Posted on 07/22/2005 9:26:09 PM PDT by NickatNite2003
Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman told the recent NAACP convention that he'd pull out all stops to woo black voters to the GOP tent. A few hundred miles away his boss was busy touting his program for jobs, minority business, and homeownership at the Indianapolis Black Expo. Bush and Mehlman got a listen at both places, and they should have. Blacks have gotten precious little in return for their blind loyalty to the Democratic Party. The black poor are more numerous. They live in crime and violence plagued neighborhoods. Their children attend miserably failing public schools. Public services in their communities are abominable.
Increased black GOP voter support will give blacks greater leverage in the Republican Party to promote their interests. That in turn will force the Democrats to fight harder for those interests. The GOP has reshaped the black agenda to challenge the agenda of black Democrats and mainstream civil rights groups.
But Bush and Mehlman's black voter onslaught has nothing to do with political altruism. The GOP is playing for national and state dominance for years to come and even the most marginal bump up in the black vote for the party in key battleground states would assure that dominance. There are slight rumblings of a shift. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington D.C. based black political research institute, found that between 2000 and 2004 the percent of blacks that registered Democrat dropped 11 percent. One in three young (under age 35) blacks said they were independents. The percent of blacks registered as Republican tripled. The not insignificant Republican increase and the Democratic slide among blacks have had major political consequences.
(Excerpt) Read more at blacknews.com ...
Sorry, I don't give a rats ass about the naacp.
Perhaps you may want to read the rest of the story.
Dear Blacks,
The democratic party has ruined your families, your neighborhoods, your work ethic, your schools and your safety.
In short, they have ruined your lives. They have taken away your freedom. They are still the plantation owners and you're still the slaves.
The author is keen to observe these facts on the ground.
A few percent here and a few percent there, add up to Republican victories, and to placing some good conservative blacks in high elected offices.
By 2008 people will reflect on eight years with two blacks serving as Secretary of State of the US.
Whoever runs for President as a Republican can point this out, along with progress for education and home ownership.
The Democratic party stance on Affirmative action, Busing, The Watts Riots, Abortion and the Viet Nam war started a drift away from the Democratic party.
It was Briefly interrupted by the Nixon debacle. Sanity again prevailed after the Carter Malaise.
Year after year non radical Blacks have had to feel estranged from both parties. Partly to blame for that were the Conservatives who came to the Republican party from the Democrats, How could Blacks Trust them? Also, the mistaken idea that no Blacks would even harbor conservative ideas.
No-one ever bothered to point out to Blacks the concerns and ideals they personally shared with Conservatives. I think that is happening now, and it's about time.
I believe his name is Ward Connerly- not Cornell
bttt
Nothing could be better for the GOP or for blacks. Many black leaders still advocate voting for the party that "does the most for the black community" (gives away the most handouts) but this method obviously doesn't work. I hope that more and more black voters are coming to realize this.
What's THAT supposed to mean??
I'm afraid your view only applies to a very small percentage of the black community. This small sector just happens to be more visible to society than the majority, who are responsible, spiritual, patriotic, and kind.
Of course. In your mind, we can't think for ourselves. We can't come to a logical conclusion.
Apparently, in your petty little mind, those of us who have become more conservative, or even become Republicans, have done so for the promise of relaxed prosecution, "make work" public employment, and unlimited ADC programs.
Idiot.
Do you put starch on that sheet of yours, troll?
Double-barrelled Mega-PING! to both lists! If you want on, FReepmail me!
BS, unless that is what they offered you.
GOP gains among black voters are no accident and are not due to happenstance. In August 2000, embattled GOP strategist Karl Rove told Washington Post national political writer Tom Edsall that the Republicans must reject "the use of such issues as affirmative action, and 'welfare queens' that past GOP candidates had employed in a calculated bid to polarize the electorate and put together a predominantly white majority." Mehlman repeated a variation on the line at the NAACP convention when he tendered his and the GOP's mea culpa for snubbing blacks in past years.
I'm not certain these two "ideas" belong next to each other, politically, as they are out of context, lacking pertinent, relevant, salient details. Nonetheless.
Bush and Mehlman aim to bury the sorry episode in Republican history when it blatantly pandered to racists and states righters, ultra conservative kooks and loonies, and hopelessly alienated black voters.
Some Earl hyperbole, IMHO. Left-wing Dem Black churches (in addition to the usual racialist-based political groups) did plenty of damage themselves -- in politicizing many issues that conservatives black are comfortable with and supportive of. I know in the SF Bay Area/Oakland, Black pastors TOLD their parishioners they would banish any parishioner who DIDN'T fight Prop 209 (and/or welfare reform). And given the way radical blacks have held others hostage (in the "community", so to speak) there's a reality vector, not to mention also a security issue involved in some of these issues. Ward Connerly's office was damaged and arsoned. By whom? and that sure sends a loud message to conservative black voters. It's a threat to them, as well.
So, while EOH is writing cleanly, he is NOT laying out the facts of this "disenfranchisement by GOP of "minorities"" very fairly. He's laying it all out in terms of "voting lines" but only voting lines sans all other very pertinent data. It's his choice, as author, certainly to do so.
Their strategy is to resurrect the part of its past in which Republicans championed black rights. The difference this time is that Republicans have radically redefined the fight for black rights. It's not for affirmative action, and more entitlement and welfare programs. It's pro-business, and homeownership, pro-Social Security privatization, and pro traditional family values. That appeals to young, upwardly mobile blacks.
Gotcha, Earl: This also appeals to blacks of all ages. Especially those who for whatever reason would like to see not only themselves, but their CHILDREN, AND GRANDCHILDREN owning homes and doing well.
Bush and Mehlman may be on to something.
EOH is right -- Bush and Mehlman are on to something.
Speaking of Bruce Gordon as we have in past, Southack, thought you find the following article interesting: Questions for the NAACP by Margaret Kimberley
Nah, black voters made those choices to do so themselves.
Ward Connerly's book is good. Amazing thing how he got involved with civil rights? Whites being discriminated against due preferential race-based policies.
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