Whatever you want, I guess, but the topic I'm most interested in is whether there are arguments in there that could contribute to finding common ground between blacks and conservatives.
But that was my whole point, you just threw a pile of all kinds of topics into a massive vanity, and said, 'discuss', they are all hot button issues, some of them of serious disagreement her, yet you mashed them all into a single vanity and say, 'have at it boys'.
By the way, I'm a terrible and lazy writer, so my posts seem harsher than if I was talking to you, I admire that you are such an engaged writer and thinker with your FIL, and I'm excited about your political growth, I do wonder if you are going to become a conservative, or split the difference and choose to stop between conservatism and radical leftism, by switching to calling yourself libertarian.
I know the voting data and the supposed link of blacks and social conservatism and how it fails for republicans, but I think some information is missing.
I still think that social conservatism is the way to reach blacks.
Black voters are different than other voters in ways that we don't need to try and figure out, because right now, we are focused on simply winning 30 to 40% of black voters, we need that just to know that life makes sense.
I won't won't worry if the democrats consistently win 55 or 60% of the black vote, that is just normal voting, but I am deeply disturbed to see 94 and 96% numbers, that forces me to question what racial elements are driving them, it shakes my faith in individualism and my confidence in what kind of person I am talking to when I am talking to people who are black, whether they are serving me lunch, or testing my eyesight, or writing tickets.
As a Texan, or a Southerner who has had relationships with blacks, unlike some of what we see from people in many regions of the US, I know what it is like to have a black rancher, or bible thumping conservative black, dress you down for being flaky or having too long of hair, or seeming like an unfocused teen, I also know the arguments I had with my black friends and in black bars.
I think the party leader republicans need to start hanging out with people, blacks, Hispanics, blue collar whites. Republicans need to be actually conservative, real life conservatives.
If someone isn't a racist, then they can argue their point of view, especially on social issues, and the issues of the day with anyone, and everyone.
When I talk to wealthy blacks, well, I'm at a disadvantage, I try to talk taxes and how the fundamentals of economic conservatism sustain the machine of economic growth and equality, and education is a good one also if I have the time, then we end up agreeing on education, but when I talk to guys like me, I'm in my element.
During my life, in whatever state I was living in, when I can sit down in a bar and talk to black guys like me, then they often agree that the democrat party is for sissies and weirdos, not real guys, and it is the social issues that we all agree on.
If you want to win votes from people who no longer even see you, then get into some arguments, go mano e mano with them, tussle, fight, take on their current figure heads and leaders in one on one challenges, see blacks as equals, not 'them', engage the guy, get the juices flowing, remind him of who he is in his heart, I know that the average black welder is not thinking that we need more 'gay' stuff in America.