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."
And what happens if an reparations-entitled young woman marries a young man who is not so entitled. I guess their children would be kicked back onto the tax rolls.
Sounds like a powerful disincentive for miscegenation to me...not something we need in 21st century America.
i admit there are greater minds than mine, but on the face of it, geez, what a can of worms this would be. Then, imagine the problems when the government tried to cut it off. We'd never hear the end of it.
...Um, my unsolicited advice? Let "tame" find his own booking agent. LOL!
Um, my unsolicited advice? Stop "Don Joe" from writing his own material, and quit calling the 911 admin mod like a crybaby whenever someone points out how much he hates Keyes.
Medved won't win a debate with me unless he controls the volume nob.
Do you mean Medved is brutal against Keyes, or that the Keyesters here are brutal against Medved?
I can't get an AM radio here (rural "dead zone"), but from what I can observe here, it's like someone turned the hounds loose on Medved for his opinion on Keyes. They're doing that to anyone who doesn't drink the koolade.
Scary.
We've gone from "it's not the man, it's the ideas", to "screw the ideas, it's the MAN".
This is affecting every republican race in the midwest.
Keyes means to bring down the party or else...
wow.
"Mexican" is a race Mud?
Second question: are all illegal aliens in the US Mexican?
The Democrats have gotten away with this tactic for so long, one wonders if it goes back to the very foundation of their party. The "Democrat Establishment" takes a moderate position, calling for "sensitivity" and "incremental change" on some fringe issue. Then they allow their bomb-throwers to pander relentlessly, throwing out red meat to their various constituencies in order to keep those constituencies on the plantation.
If Keyes can make some headway against that, more power to him.
Okay, young lady, security can be there to protect us from Michael while we record.
Riiiiiiiiight. That's why he has a syndicated radio show, and you're posting on a web site.
I'm still looking forward to that resume :o)
Al Franken has a radio show, while YOU post on the web. That doesn't prove he's superior. BTW, I've done radio.
This "one idea" is not only way off base, but of incredible weight and significance.
Someone else made a half-joking comment about some candidate who was 100% on every issue, but his idea for winning the war on terror was to have daily human sacrifices to Moloch.
Yeah, an extreme example, but that's the nature of political discussion. Ever see a political cartoon that DIDN'T rely on visual hyperboler?
So, that poster's word picture struck a chord with me.
No, Keyes' idea is not tantamount to thowing babies into a buring idol.
But by the same token, it's not trivial either.
It's more than "just a bad idea".
It's "a bad idea" that is SO bad that it could actually destroy this country.
I believe that if "reparations" are ever enacted, a race war has better than even chance of happening. MUCH better than even chance.
You don't play with matches over a pond of gasoline.
This country is in many ways, in many areas, on the brink. People are sick and tired of working and paying so that "entitlements" can go to "special interests".
To do something like "reparations" would be like taking a flame-thrower to that "pond". Screw the matches, let's take this sucker straight to hell, pronto!
The idea is so cosmically stupid that people are in shock. And not just here. Look at what Michael Medved has been saying.
And as far as getting any backing from Bush, I wouldn't hold my breath if I was Keyes.
Of course, that'll help him. He can turn around and claim that Bush is "abandoning" him and "discriminating", and use that as "proof" of the "need" for "reparations."
I am just saddened, and shocked, and... it's surreal, to watch a guy morph from a conservative stalwart to a two bit race-hustler who is willing to play with this kind of fire, just to get his name in the news, regardless of the damage he does to the rest of the country.
And I also resent being personally attacked for voicing that opinion, as I have been in this thread by several posters. (Not saying you have, but it needed to be said in the context.)
I think you can listen to the show (it's the first hour) anytime you want to online here.
What are you going to do, tell him Jim doesn't want him to talk?
I just pissed my pants.
[censored]
LOL - like I'm gonna give that to a guy who saves posts from pulled threads. You really DO think I'm stupid, don'tcha? ; )
I don't think that's it, honestly. If you want to listen on the link I posted, maybe you can get a feel for that from what he said. I really don't think so.
P.S. I hate Dershowitz too, and enjoyed that debate.
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