Blacks still leery of right wing (barf alert)

USA Today ^ | April 23, 2002 | DeWayne Wickham

[laurav]

Sometimes the most telling part of a study doesn't make it into print. That's the case with the 30th anniversary count of black elected officials that was released last month by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (JCPES).

[laurav]

Well, DeWayne is a bit of a broken record, eh?

[Black Agnes]

Interesting read? bump

[weikel]

I guess the "Black Leaders" of today have worked real hard to supress any memory of Booker T Washington.

[Phantom Lord]

Blacks in the GOP do not rise to "leadership" positions in the black community and don't attract large numbers of black voters to the GOP for very simple reasons.

They do not pander and play the race card
They do not play up and promote victim status
They do not blame problems on "the man" and claim they will "fix it"
They do not buy votes with handouts and government goodies

Left wing blacks do this and much more to assure that their followers remain on the plantation and a solid voting block.

End of story.

[Dakmar]

"The vast majority of black conservatives are not known to most blacks"

That might have something to do with leftwing bias in mainstream media. Until I started getting Fox News, I had never seen a black conservative on TV.

[dakine]

Your #4 post hits a bullseye!

[Always Right]

It is sad that so many blacks today accept their role as victims and keep hoping for more handouts from the government.

[Alberta's Child]

. . . black conservatives have found it almost impossible to win election in majority-black districts.

And yet black conservatives have no trouble winning in majority-white districts, which kind of throws all those NAACP-type allegations about "racist right-wingers" out the door.

[KC_Conspirator]

You are exactly right.

So what is the repercussions of being way too liberal? Not a single black person is in the United States Senate. That should wholly be the democrat party's fault. Also if you take a look at the state held offices there is nary a black democrat that can win a statewide vote. The prominent blacks at the state level are all Republicans (like in CO and OH). The reason for all this? Because the inner city populations have grown too radical and leftist for the rest of middle America to accept.

The author of course, will ignore all this.

[Alas Babylon!]

Wickham's whole piece is designed to let folks know that black conservatives are frauds, selected by the "Man" as sort of political "Step-and-Fetch-Its", and conservative values are racist and anti-black.

He is, of course, thrilled that the majority of blacks have bought the package, hook, line, and sinker.

[onedoug]

Blacks Still Leery of Standing On Own Two Feet

[GuillermoX]

Blacks think that the GOP is the KKK. Yes, they really do think this.

[SunStar]

I guess the "Black Leaders" of today have worked real hard to supress any memory of Booker T Washington.

Yep. And, apparently they forgot which party freed the slaves in the first place. (Republican Party)

[goldstategop]

DeWayne Wickham is the author of the book Bill Clinton and Black America. No further comment needed.

[Paleo Conservative]

black conservatives rarely win election in majority-black political districts

But leftist black politicians don't win higher level political offices than mayor of large cities. The policies and ideology they pursue at that level prevent them from winning state wide elections for governor or senator.

[Phantom Lord]

I have thought for a long time, and continue to think that Americas first black president will be a republican. Same for female president.

And with the lovely and vivacious Condi Rice we would have both!

[laurav]

I agree -- polls show the vast majority of Americans are willing to vote for a black person for president. But most black politicians are too far to the left to sit comfortably with non-ideological Americans. If the black candidate (or woman, or both) was a Democrat, voters would assume he or she was a left-wing Democrat, not a popular thing to be these days.

If the black or woman candidate was a Republican, however, people would assume the candidate was on the moderate side of the party, a position on the spectrum that goes well with swing voters.

[laurav]

Yep. And, apparently they forgot which party freed the slaves in the first place. (Republican Party)

Shh... don't tell anyone!

Seriously, the migration of black voters from the Republican to the Democratic party is as profound a switch as that of the South from Democratic to Republican. I haven't heard a really good explanation of why black voters switched (that doesn't involve screaming "racists" as this columnist does). Martin Luther King's father was a Republican, for instance. One history book I read said it was mostly the result of FDR, and that since black Americans were hit harder by the Depression than others, the loyalty to FDR and his party was stronger.

So this is part of it, but what else? Sure there are racist Republicans, but there are racist Democrats too. Is the Republican position on affirmative action solely responsible for the lopsided results now?

[timm22]

What I find interesting is that the two most important intellectual voices of the American Right happen to be men of African descent. I think Thomas Sowell is second only to Milton Friedman as an advocate for economic freedom, and Alan Keyes is the preeminent spokesman for Constitutional government and traditional values in this country.

I can't think of any black leftists comparable to Dr. Keyes or Dr. Sowell. There are black leaders on the left, of course, but it seems to me that they are respected only on racial issues or are leaders only in the black community.

[TheGrimReaper]

It must be so much easier for blacks to keep buying the same old worn-out lies from Kennedy, Dashole, Schumer, Klinton, Bobby KKK. Byrd, et al, than it would be to actually THINK about who they're supporting and WHY.