Posted on 01/08/2004 4:23:50 PM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
On the issues, Republican policies are wrong
By BRIAN GILMORE
For Knight Ridder News Service
The Republican Patty is courting black support. But wooing blacks with one hand while slapping them with the other is not an effective strategy.
The party says it wants to increase its share of the black vote in the next election to 25 percent. Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, stated recently that this push is a "top, top priority." One wonders how Gillespie and his party expect to achieve such a lofty goal when his party has such an abysmal record on many fundamental black issues.
For one thing, many Republicans have made it clear over and over that the party opposes affirmative action. The Bush administration opposed it in the recent Supreme Court decision that upheld affirmative action at the University of Michigan law school.
Second, Republicans have fallen short on the issue of racial profiling, particularly since the Bush administration took office. Attorney General John Ashcroft, during his March 2001 confirmation hearings; vowed to produce a legislative product to combat racial profiling, but nothing has come close to being passed into law since Ashcroft's statement.
Third, Republicans have failed the black community on economic issues. As unemployment rose across the nation, blacks were disproportionately affected. In June 2003, the unemployment rate for blacks surged to 11.8 percent, a full percentage point higher than the previous month - one of the biggest jumps in the last two decades. Today that rate is still languishing at 10.2 percent while the overall U .S. rate is at 5.9 percent.
Since March 2001, the economy has lost 2.4 million jobs. The manufacturing sector, the one most responsible for the rise in the black middle class, has been hardest hit. Since March 2001, 300,000 factory jobs held by blacks, or 15 percent, have disappeared, according to the New York Times.
President Bush's chief response has been to provide the wealthiest Americans with huge tax breaks. This has done little to lower the black unemployment rate.
And finally, Republican efforts to gain more of the black vote will likely come face to faCe with the bitterness in black America left over from the 2000 elections. Many blacks have not forgotten the controversy in Florida that propelled Bush into office.
The Republican Party's neglect of, if not outright hostility toward, many important black issues cannot be easily forgotten. If the party wants black support, it would do best by improving its record on black issues and reaching out to blacks in non-election years, as well.
Brian Gilmore is a lawyer. He can be reached by writing to Progressive Media project, 409 East Main St., Madison WI 53703.
It's amazing how people can perceive things so diffently. About the only part I can agree with is his statement the GOP is courting black support.
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52 | Vermont | 30.00 |
2 |
15.00 |
29 |
1.03 |
46.00 |
4 |
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Yes it's a wonderful thing that the Democrats freed the slaves, appointed Clarence Thomas to the highest court in the land, Have meaningful posts like National Security Advisor and Secretary of State filled by Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell... Oh wait, my bad.
Wrong party.
It's a good thing the Democrats didn't try to filibuster the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Oh wait a tick...they did!
Well at least the demonRats gave the blacks voting rights...right? NO? Dang...
There's the first problem with this piece.
Black conservative ping
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Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
Not to quibble with an otherwise cogent argument, but there is a growing black middle class because of the initiative of individual blacks. I'm not sure the Republican party had anything to do with it -- and I know damn well the Democrats had nothing to do with it.
Is it not inherently racist to assume that there exists perennial a block 'Black Vote'?
To assume that all Blacks (not the kiwi team) vote based only on 'Black issues' assume that Blacks have a differing goals then Whites. Is not education, national security, the economy also equally of value to the Blacks as it is to the Whites?
When are the liberal elitists going to stop defining voters based on their race?
A fallacy of a controversy thoroughly ignited, enflamed, and perpetuated by wealthy and opportunistic black race-hustlers.
And there is a growing number of them who are annoyed that both Blacks and whites assume that they got where they are because of "affirmative action" benefits.
It wouldn't surprise me if this group got to be the loudest voices against affirmative action.
Dammit, they should be! How would you feel if everybody in the workplace thought you had achieved your position because you were the boss' son, owner's son-in-law, or by some artifice other than earning it?
"Affirmative action" is a debilitating disease of the soul.
Been there, done that. A woman in a "man's job". Assumed to be there because of "equal opportunity". You can overcome that stigma with a lot of hard work, but you have to be perfect.
And you don't get helped by the people who really are taking advantage of the special perks.
I loathe "Equal Opportunity" programs, and I have Black friends who feel the same way about Affirmative Action.
Working to overcome a stigma can be a motivation; it can help you pursue perfection. "In that sense, it can actually be a performance aid", said the guy with the bachelor's degree from a cow college, thrown into the pit to compete with Ivy League MBAs.
Of course, not everybody can rise to that occasion. And we realize these things in retrospect. And can appreciate them only after the battle is in the rear view mirror.
The best managers and sales people I ever knew were all fighting to overcome something. And, usually, that something was within themselves...
Congratulations on having fought that battle. And won.
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