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."
That's exactly my point. That's why I asked: "Don't you think that a lot of the hostility that Keyes encounters around here involves perceptions about his sense of loyalty?" Isn't that really the way things are?
If, for whatever reason, people loyal to the President sense that Keyes cannot be trusted to avoid undermining the President, what if anything can be done to directly address their concerns?
He has been a critic of the President's policies at times, as have all of us. But that doesn't make him disloyal. Alan was one of the eariest endorsers of the President's reelection, and has been a stalwart defender of the Administration's foreign and defense policies.
I made my point long ago.
About four years ago, by my reckoning.
"Illegals" is a culture?
His goal is liberation of the serfs from the Chicago machine. He teaches Freedom, small govm't, personal responsibility, family values, ect... The dims teach and enforce conformity, alligiance and dependance with BS, propaganda and intimidation.
You've got that right.
It doesn't take me that long to look at a hot horseshoe.
That could be a motto for many here.
You cannot right the wrong of 19th century slavery by making slaves of everyone else in the 21st century--none of whom ever participated in slavery--to people who were never enslaved in their entire lives.
ABOLISH THE INCOME TAX ENTIRELY, and be done with this whole mess of tax slavery.
You got it.
It is punishing people who haven't committed crimes against people whose ancestors suffered.
I have never owned a slave. Why am I and other taxpayers being held responsible for crimes that happened decades ago???
People here have a right to decide who they like and who they don't; it's not up to you to damn them to hell if they don't agree with you.
Of course you know that Keyes has been a leading proponent of just that for many years.
And he pretty much coined that phrase.
His Human Events piece of nearly a decade ago, "The Slave Tax", is a classic of the tax reform movement.
Your destination is your business.
How many votes does Keyes expect to get out of this campaign plank from the black community and from the state as a whole?
Note to Keyes: "nananana nananana hey hey hey goodbye"
Keyes is now on my sh_t list. Keyes you suck.
Not to say I embrace everything that comes from Louis Farrakhan (far from it), but a sum such as $50,000 per household tax-free to *qualified* families can sustain you for a lifetime if invested properly. You don't use it to rush out and buy a Hummer. You use that to make money and live off the money it makes while you still earn a living.
And I would agree that it should end welfare to those people, affirmative action, etc. You're now just an American, period. So stop hyphenating yourself into a victim class and assimilate like the rest of us.
We are through the looking glass.
My only question is who spiked his koolade with LSD?
I don't know if I really want to hear the answer, though. I would like to retain my previous fond memories of the guy I respected for so many years -- and backed, laying my own reputation on the line for him, urging others to vote for him in the primaries.
What does any of that have to do with not wanting to hear the answer? Simple. I fear that the answer will be "Alan Keyes."
Wouldn't this be a violation of the "equal protection" clause?
Can anyone convince me that Alan Keyes didn't read HeinLein's "Farnam's Freehold" and say to himself, "Hmm, sounds like a good idea"?
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