chicago machine, of which her opponent is a part, she told the Will County gathering in April.
"I waited for someone to step forward and challenge incumbent state Sen. Arthur Wilhelmi and force him to defend his record, which has helped to decimate this state, but no one came forward. I'm not waiting any longer," Crenshaw said to cheers from the crowd. "I'm going on offense, and today I'm one mom taking on the machine of Chicago patronage politics, represented by Sen. Arthur Wilhelmi."
Indeed, Crenshaw took on the Chicago machine and she's paying a price for it.
It's amazing that Illinois Democrats are determined to stop Crenshaw - a minority woman - from being on the ballot. Isn't that what democracy is all about? Giving the people a choice?
Wilhelmi voted to raise his salary 18 percent, voted for the largest income tax increase in history, voted for an increase in the state sales tax, and then voted to give Gov. Rod Blagojevich a pass, Crenshaw said. The Joliet-based lawmaker voted against school vouchers for Illinois' worst performing schools. Crenshaw took to the radio this week, urging support as she fights back against the machine.
And yet another black conservative Republican launched a viral Web campaign this week, making waves in the 2nd Congressional District. The Rev. Isaac Hayes, of Park Forest, refers to his November opponent as "Senate Candidate No. 5," using terminology from the federal corruption case against Blagojevich to refer to U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Wiretaps revealed that Blagojevich was led to believe that Jackson would help him raise $1 million in campaign funds if the then-governor would appoint Jackson to fill Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat.
At a recent gathering in Chicago, Hayes thanked Blagojevich for helping his Republican challenge of Jackson.
"The Blagojevich trial has been 'bleeping golden' for our campaign," Hayes said, again borrowing language from the federal wiretaps.
Hayes campaigns for Tea Party-friendly causes in his Southland district: less government spending, support of school choice, and an end to the culture of corruption, while upholding family, faith and freedom.
"President Ronald Reagan once said there is sin and evil in the world, and we are enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might," Hayes told the Cook County GOP. "President Reagan was talking about the 'Evil Empire' - the Soviet Union - but he might as well have been talking about the South Side of Chicago.
"My solution to 16 years of corruption and 14 years of failure is simple," Hayes said. "Give parents more choices, give businesses less taxes, give entrepreneurs less barriers, and give pay-to-play politics the boot."
Hayes has addressed several Tea Party gatherings during his congressional campaign, where his support is growing as his contest attracts more attention.
Numerous other black Illinois conservatives have been in the public eye over the past year, and their skin color has never been an issue, despite the NAACP's accusations to the contrary. Cook County GOP candidate for sheriff Frederick Collins and U.S. Senate primary candidates John Arrington and Eric Wallace added to the prominent ranks of Chicago area black independents.
Pearson, Crenshaw, Hayes and the other black activists are committed to conservative values. Their independence and individualism are admirable, and their examples are likely to spawn a healthy challenge to the NAACP's misguided perception about the Tea Party movement.
Indeed, it may take the Pearsons, Crenshaws, Hayeses and others to demonstrate to the Illinois Democratic Party just what true democracy in a republic is.
Why Martin Luther King Was Republican
by Frances Rice
"It should come as no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. In that era, almost all black Americans were Republicans. Why? From its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. And as one pundit so succinctly stated, the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism."
Actually he wasn’t. He was a liberal.
Aw, jeez, not that debunked crap again...
That article (one of the most erroneous and badly researched I’ve ever come across authored by a Conservative) has been more responsible for giving Republicans a false sense of security/superiority when it comes to race than any other. Yes, we have a better record on race than the Democrats, but both MLK Jr. and Randolph were not Republicans, but Socialists.
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