Posted on 06/17/2013 4:01:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
Anyone who doubts that the Republican Party can attract black voters needs only look south to Louisiana.
At a conference held in Baton Rouge at the end of May, called @Large and aimed to attract black conservatives, black Democrat Elbert Guillary, a member of the state legislature, announced that he was switching party and becoming a Republican.
Less than two weeks later, just up the road in Central City, Louisiana, black Democrat city councilman Ralph Washington – who attended this same @Large conference, made the same announcement – he’s becoming a Republican.
It’s really not such a mystery. The mystery is why this is not happening more often.
I’m asked all the time why, when it is so clear that blacks are damaged by the left wing political agenda, black voters so uniformly and consistently support candidates – Democrats – who advance this agenda.
My answer is that Republicans need to start acting more like the businesspeople they claim to be.
Any businessman convinced that his product is the best doesn't blame customers for not buying it. He doubles down on his efforts to understand these potential customers better and how to sell to them.
There needs to be more appreciation of the differences in the black population.
A Gallup poll done in 2011 showed that whereas 39 percent of whites say they are “very religious,” 53 percent of blacks do. A large percentage of “very religious” blacks are conservative and very different from blacks on the left who identify with the NAACP.
The @Large conference, where I was a speaker, was hosted by pastor C.L. Bryant, who tells his own story about leaving the left-wing black establishment in his new film “Runaway Slave.”
Bryant was president of the NAACP chapter in Garland, Texas, but his relationship with the NAACP soured when he refused to speak at a Planned Parenthood pro-abortion event.
His eyes began to open and see that his traditional Christian values – protecting the unborn and promoting the traditional family, individual freedom, and dignity – were out of whack with the political agenda blacks were automatically signing onto.
Elbert Guillary is now the first black Republican in the Louisiana state legislature since reconstruction.
Listen to him to understand why a conservative black leaves the Democratic Party.
He called the Democrats “the party of disappointment” and expressed disillusionment with Democratic policies on abortion, gun control, education, and immigration.
Democrats “have moved away from the traditional values of most Americans,” he said. “Their policies have encouraged high teen birth rates, high high school drop-out rates, high incarceration rates, and very high unemployment rates.”
Or listen to now-Republican councilman Washington:
“…the value system I was raised up with, it really doesn’t side with the Democrats...Some of the things I see happening today, with the entitlement programs, we have to change. We can’t continue doing the things we are doing and survive.”
Everyone understands that black American history is unique and complicated.
But wallowing in the past is never an answer to anyone’s personal challenges.
The challenge is clarifying right from wrong and acting accordingly moving forward.
It has always seemed pretty clear to me that traditional values and personal freedom and responsibility must be the agenda moving forward for every American of every background.
Black Americans, like every American, need less taxes taken out of their paychecks, need to be able to choose where to send their children to school, need to be able to pick freely a health care plan that suits their needs, and need to save for retirement instead of paying payroll taxes.
You can’t sum it up any better than what Elbert Guillary and Ralph Washington have said. There are many, many Guillarys and Washingtons out there in black America. We need more efforts like the @Large conference to reach them
George Wallace’s son, George, III, did become a Republican, but he stopped winning elections some time back. He is usually known as “George, Jr.,” but the George Wallace people recognize was really George Wallace, Jr. Presidential candidate Wallace remained Democrat; he said there wasn’t “a dime’s worth of difference between the two major parties.” He was a JFK supporter in 1960 too.
McPain and “Loveable Lindsey” are RINOs by temperament if not by some rigged voting record tally.
Treen and Freeman were at odds throughout the Treen administration. Treen backed Mary Landrieu on his own in 2008; some thought she would help a Treen kinsman get a federal judgeship. Treen himself was rejected for a federal judgeship in 1986; never nominated by Reagan after Democrat opposition surfaced.
Because race comes before everything to most Black people.
Democrats would win every election for the foreseeable future. A third party is a terrible idea.
Good news.
“A large percentage of “very religious” blacks are conservative”
And the vast majority still vote for the most radical
pro-abortion, queer “marriage” loving president in American history. Making them nothing but hypocrites
Rick Santorum was about the only GOP contender in 2012 who understood that and you should’ve seen how Freepers piled on him. I was genuinely shocker.
A cousin of mine ran for the state legislature in Idaho for The Constitution Party. He lost, but the Democrats didn’t even bother fielding a candidate there. The GOP guy who won decided he’s better become more conservative.
Guillory released a new video yesterday called, “Why I Am a Repulican” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_YQ8560E1w
(I just posted it here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/3032408/posts)
Are you kidding me?
It’s like a paradigm shift!
just let the left keep pushing their homo and cross dressing and well see more of this
How can we embrace these new folks and encourage this to happen more often. I hope we don’t get into the “SEE, we told ya we were better” attitude. I hope we can stay grateful for each new person who is actually waking up. These people are brave and they give me hope!
So are these new Republicans going to be Republicans or Black Republicans? Are they going to be members of the National Black Republican Association? Or just Republicans?
Who cares? There are a multitude of minority Republican groups. Gee, the labeling that goes on at FR is amazing sometimes. There are already too many pigeon holes to stuff people in to divide them. We need to be looking at the points that unify us, imho.
And the vast majority still vote for the most radical
pro-abortion, queer “marriage” loving president in American history. Making them nothing but hypocrites
wow.
Because race comes before everything to most Black people.
Geee, I wonder how it is then that Jesse Jackson didn’t make it past the primary season when he ran......
This condemnation of people based on skin color has to stop. It HAS too. There is no way things are going to change if this continues.
I mean come on - we have to step up!
Shirley Chisholm was a black Democrat in 1972,,,,did everyone with her color vote for no one else? No! She won 28 delegates in the primaries.
1992, 1996, 2000 and 2008 Alan Keyes,,how far did he get?
2204, Carol Mosely Braun and Al Sharpton...how far did they get?
Did every minority who didn’t vote for Romney do so because reasons of skin color, or are we going to continue to grip about African Americans only. This is one point the party needs to work on. Truly.
The theory that African Americans vote ONLY for African Americans just does not hold water historically. Don’t the Obama PR machine draw us down that road again. It’s a lose-lose position. I say this as a person who cannot stand Obama. I often call him “Dear Leader”
traditionally-liberal “black experience”
You’re kidding.
In general, I’m somewhat leery of black Republican converts. I’m not suggesting that they are intentional saboteurs, but I am wondering how much of their personal, traditionally-liberal “black experience” will bleed into their lives as Republicans.
Are you kidding me?
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That was my response exactly, verbatim.
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