Posted on 08/19/2004 5:27:04 AM PDT by kattracks
His voice rising to a yell, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Alan Keyes told a bipartisan civic group Wednesday he "will not budge" from his belief that descendants of slaves should be exempted from income taxes to help heal the wounds of past discrimination and segregation.The former presidential candidate disdainfully brushed aside questions over whether his suggestion should apply to rich African Americans such as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan or Oprah Winfrey.
"Do you know how many Oprah Winfreys there might have been running around in the 1930s or in the 1920s or in the 19-teens that got nowhere because the doors were shut in their face?" Keyes thundered. "If you think that because I wear a conservative label, I have forgotten that history and am not mindful of that injustice -- then I will tell you now that you are wrong."
Keyes delivered his blistering defense at a luncheon of the City Club of Chicago, scolding fellow conservatives who challenged his proposal and evoking the struggle of his African-American parents, saying they had talent and "hearts and spirit and strength and faith."
"Why didn't they get to a point where they could stand on this platform?" Keyes aked.
Vying against Democrat Barack Obama, Keyes drew heat from conservatives earlier this week when he proposed exempting descendants of slaves from income taxes for a generation or two, a view he insists "involves a traditionally Republican, conservative and market-oriented approach."
On Wednesday, Keyes ridiculed the fuss over his position, saying it is simply a tax break, something "Republicans and my conservative brethren" don't object to when applied to a "wealthy corporation."
Conservative activist Jack Roeser met with Keyes for what Roeser called "a long argument and an intense one" over the issue before the speech. A Barrington businessman, Roeser said he still is not sold on Keyes' reparations proposal, but still plans to support him anyway. "I will tell my friends that this is a good man, and we should support him."
Which is what he wanted to do from the start.
It has the closet socialists on FR in quite an uproar. They are jumping up and down screaming "Keyes is a liberal" while blithely defending "W"s far more leftist actions like signing CFR, sucking up to Kennedy with billions from the feds for education, funding UN building restoration, promising to sign the AWB, calling for higher immigration limits while proposing Amnesty for illegals while completely ignoring border security.
And Keyes big sin? A tax break.
Ding, ding, ding!!!!
Give the man(?) a ceegar!!!
Racial pandering.
Even EV admitted to it in post #113.
Yes and Alan Keyes is for less government, but imagine the bureaucratic nightmare enacting such a plan would be. It's just not christian to me. Such a plan would have been nice right after the war but that was not to be.
It amazes me that people who are forever claiming to back Keyes because of his principles, can't see just how unprincipled this is.
That is my concern too. But it is now un-PC at FR to suggest this.
So you admit that this is racial pandering for votes.
I see you noted Bush's racial pandering. Good for you. No amnesty for illegals!
Alan Keyes: Doubleplusgood doublespeak.
He is getting mileage out of these statements, I'm just afraid he is alienating conservatives and the liberals he seeks will not reward him in the voting booth. I'm no strategist, though.
No reparations now or ever.
By the way, where's Bush engaging in racial pandering?
A ridiculous claim. Silly in fact.
That's OK...neither is Alan.
I am NOT supporting Keyes on this because he apparently doesn't care what the opinions of others are. Now if he had to be on FR to read what people write here sometimes, I'd bet he'd realize what a racially polarizing thing reparations is.
Put up the numbers.
The amnesty for illegals that he proposed.
Sometimes radical surgery is required. Sometimes you have to fight cancer with engineered cancer cells.
Chicago blacks are thinking. This is a good thing.
I would have advised Keyes to not bring this up AT ALL. It is alienating a lot of his base. If I was an Illinois voter, I'd have a real hard time voting for Keyes.
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