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
______What are your thoughts concerning the issues raised in this story? Write a letter to the editor at letters@illinoisleader.com and include your name and town.
That is Keyes' best argument. You are a clever chap. Of course, it only works, if Keyes is in the hunt at the end (and of course the odds that he would be were about 1%, now effectively close to 0%). If Keyes were not in the hunt at the end, then burying him in an electoral vote landslide has certain attractions, to which I subscribed. That was my position formerly. Now my position, after this fiasco, is that moving from 52 or so votes for the appropriate judges to 53, or 55 to 56 as a best case scenario, is simply not worth the loose and irresponsible cannon. If I lived in Illinois, I would vote for Obama. Period. For the record.
Sinkspur is a more loyal and conservative Pubbie than I am. He would not agree with my opinion. Yet he gets most of the flames. Odd.
Wow, the RINOS have joined the MSM RAT spin against Alan...
Never saw that coming.../sarcasm
Yeah,right...and just WHAT do YOU know about how things are in Ill.,living in Texas?
gotta say...
mazzy star was the bomb.
anything new coming soon?
It compensates for the shaking.
I tried to preface my argument that way. I'll go back. But it might take me some time. Let me know how those calls work out.
It's your own opinion. I'm not going to ask *lol* it's too late at night.
Frankly, given the way my votes have tended to turn out over the years, I think I'd be way ahead of the game if I took that offer.
oh baloney...
anybody who is against reparations as taught by saint alan, is a rino?
rofl
Jumped the shark, I think they call it today.
Yes......but he hasn't and he won't;unlike Keyes,who NEVER knows when to just shut up.
Congratulations, I see you've encountered The Enemy Within...the GOP even. We live in a totally black is white, white is black world now officially...
I don't believe that anyone that does not pay federal taxes should be allowed to vote in federal elections.
Lord have mercy, I'm stranded in the land of the literal-minded.
Yes, I'm afraid you'll have to take my word for it, given the fact that I WROTE IT, sheesh!
Nah, ya think?
"Minor".............."MINOR"? This is NOT bloody minor;this is worse than affirmative action and 100 times more assine!
Apparently we do know who is coming over. You have no idea how many undercover agents we (and Mexico)have in towns on both sides of the border. You have no idea how much electronic surveillance resources are concentrated on the border.
Do you know of any actual terrorists that we weren't watching who entered the US by sneaking across the Southern border? Not just people from Muslim nations, but actual terrorists?
The Congressional intelligence committees, the 9/11 commission, the FBI, Homeland Defense, INS and leaders in both political parties seem satisfied with our Southern border security. The only people whining are the anti-Mexican laborers crowd, and that has nothing to do with security.
The Buchanan cult was just as venomous about illegal laborers four years ago when national security was not an issue. Now they use it to mask their racism.
If Keyes was really sold on the issue of reparations, don't you think he'd be for extorting monetary damanges from the American people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the rest? Do you really believe Keyes believes the liberals would go for the idea of tax breaks instead of cash awards? I think Keyes just knows it's a topic that was likely to come up, that they would try to corner him with and he's not going to be cornered with it. Anyhow there are blacks who in principle agree with the idea of reparations and that might as well get addressed if Keyes wants to get their attention.
The idea of tax breaks or tax relief isn't all that absurd when you consider that families, children, married couples, blind, home mortgage holders, etc get some kind of tax relief. So at the same time, it's not all that absurd but it's not going to happen. And Obama is likely to leave that issue alone.
If I lived in Illinois, I would vote for Obama. Period. For the record.
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Thanks Torie, noted...
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