I'm a (Race) Hustler Baby

I’m a hustler baby, I’m a hustler
I just want you to know, wanna let you know
It ain’t where I been, it ain’t where I been
But where I’m ’bout to go, top of the world!

The race hustlers can almost taste it now—Obama at the top of the world. And now Spike Lee, Maxine Waters, Jeremiah Wright, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, et al. are joined by a new hustler-wannabe—Howard Dean. Yes, the Dean of scream. Yaaaaaaaaaaah! Whether he made a Freudian slip or not last week, Dean reminded me of the pathetic, race-confused “Raji” as played by Vince Vaughn in the movie “Be Cool.” In an NPR interview, Dean was asked about the shifting demographics in the U.S. and responded: “And if you look at folks of color, even women, they’re more successful in the Democratic Party than they are in the white, excuse me, than in the Republican Party….”

However you see it, Dean said what he thinks of the Republican Party—and joined the ranks of the “race hustler” elite while sporting his signature smirk. The lesson for Republicans is not that the race hustlers are still at it; or that the mainstream media smoothed it over for Dean (yet again); or that Wolf Blitzer will not rend his shirt in outrage; or that Keith Olberman will not round up a latte liberal posse to tar and feather Hustler Howard. The lesson is that Dean’s words are true. No matter how you slice the demographics, the Republican Party is distinctly “white” and that stings the conscience of the conservative to know that a solid block of the American electorate rejects the conservative worldview out of hand.

For the last 50 years Republicans have consistently garnered only 10 percent of the black presidential vote with no better prospects this time around. Every political consultant, pollster, economist, sociologist, historian, hack and blogger, not to mention past and present politician, seems to have a well-reasoned explanation for the phenomenon. So far, I’ve only stumbled across one honest commentator (Paul Gottfried, a professor of humanities at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania) who says he “is still searching for an explanation as to why this hostility [blacks toward Republicans] is as deep and abiding as it seems to be.”

Who better to give some insight on this Republican failure than two former black Republican legislators—former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts and former Congressman from Oklahoma, J.C .Watts?

Senator Brooke believes the Republican Party has lost its “progressive” wing. Therefore, he says the Republican loss of the black vote is issue related, citing black dissatisfaction with Republican policies on jobs, healthcare, etc. As the first black elected to the Senate in the 20^th Century and last black Republican Senator, Brooke would seem to have his finger on the pulse of things as he asks, “What are they [Republicans] doing for the millions of African-Americans that are suffering?”

Yet, as Brooke contends, “issues” are the problem, the Republican Party will have to substantially change its policies in order to win the black vote. The issue-based solution would include a Republican Party platform embracing universal healthcare, trade protectionism, affirmative action, the welfare state, vague notions of social justice, etc.—quite a stretch, even for a McCain-driven Republican Party. This sounds more like hustling or pandering than a commitment to principle.

As a successful conservative black Republican politician, J.C. Watts has “hustled” in a positive way on more than one playing field. From star college athlete to Congress to lobbyist to rising television network mogul, Watts has lived this issue, and he sees it differently. Echoing the age-old adage that voters “don’t care what you know, they just want to know you care” former U.S. Congressman Watts believes that Republicans simply don’t make the requisite effort—they don’t “hustle” enough for the black vote. As a result, Watts says Republicans are guilty of reaching out “60 days before the election” but otherwise avoiding black venues. Speaking of black venues, if Watts’ new Black Television News Network takes off it will be a ready-made opportunity for black Republicans to gain sweat equity with the black audience.

Truth is, the Republican Party should not be chasing the “rainbow” and hustling the vote of every ethnic group. The GOP is the party of individual empowerment, the “shining light on the hill,” drawing all that come to know the hope and promise of less government, more personal freedom and traditional family values. Remember, many stellar conservatives, even Ronald Reagan, arrived at the GOP after a philosophical journey. I’m glad the party didn’t change to fit Reagan, but that he came to it. People of other ethnic groups will come, too, one at a time, based on principle—not in response to pandering efforts to re-package the failed policies of the left.

I would speak at every black venue I could attend.

I would talk about how the black community has invested itself with one political party for the past 40 years and still the black condition has not improved.

I would talk about how blacks hold the power to change their own condition, but that power is taken away by liberal politicians who tell them to do nothing and wait for help instead.....help that never comes.

I would talk about how conservatives do not understand blacks because we know that they can achieve anything they want, but instead too many blacks have no aspiration to greatness. Conservatives do not understand how blacks have never been inspired or challenged by liberals to achieve, but instead are told they are victims and should get everything the easy way, if only they would elect more liberals. Then, once elected, those same liberals do not deliver. Why?!

Because greatness cannot be given by someone else, it must be earned by the individual.

Conservatives will never promise blacks an easy road to the promised land because there is no easy road.

Conservatives will tell you that keeping families intact is hard work. Taking responsibility for being a father is hard work. Staying in school is hard work. Avoiding the temptations of drugs and gangs is hard work. Believing you are not a victim is hard work.

Conservatives will not lie about how to achieve greatness, they will tell you exactly how difficult a road it is to travel.

Republicans simply don’t make the requisite effort—they don’t “hustle” enough for the black vote

This very fact is the reason that blacks should vote conservative and not liberal.

Conservatives do not see the populace as people of different colors to be "hustled". They see people with potential that need opportunity, not handouts.

The sea change in the loss of the black vote for Republicans occurred in 1964 when Barry Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights bill. In 1960 the Republicans still garnered fortyfive percent of the black vote. Since then they've been lucky to get twenty percent (usually a lot less) in a prez election. In black voters minds the passage of the 1965 bill was a huge moment in the struggle for progess. And in Goldwater's rejection, it sealed in their minds that the Pubbies were against black progess.

Never mind that more Republicans than Dems (who were most of people trying to stop black voting rights) voted for the civil rights bill or that Goldwater eventually recanted against his 1964 vote. That rejection by Goldwater started a trend of black voters overwhelmingly aligning with the Dem party. That alignment with the Dems was in reality a huge setback for black progess, but it will take a lot more convincing by the GOP to get back the black voters they lost in the sixties.

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