Posted on 08/10/2003 5:35:44 PM PDT by Engine82
POLITICS: Raising Cain Herman Cain, candidate for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, may be the national Democratic Party's worst nightmare.
Cain has been described as a Ronald Reagan clone. The first words on his Web site are: "People make better decisions about their lives than government." A former adviser to Jack Kemp and Steve Forbes, he favors low taxes. He wants to privatize Social Security. He would scrap income taxes, replacing them with a national sales tax.
The most obvious difference between him and Reagan is that Cain is an American of African descent, and that presents a dilemma for Democrats.
Zell Miller is retiring. Democrats need to hold that seat if they are to have any chance of winning control of the Senate next year -and that will be difficult if many blacks bolt the party to support Cain.
Of course, Cain isn't assured of getting the GOP nomination. He isn't yet well known and his three opponents include the popular U.S. Rep. Johnny Isakson, whose record is as conservative as Cain's rhetoric.
Still, Cain has an agenda certain to resonate with Georgia voters -and, as a regular on the motivational speaking circuit, he obviously has some skills that could be helpful during the campaign.
Cain would be an excellent role model if he goes to Capitol Hill -a chauffeur's son who got an education, worked hard to prove himself competent and, as a CEO, nursed a failing Godfather's Pizza back to health.
Married 34 years, and holding a master's degree and seven honorary doctorates, Cain serves on the boards of four major corporations and is the author of three books. He consistently stresses that people can be whatever they want and insists that, as a senator, he would work to remove government-imposed barriers to success.
More importantly, the Democratic Party increasingly has sacrificed the interests of blacks -whom it considers a "safe" voting bloc -in recent years to gain the favor of various monied special interest groups. Polls show most blacks favor private school vouchers, for example, but the party's leadership steadfastly opposes them.
If elected, Cain could use his high-profile job to help make minorities aware of other ways that the party fails them.
When asked why he, being black, favored giving workers more control over their Social Security money, Cain noted that the life expectancy of a black male is 68 -seven years younger than a white man.
"If you work 40 years putting money into Social Security and die at 68," he explained, "you have subsidized white males, have no ownership of your contributions and can't pass (them) on to your children and grandchildren."
Generally speaking, the conservative agenda better serves the interests of most Americans of any race on such issues as criminal justice, taxes and welfare, as well as education. Cain would be an effective spokesman for that agenda.
There are those who would disagree with nthe implication that Congressman Isakson is a "pure" conservative. His pro-choice positions have caused him to be derided as a "RINO" on another thread. That's overly harsh in light of his lifetime ACU rating of 84, and his 2002 rating of 98, but clearly he has some moderate/liberal quirks.
The Georgia Senate race should be decided in the GOP Primary, assuming the supporters of the Primary losers rally around the nominee. Let's hope that's the case.
It's because that's all they've ever been taught and told. And to cause change, they won't listen to Whitey - it's got to come from within.
I realize the question wasn't directed at me, but if I were in Georgia, the answer would be easy: Isakson. I wouldn't support him in the primary, but if he's the nominee, there's no real choice.
The balance of the Senate is at stake, and a Marshall win (even if he's "right" on some issues) might affect the balance, possibly the chairmanship, of every Senate committee. Marshall's very presence, even if he weren't appointed to the Senate Judicial Committee, might make it harder to get Bush nominees to the Senate floor. Isakson, though too pro-choice for me, at least voted against partial-birth abortion, and I'm confident he'd support President Bush's judicial nominees, should Bush be re-elected.
This is probably a grossly inappropriate cliché under the circumstances, but -- don't throw the baby out with the bathwater! Work hard for Isakson's defeat in the Primary -- but if he prevails, he's gotta be your guy, even if you're a single-issue Right-to-Lifer. The election of any Democrat to the Senate, even if he is a conservative on all issues (Marshall isn't) will have the effect of moving us a step (maybe a big step) in the pro-choice direction.
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