What most people don't realize is that we are ALL slaves under the current system.
When we have a government that can confiscate at will our hard earned money without any regard to representation whatsoever, WE ARE SLAVES!!
Posted on 08/17/2004 5:58:48 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
One day after their first meeting, U.S. Senate hopefuls Barack Obama and Alan Keyes were back on the campaign trail again Monday.
Speaking at a news conference at the Hotel InterContinental in Chicago, Republican Keyes added to his now familiar talking points his stance on slavery reparations.
Prompted by a reporter's question, Keyes gave a brief tutorial on Roman history and said that in regard to reparations for slavery, the U.S. should do what the Romans did: "When a city had been devastated [in the Roman empire], for a certain length of time--a generation or two--they exempted the damaged city from taxation."
Keyes proposed that for a generation or two, African-Americans of slave heritage should be exempted from federal taxes--federal because slavery "was an egregious failure on the part of the federal establishment." In calling for the tax relief, Keyes appeared to be reaching out to capture the black vote, something that may prove difficult to do, particularly after his unwelcome reception at the Bud Billiken Day Parade Saturday...
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
But, I thought Democrats didn't like TAX CUTS! They are always griping about the ones Bush gave.
The anti Christian SOB's forced them to flee to the U.S.
I feel real sad about that and what they and their ancestors went through with forced conscription and forced labor.
Therefore, I demand equal treatment! :-)
I'll tell you what! With this proposal, Keyes just may have put the carpetbagger issue behind him for good. ;-)
The article refers to slavery. Reparations were about the evils of slavery. Quit acting like a liberal moving the goal posts. If you want to have reparations for separate water fountains, start a new movement.
And it ain't going to fly. They want "special" reparations to blacks only, not a tax cut for everyone. I can hear it now "Dr. Keyes believes the way to make up for slavery and centuries of oppression of the black man is to give white businessmen, the new plantation owners, a tax cut!"
I could write all the dim responses to this in my sleep.
Neither. I was speculating on what choice of responses they have. Will the Dem race-hustlers rush to embrace no taxation as a reparation solution?
http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2004-01/reconstruction.html
History is an endless lesson of shoulda-woulda-coulda.
Read my posts before having such a knee jerk reaction. Thanks.
Here is what putting this on the table does. Other "injustices" will now be brought out. So where does the line get drawn? Will this then serve to minimalize the reparations debate? He's just shooting up a flare. While it is bright, the discussion will flow. But that light gets shed elsewhere too. The Dems will snuff it out fast.
While Alan reloads the flare gun!
Fair enough. I think he is too principled to pander. I suspect another strategery at work. That's my opinion of Keyes FWIW.
People with provable heritage to slaves be exempted from federal taxes for a period of two years.Sounds like a reasonable and modest proposal to me.
What most people don't realize is that we are ALL slaves under the current system.
When we have a government that can confiscate at will our hard earned money without any regard to representation whatsoever, WE ARE SLAVES!!
I read your post to me. If you want me to read something else, ping me to it, or include it in your post to me.
And accidently shoots himself in the foot with it, and spends the remainder of the campaign hopping around on one foot blowing on his toes to try and put the fire out...
You are the one that accused me of acting like a liberal. Go read it yourself. Otherwise, leave me alone.
Do you believe Congress will be reducing the size of the Federal government in direct proportion to what they won't be taking in in black personal taxes? If not, the shortfall will have to be made up by raising someone else's taxes.
Reparations given to Japanese-Americans for internment were totally different since they were given to the actual people, not alleged descendants 140 later (the fact that the former Italian- and German-American internees were denied reparations was an act of political cowardice). Also, the internments were something done directly by the federal government, not individuals.
Doesn't sound reasonable to me, that means everybody else has to pick up the tab. My family didn't come over from Germany until between the World Wars, we had nothing to do with American slavery and there's no reason for us to pay for it.
Now, what if his position, as this article indicates (and what FReepers heard on the radio) is "African-Americans with slave heritage" do you still consider it a modest and reasonable proposal?
I find nothing reasonable or modest about one race being singled out for benefits over others...
One small Senate race. But don't forget, one of the candidates delivered the keynote address at the Dem convention. Now who was that keynote speaker in 1988?
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