Posted on 08/24/2004 4:15:41 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Alan Keyes has upset the liberal game plan to crown law school lecturer Barack Obama as the new leader of blacks in America. Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton like Obama because he imitates their votes, but Americans like Keyes because he is straightforward about issues we care about.
The Keyes-Obama race for the U.S. Senate from Illinois reminds locals of a similar contest in 1950. Then a conservative Republican traveled up and down the Land of Lincoln and toppled one of the most powerful liberals of that time, Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas.
The victor in that race, Everett McKinley Dirksen, played to the grassroots rather than to the media. His stunning upset showed that the voters were ready to break with New Deal liberalism and join the Republican landslide in 1952.
Everett Dirksen, the greatest orator of his time, won because he articulated public opposition to the follies of the Truman Administration. Dirksen was equally persuasive whether he was negotiating with a small group over an arcane section of legislation or declaiming broad themes without a microphone to a thousand voters on the hillsides of southern Illinois.
Illinois voters have the opportunity this year to hear Alan Keyes, perhaps the greatest orator of our time and a man with a fund of knowledge about issues that matches his eloquence. His biggest obstacle is not that he is not an Illinoisan, not that he is black, but that the media have already anointed Obama as the winner after viciously destroying his other opponents.
Obama had demanded six debates with his Republican opponent when he was Jack Ryan, a businessman unaccustomed to political argument. Reminding us of history's famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, Obama confidently said the people of Illinois are owed these debates because they deserve more than packaged television ads and rehearsed sound bites. Now that Keyes has replaced Ryan as the Republican nominee, Obama wants only two or three debates. Did the history of the Lincoln-Douglas debates change between Ryan's resignation and Keyes's nomination?
The media were touting Obama's Harvard degree, but Keyes's Harvard Ph.D. is more accomplished than Obama's law degree. Besides, we already have too many liberal lawyers such as Kerry and Edwards running the Democratic Party for the benefit of the trial lawyers.
Alan Keyes is a walking encyclopedia on a wide variety of subjects including the Constitution, the proper role of government, and foreign policy. He was an ambassador to the United Nations during the Reagan Administration, and we can count on him to address the important issues that were conspicuously missing from Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention.
Obama is one of the most leftwing Senate candidates Illinois has ever seen, a me-too vote for Kennedy and Clinton to raise taxes and toady to the teachers unions. Obama supports abortion rights, socialized medicine, and affirmative action, and he opposes private gun ownership.
Obama voted against the "live-birth abortion" bill which was designed to protect live babies born of botched abortions. Obama voted "present" on an Illinois bill to ban partial-birth abortion, and "present" on a bill to notify parents when their minor children seek an abortion.
Obama wrote a letter to the Windy City Times, Chicago's premier gay news source, to promise his support for gay marriage. He said, "I opposed DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act] in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying."
Alan Keyes, on the other hand, is the country's most eloquent defender of the right to life. He is supremely ready to tackle the cultural issues that will be the key to victory in the 2004 elections -- abortion, traditional marriage, parental control over education, and supremacist judges inventing "rights" such as abortion, sodomy, same-sex marriage licenses, and sending pornography into your kids' computers.
Bill Cosby recently made headlines by decrying the decline in education for African-Americans. Keyes is ready to take on the teachers unions and hold them accountable for failing to teach youngsters how to read.
The Bush-haters rally behind Obama, not because his father was African, but because he can be counted on to protect the teachers unions, abortion, and gay unions. The Democrats had hoped to elect Obama by simply playing the race card, but the nomination of Alan Keyes has checkmated that strategy.
Obama's campaign contributors tell you what you need to know about his liberalism. His donors include George Soros, Hillary Clinton's Leadership PAC, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights League, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and Progressive Choices.
Alan Keyes has exposed the lie that the Democrats are the party for advancing minorities. Those who want a leader, regardless of race, who will speak up for traditional values such as marriage, life, and education choice, will vote for Alan Keyes.
Correct.
When it first came up a few years ago, I immediately pegged it as a "never happen in a million years" brand of agitprop designed by the left as a two-edged sword against society.
