Keyes won't back down on reparations

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 8/19/04 | SCOTT FORNEK

[Don Joe]

If we can get the Black population on-board the income tax-cutting/elimination bandwagon, the Dems will never win another election.

Sort of like the way the Dems did the same thing with the Great Society?

Oh, great. Republican race-based handouts, to maintain a racial constituency.

I guess it really is all about winning. Screw that "principle" thing. It's winning that really counts, right?

[cicero's_son]

Just about any and every tax break is "selective." The entire tax code is selective, and it always will be unless we can get to an across the board flat tax regime. I'm not holding my breath for that.

But back to the point, you're saying that you're opposed to the tax break because it is on a bigotry basis. This is precisely the sort of mentality the Democrats tap into with their class-warfare themes: "Stop the Bush tax cuts, they're just a billion dollar giveaway to the RICH!"

My belief as a conservative is that we should promote any kind of tax cut, even if they awarded on an "unfair" basis. Why? Because, like life itself, the entire tax code is "unfair." And because the more we can drag Democrats, liberals, and their constituencies into our swamp (i.e., our pool of issues, among which is tax relief), the better off we'll be electorally.

[tame]

He wants to hear from Keyes "apologists". Now's your chance. Call in. Convince us he's wrong. Let's hear you debate Michael Medved. ROTFLMAO

Actually, I did debate him in the past (during the recall), but he cut the voume and then cut me off. I would be MORE than glad to debate him in studio. You can tell him I challenge him to do so :o)

[Don Joe]

More lies from the spammer.

[Antoninus]

Bush will grant a general amnesty to all illegal Mexican immigrants in the U.S.; after all, all George needs is to slice off a small percentage of the Hispanic vote in the U.S. to walk away with this election.

And yet, you still support G. W. Bush while you've been railing on Dr. Keyes for a week straight despite warnings from the owner of this site.

The internal contradiction is only too obvious, LG.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

LOL - yeah, sure thing.

[cicero's_son]

We need every payer we can get.

You're kidding, right? How can any conservative think this way?

The way to attack the problem is not to load up the tax rolls, it is to decrease them. Decrease the size of the federal bureaucracy. Decrease the universe of entitlements.

If we do enough of this, perhaps illegal border crossings in 100 degree heat in the back of a sealed semi-trailer will become less attractive.

[Prince Charles]

Me too... I'd vote for that one.

[Antoninus]

We're too stupid to grasp Alan's brilliance!!!

Nah, just a few of you.

[tame]

LOL - yeah, sure thing.

Seriously, I would love to debate him in studio. You can even be there :o)

[Don Joe]

I keep bringing up what I think would be the worst unintended consequence of such a plan, which would be a deepening resentment of African-Americans as a whole. This country would be split into taxpayers and non-taxpayers; those who pull their weight and those who don't; those who leech off the taxpayers and those who don't....see what I mean? I don't think I'm overexaggerating this likelihood. Nobody should want this proposal to become reality, including blacks.

Yeah, but after the dust settles -- after the white supremecists wrap up their race war, thanking A. Keyes all the way for creating such a huge constituency for them -- we'll have peace in the valley. Or something.

Or, maybe this really IS just a crazy brainfart by a guy who just realized he's been dished up as a sacrificial "candidate" to lose before a Designated Winner in a Democratic Machine state.

[tame]

More lies from the spammer.

Hey, that's not nice. I was trying to be nice to you in my last post. A point of agreement, and all that.

[cicero's_son]

Yeah, we can eliminate taxes for a large number of people without making up for that deficit by raising taxes from anyone else. Why, it's like free money, isn't it? ;-)

Now you're worrying about deficits??? That is straight out of the Democrat's playbook.

Do you also think we should rescind the dreaded "Bush tax cuts for the top 1%?"

[Don Joe]

Just reporting what Medved thinks.

I guess the True Believers will now add him to the Hated ENEMIES list too, along with the likes of you and me, eh?

[tame]

We'll even sing a duet in Medved's studio :o)

"Well, I'm a king bee...want you to be my queen..."

[Scenic Sounds]

We all commit the occasional faux pas.

But it takes a special kind of... something for someone to dig in and defend his brainfart as if it was his firstborn child.

Well, I think that's just part of that infallibility image that others have unfairly imposed on him. I think it would be very good for him in a lot of ways to just have a revelation on this issue and reverse course.

I think that's coming. I really do.

[Antoninus]

So he doesn't really mean it? He is merely pandering to the black population in a blatant attempt to curry their votes? The fact that it directly contradicts earlier stands of his is of no importance? Where is that person who wondered why I would vote for Kohn?

I never said he doesn't really mean it. He probably realizes that the chances of it ever happening are very, very slim. So he uses it as a rhetorical wedge and as an entree into the contest for the Black vote. Personally, I see nothing wrong with the tactic even though I disagree with the idea.

[WillRain]

The more I think about it, I must have been "the greater fool" for SUPPORTING Keyes for all these years.

Well, let me offer, if I may, another line of reasoning.

I don't know ANY one who supports EVERY position of any politician that they support.

I'm a Keyes backer and I have a hard time wrapping my mind around this myself. I can't just completely blow it off since it comes from someone who's intellect I respect, but on the surface it looks like something that has too many problems - philosophically and practically - to support.

that said, I agree with the man on far more issues than I do any other public figure i can think of - that being the case, I can overlook a loopy tangent now and then - especially one which has zero chance of ever being enacted.

Personally, I wish he'd never brought it up - but i have an equally hard time accepting the notion that people who support him on most everything else are going to ditch him completely because he has one screwball intellectual idea.

How many of us are ditching Bush for his goofy immigration ideas? How many will wash their hands of him because he signed McCain/Fiengold? Need I go on?

I'm not going to lecture you on who to support, but it seems to me that a lot of folks are seriously over-reacting to this pseudo-reparations idea both because it's unrealistic to expect 100% agreement with any candidate's position and also because it couldn't pass if God-himself were a co-sponsor.

[Poohbah]

LG's proposal re: amnesty was sarcastic in the extreme.

[Catspaw]

If, in the offchance Alan Keyes is sworn in as the next senator from Illinois, I want to see if he'll introduce abolishing income taxes or tax reparations for the descendents of slaves first.