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."
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?
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.
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)
More lies from the spammer.
LOL - yeah, sure thing.
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.
Me too... I'd vote for that one.
Seriously, I would love to debate him in studio. You can even be there :o)
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.
Hey, that's not nice. I was trying to be nice to you in my last post. A point of agreement, and all that.
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%?"
I guess the True Believers will now add him to the Hated ENEMIES list too, along with the likes of you and me, eh?
"Well, I'm a king bee...want you to be my queen..."
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.
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.
LG's proposal re: amnesty was sarcastic in the extreme.
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.
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