One edge would be the promise of race war (if "reparations" are granted, a race war is almost guaranateed, coming from the less-stable white end of the spectrum, and if NOT granted -- but continually flogged as "due", a race war is almost guaranteed from the less-stable black end of the spectrum). The other edge is the standard shakedown, i.e., "gimme what I demand, or else I keep callin' for 'reparations'".
This is not exactly "news". That anyone would suggest otherwise is quite revealing. It demonstrates either a very selective memory, or, an abundance of disingenuity.
"Enjoyable"?
Well, I suppose, if your tastes run in that direction. For myself, when it comes to "speech", I don't enjoy mine "chilled", TUVM.
Some people are just like that. The spend a week or so getting kicked in the shins, and then for no reason at all, they get "touchy", go figure.
Don't you ever know when to shut up?
Your divisive BS is like the energizer bunny...it just keeps on going, and going, and going....
The only thing I would add, would be to this statement, quoted below, to which I would append "...and trying to silence, intimidate, attack, insult, berate, defame, drive off, and 'get banned' those who will not drink the KA."
His supporters would be better served acknowledging the concerns of those of us who are concerned, and addressing them, rather than trying to spin reparations into something that they are not, and hypocrisy into a virtue.
Go support Obama, then.
Same crap, different day...
A few points, Luis, if I may....
If I can be snarky for a moment, I suppose this means you won't be voting for him? /end-snarky. Please look at it from this perspective: your constant attacks AFTER he has been chosen can only be viewed negatively. Have you been attacked in kind? Yes. Is that something I support? No. I've called on the IL board for people not to argue with non-IL freepers because it doesn't help the cause. Neither does insulting.
However, the fact that his supporters having opinions about you or your beliefs, statements, etc means that you wouldn't support him is pure intellectual BUNK.
On the other hand, I think that heavy-handedness can go to far. I refer to the banning (once again) of Sabertooth. He was here in opposition to Keyes. I strongly disagree with Saber, but have NEVER seen him get nasty or insulting unlike others here. So, we have a a definite area of agreement.
My only concern with Keyes's supporters, is the fact that like John Kerry, they have gone "to the Feds" (in this case JimRob) to shut down dissenting opinions.
My primary concern is with Keyes's complete lack of concern for the objections of those whom he seems to believe OWE him support.
Well, he owes me an explanation, or at the very least the respect due me as a loyal GOP'er, and address the issues that cause me concern.
You and I have exchanged several posts now, and thus far we have maintained a civil tone. I respect that in you, as I respect the fact that you are about to go out there and attempt to win what most everyone, including Keyes himself, consider to be a lost race.
I take strong issue with the position you've been put in by your State's GOP.
Good luck to you.
Wow!
Toothy got banned again?
That has to be some sort of new FR record.
He'll mount a valiant effort, but vain I fear. My dog could vote in Illinois as long as he voted Democrat.
So then, let me ask you...how do we view Keyes's constant attacks on Bush after he was elected?
EternalVigilance wrote:
"Don't you ever know when to shut up?"
Gotta love that one bumpkin.
Have you registered him to do so?
I view them as politics as normal. I criticize Bush, as well (well, not during the pre-election time). Please don't take my statements to mean that criticism is never to be allowed! I am 100% against that idea.
Did he criticize Bush after the primaries but before the general election? If so, SHAME ON HIM.
My principles remain the same over time. I was strongly against Kosovo, but I kept my opinions to myself, even though it was Clinton in power. I felt that criticizing only hurt our troops and country. In fact, I was against Gulf 1. FWIW, I am fully in favor of this war (so as not to muddy any waters).
Now, this is not to say that I am never a hypocrite, just that I don't believe I am being one now in my positions regarding Keyes criticism.
Gee Louie...
You're becoming unglued again...
Openly defending the status-quo one-party rule of the Republicrats with Obama representing Illinois?
LOL!! What a silly arguement.
Tell us Louie, why are you so scared that Obama v. Keyes offers such a clear choice for voters?
You're entitled to your "concerns", Louie.
But nobody is going to apologize for calling them stupid.
I know, I should have been more critical of Keyes running for Senate in Illinois during the primaries...
That he is passionate about the protection of human life and that he is willing to endure a significant political defeat to have the chance to publicly present his views on abortion.
Alan reject the offers by the IL GOP until he was presented evidence on Obama's support of "live-birth abortions".
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