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."
Oh, please. Nobody is that clueless.
What makes you think that?
Your IRS refund is determined by the amount of money you choose to withhold. It does not affect the amount you owe.
I guess you completely missed my point. A lot of people seriously do believe that their refund is money that the government has given them. Most vote Dem, I'll grant you.
I agree but as as pointed out by another poster, the same could be said of the Irish, Jews, Poles, women, etc.
If Keyes really believes this stuff, he lost me. If he is just pandering to blacks for votes, he lost me. I just think this was a lose/lose proposal for him.
This is what the media have latched onto. This is all that's being covered. If coverage is going to change, it's up to Keyes to change it--because he brought it up in the first place. So far, he's stuck with it, for good or bad.
Apparently some are. :-)
Way over the top.
Do you really think that this is equivilent to such a thing?
I doubt you even believe it.
What an absolute goofball.
I was there for the launch, and have many contacts there.
The grassroots energy for this campaign is almost unparalleled.
This mini-controversy won't slow it down one bit.
Did he bring it up? Or did some lib reporter/interviewer bring it up? All of these articles about reparations and the 17th Amendment being repealed have been run in the leftist Sun-Time and Chicago Tribune. Is their a major conservative leaing paper in Illinois. I don't know. Is it the Trib? I'll bet there's not one right-leaning TV station in IL. Who's keeping this issue alive?
Thanks for bringing that to light. I love the way so many posters like to say "most blacks" and have no clue. Kinda an all in one bucket for them. I understand why blacks have a hard time being republican. And Alan Keyes is just trying to get votes from a group of people that will consider his idea as being good although he is a republican.
Which comment can stand on it's own as a comparison between Keyes' intellect and your own.
Right.
"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."
Keyes just demonstrated his independence from control of the fictional bosses in a big way. That's something he can take to the bank in Chicago and something Obama can't show. Chicago politics has been driven on pandering, bandwagon propaganda and intimidation for decades. Obama's reps are intimidators. Anyone that supports Keyes in Chicago can claim and will be seen as Keyes's man, not the party, or the bosses man. Obama's thugs just got smacked.
You got a poll to back that up?
I still think that with stances like this, he's cementing his place out on the fringe that will turn off many conservatives who otherwise would have voted for him; And most black Democrats will see through his pandering.
He's shooting himself in the foot.
Alan Keyes brought it up I believe but if he didn't, why is he agreeing to it? That is what I don't understand.
That big sucking sound you hear from the north is Keyes' campaign going down the toilet.
You know what I am amazed at? Is that the same people who are furious with Keyes' over his reparations proposal called Bush's Medicare plan "good politics". Triangulation is not good politics because an enthusiastic base wins you elections, people!!!!
Not everyone who is in the lower half of income earners is considered to be in the poverty classification. 22% might be in poverty, but if the remaining 78% earn less than the median income, then they are still in the group that pays only 3.5% of the income taxes. Of course, I am not saying that ALL blacks earn less than the median. Some obviously earn more, like Keyes, for example. So basically, Keyes is standing up for the right of that small percentage of rich or upper middle class black taxpayers, like himself, to be exempted from income taxes because their great, great, great grandaddy was a slave. Looked at another way, that's great for the rich blacks, not so helpful to the lower income blacks.
Oberweiss heartily endorsed Dr. Keyes. You should follow his example, instead of feeding defeatism.
And Keyes is going to get elected to the Senate as a GOP candidate by advocating reparations.
You're ALL genuises.
Well, I can hardly wait until some reporter brings up Keyes' article I Am Not A Bush Republican.
Who's keeping this issue alive?
Correct me if I'm wrong -- but I don't think I am -- but it wasn't a Sun-Times reporter speaking yesterday, was it?
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