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."
LOL! Me too!
"Think I'm being paranoid?"
Not at all. I can see it happening all around.
Many whites, myself included, are tired of being made out to be the bad guy all the time and the scenerio you paint is probably not far off the mark. Unfortunately.
I think you nailed it when you said he personalizes things. He says very unkind things about good people, and he is far from gracious - and many people, whether they agree with him in substance or not - don't like that.
I have noticed the same sort of personalization from some of his strongest supporters here. Maybe that's a coincidence, but it seems more likely that people who are drawn to Keyes' style are people who see no problem with it - because maybe they're that way, too.
I think some people's sacred cow is President Bush.
It does make sense.
It can be crafted in a way that is constitutional.
The purpose is to make recompense to descendants of people who were treated as property and less than human, by the official policies and laws of the USA.
You folks have been ever so gracious and kind, of course...
I know... That's what makes this discussion so maddening.
Hell yes!
Well, just chuckle and say, "Alan wants to end the income tax for all of us."
Move past it.
Great entre into a great issue...
Did you miss my point, EV?
It might behoove you to listen to what people are saying and not be so defensive. If Alan Keyes could abandon his habit of being so openly, bitterly critical of other Republicans, he would have much, much more support. He would even have mine.
I'm just speaking honestly about the problem. I know why people don't like Keyes, and it has nothing to do with anyone's "sacred cow" being "gored". It isn't some external issue. It's his lack of grace toward others.
And you imitate him. I read this thread and saw you tell people who were simply discussing Keyes and this issue to "grow up", that they're "better than that", and that they are stupid.
People don't respond positively to such things. Surprise, surprise.
That's good, strategery-wise. Alan needs name recognition more than anything now. It doesn't matter why people tune into the debates, it only matters that they do. And then...
Certainly you jest, Luis...Dubyuh's "Non-Amnesty" Amnesty Program fer Illegal Aliens is blatant and brazen pandering to the Mexican-American community.
FReegards...MUD
And then what? The debates have started, the camera is on Keyes, the entire state is watching, what does he do next? Does he retract his reparations scheme? Or does he reaffirm his support for his reparations scheme?
Excellent point, Mud :o)
And if he thinks this position will attract votes from all non-blacks, he should think again.
He is going to get so clobbered in November.
You and your friends have slammed, slurred, denigrated and criticized every word and action of Alan Keyes for four long years on FR.
Virtually every Keyes thread, at every opportunity.
Why should you be surprised when people hit you back?
Why do I owe you a decent response when you and the other anti-Keyesters have behaved so indecently for so long?
LOL!
FReegards...MUD
Yeah, I'm sure he has at times. It's an easy thing to do sometimes and, well, sometimes, I just can't restrain myself. LOL. I usually try to avoid it, though, because I know that there's always a cost involved.
And that's what I think we're dealing with here.
That, and I sense that there's also a somewhat related problem. I think that Keyes could improve his image by actually going out of his way to acknowledge some mistake that he's made in the past, some error in a prior judgement, some change in a position. I think it would be helpful to his image for him to say not just that he has a new position on something, but that his prior position was flawed. I think a lot of people need to be reminded that Keyes is aware that he is fallible, that Keyes is aware that he is still growing and that Keyes is aware that he is as human as the rest of us.
That may sound crazy, but I think it would help in his case. ;-)
If that happens, this mythological character of yours will be shot at sunrise, I suppose.
LOL!
Well, if that happens, they can lay the mythological character in the mass grave right next to me, and everyone else who died of shock.
"Unless Keyes wins", LOL!
Thanks, I needed that laugh.
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