Posted on 07/26/2003 5:08:16 AM PDT by aomagrat
Black voters in South Carolina should stop settling for "sharing the booth and not sharing the power," the Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday.
Sharpton, in Hopkins to speak to the annual banquet of the Lower Richland branch of the NAACP, said Democrats use black voters without sharing the benefits of power.
"We've been treated like a political mistress," Sharpton said. "It's 'We want to have fun with you, we want to use you, but we can't take you home, we can't marry you and give you our name.'
"And that kind of situation must stop."
Sharpton is one of nine Democrats seeking the national party's presidential nomination. South Carolina, "As God would have it," Sharpton said, will play a major role in choosing that nominee as the state Democratic Party hosts the first Southern primary Feb. 3.
Sharpton is campaigning hard for South Carolina, where, he said, there are 300,000 blacks who are eligible to vote, but are not registered. He wants to get those people registered and to the polls, whether it's for him or another candidate. "It's good for the party," he said.
But the party needs to appreciate and respect his work and his candidacy. He said some have called his candidacy "bad for the party."
But with Republicans in control of the White House, Congress, the S.C. Governor's Mansion and State House, Sharpton is perplexed.
"Bad for the party? How can I kill something that's already dead?" he said.
More than 200 people crowded into Hopkins Park on Lower Richland Boulevard to hear Sharpton and to raise money for the NAACP scholarship fund.
Coley Washington, of Hopkins, said she hasn't made up her mind who she will vote for, but thinks Sharpton "is great."
"He has God in his heart, and that means a lot," Washington said.
Emanuel Bush of Gadsden knows Sharpton "has his own following." But, "as far as his chances, you never know. He needs to test the waters."
Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland, represents Hopkins, a community that "is very interested in the issues of the day."
"Clearly, Rev. Sharpton is one of those people" involved in those issues, Neal said.
"We're looking for answers, for information, and he's a fountainhead of all that," said Neal, who has not publicly endorsed a presidential candidate.
Sharpton has just returned from Africa, where he met with representatives of embattled Liberian President Charles Taylor, as well as rebel groups from that war-torn country.
President Bush has sent troops to the coast of Liberia, where civil war has left hundreds dead. Taylor has promised to resign if American forces come to the country's aid, and rebel leaders have also asked for U.S. intervention.
But Bush has said he wants Taylor to step down before the American troops become directly involved. And if that happens, Bush said, the U.S. will only be involved to keep the peace, not to take part in any fighting.
Sharpton believes that's a cop-out, and a double standard.
"It's a lame excuse," Sharpton said Friday. Bush "didn't wait for (Saddam) Hussein to leave" Iraq.
"When you're asked to come in, and you don't go in," Sharpton said, "I can't believe this would be done anywhere else except for Africa."
The only thing he said that makes sense.
Say what you want about Al, but he's absolutely right about this.
They were both resigned to live under the control of despotic leadership..........until George W. Bush appeared on the scene.
There is now hope for both!!
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