Posted on 08/17/2004 2:38:57 PM PDT by unspun
By The Leader-Chicago Bureau (admin@illinoisleader.com)
CHICAGO -- Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes has just released a statement clarifying what appeared to be a surprising position he took at a news conference yesterday.
"I think a cogent argument could be made for reparations in principle," Keyes is quoted as saying to reporters yesterday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Chicago Tribune expanded:
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."
The response from conservatives was immediate. "Who downstate will now vote for Keyes?" wrote IllinoisLeader.com reader Randall Mead of Springfield today. "I certainly won't."
This afternoon, Keyes released the following statement, clarifying his position:
I have consistently opposed the effort to extort monetary damages from the American people. As I have argued in the past, the great sacrifices involved in the Civil War represented the requital in blood and treasure for the terrible injustices involved in slavery. In this form the so called "reparations" movement represents an insult to the historic commitment that many Americans made to the end of slavery, which included the sacrifice of their lives.I have also consistently maintained that the history of slavery, racial segregation and discrimination did real damage to black Americans, left real and persistent material wounds in need of healing.
In various ways through the generations since the end of slavery, America has tried to address this objective fact, but without real success. This was at least in part the rational for many elements of the Great Society programs of the sixties, and for the original and proper concept of affirmative action developed under Republican leadership during the Nixon years.
Unfortunately, the government-dominated approaches of the Great Society, which purported to heal and repair the legacy of historical damage, actually widened and deepened the wounds. They undermined the moral foundations of the black community and seriously corrupted the family structure and the incentives to work, savings, investment, and business ownership.
The idea I have often put forward to address this challenge involves a traditionally Republican, conservative and market-oriented approach: removing the tax burden from the black community for a generation or two in order to encourage business ownership, create jobs and support the development of strong economic foundations for working families.
This has the advantage of letting people help themselves, rather then pouring money into government bureaucracies that displace and discourage their own efforts. It takes no money from other citizens, while righting the historic imbalance that results from the truth that black slaves toiled for generations at a tax rate that was effectively 100 percent.
I have also made it clear that while I believe that the descendants of slaves would be helped by this period of tax relief, my firm goal and ultimate objective is to replace the income tax, and thereby free all Americans from this insidious form of tax slavery. It is well known that this is one of the key priorities of the Keyes campaign.
In response to Keyes' statement, conservative Jack Roeser of Family Taxpayers Network told IllinoisLeader.com, "I expect Keyes would say this is one of those interesting subjects to be talked about among people sharing ideas. Reparations is an impractical concept. Everybody in every category has been wronged in one or the other, and you cannot single one out."
Roeser continued, "Keyes is a man of ideas, and I expect he gets into discussions like this that are proper in their proper place, but that he would never vote for reparations. The problem with American politics is that people don't get into deep discussions."
© 2004 IllinoisLeader.com -- all rights reserved
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LOL. Well, I know that earlier some folks were saying that this wasn't a racial thing, but just a tax exemption for descendants of slaves. Here, at least, Keyes makes it more clear that this proposal is about "removing the tax burden from the black community for a generation or two. . . ."
I'm glad he clarified that.
I can't wait to see what he's cooking up for tomorrow. ;-)
It is too late to spin the ball, after it hits out of bounds...
keyes just nailed his chances to the coffin of race baiting.
You sure sound like you're defending it to me. And what, exactly, is the empowerment here -- empowerment to cause greater divisions between white and black in this country? Empowerment to discriminate on the basis of race?Empowerment to have middle-class white people pay the tax burden for black millionaires?
Actually as a conservative I support tax cuts for anybody, even when it's not me.
I supported the tax cuts for the highest income bracket, even though I wasn't in that bracket.
But furthermore, read what I write in #40. This can actually be used as part of a long term strategy to reduce taxes for everyone and get African-Americans to vote for the Republican party.
LOL - yeah, me too!
There you have it. Again.
LOL (The Greatest Orator on Earth™ seems to have an extraordinarily difficult time making himself understood - have you noticed that?)
Actually he's perfectly understandable, but of course not to people who don't want to understand him. Kinda like how the likes of Chris Matthews can't understand John O'Oneil.
I'm waiting with bated breath.
No, it won't. All it will do is make Obama look reasonable and moderate to swing voters. And race-based discrimination is not something a conservative should ever support.
And what does race-based tax relief encourage? A race war?
yeah... right....
clinton would have loved to given us all tax cuts, but we just couldn't afford it as a nation, so we had to settle for "targetted tax cuts" for working class families.
imagine the howling protests around here if clintong would have proposed outright "targetted tax cuts" for the blacks.
but alan suggests it... and it is just fine...
rofl.
Kenya is in eastern Africa and Hawaii is in the U.S. Why isn't he an African/American?
The whole reparations thing, seems racist to me.
Is he playing the race card?
"the U.S. should do what the Romans did:"
So should the United States also go belly up as a civilization?
That's what the Romans did.
But don't you get it? The whole point of this is to use racial equality argument to get tax relief for everyone and turn the argument on the Dems. First get the tax relief for one group, then after a while point out how unfair it is only one group gets it, and you're faced with eitehr raising taxes for the group that gets it, or give the same relief to everyone.
And the Dems will be stuck with holding the position of wanting to raise it for the one group that historically are most blindly loyal to them, and whose defection would be disasterous for them. So they either lose the black vote in large chunks, or be forced to agree to the tax relief.
I speak some Keyes, but I am struggling a little with this one......
If you look at it, you'll see I didn't proclaim him otherwise. I did however draw a distincition between someone who is of the culture of those who descended from American slaves and a wealthy elitist chap who does not.
This is one issue of many. Go ahead and stick with the present batch of GOP Senators, if you like. I appreciate someone who has his own spine.
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