Posted on 09/05/2004 6:32:25 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
NEW YORK -- It's a good thing President George W. Bush didn't have an altar call at the end of the GOP's convention. I might have joined the Republican Party.
By the time the four-day Republican National Convention ended Thursday night, I had a newfound respect for black Republicans. I will never again wonder what in the world is a black person doing supporting George W.
"One would think you wouldn't have to defend being a Republican," said Jennette Bradley, the lieutenant governor of Ohio and the first African-American woman to fill that post in the history of the United States. "That time is past. We don't have to apologize for being a Republican. We have the right to choose."
And they are choosing.
Lynn Swann, an ex-Steeler and NFL Hall of Famer, is playing a key role in the push to keep Bush in the White House. And award-winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin performed at the convention despite threats of a boycott.
All in the family values
"I was raised in a Democratic household," actor Joseph C. Williams told me. Williams, who appeared on the "Cosby Show," "General Hospital" and "The District," was the co-chairman of the "African Americans for Bush" steering committee. "The Republican values are the same values that are in most African-American homes. This party reflects those values much more than the opposition."
During the week, I met black people from all professions and all economic classes who proudly touted their decision to support Bush despite the fact polls predict about 90 percent of their counterparts will vote for the Democratic nominee, John Kerry.
In 2000, minorities comprised 10 percent of Republican delegates. This year, they made up 17 percent, according to the Joint Centers for Policy and Economic Studies.
Alice Williams, an administrator in a medical access program in Pittsburgh, was one of those delegates.
"I changed my party affiliation in the 1990s," said Williams, who at the time was elected to the school board as a Democrat.
"I lived in a school district that had the lowest test scores in the state of Pennsylvania, and the population was about 99 percent African American. We fought so hard to bring in a company as a consultant to improve one of our schools, but we had a teachers union that fought us every step of the way. I decided then that I didn't need to be part of a party that continued to say that they are for education, health care and jobs in our community and they do not support the very essence of our community, which is our children."
Virginia Walden Ford, founder and chairwoman of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, the grass-roots organization that successfully lobbied for school choice in the D.C. public schools, also left the Democratic Party disappointed.
Like losing her religion
"I went from being a Democrat most of my adult life to being an independent to gradually getting involved in the school choice movement. We got so much support from the Republicans, I changed over," she said.
"And President Bush, of course, was really supportive of the school choice effort in Washington. He came to a program three years ago before it was even passed to show support for our efforts," she said.
"I was still a Democrat. I don't know whether it was fear or what people would say, but it was like changing my religion," she said.
Although Democrats bash Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, those same Democrats rarely mention that one of the architects of the plan is Rod Paige, an African American who was appointed Education secretary in the Bush administration. Having attended segregated schools in his youth, I'm convinced that despite the act's shortcomings, Paige is committed to challenging what the Republicans call the "soft bigotry of low expectations."
Educated minds
So while black voters may disagree with most of the conservative wing of the party, the GOP's approach to fixing the education gap is worth considering.
During his acceptance speech, Bush made promises that should have poor and working-class families dancing in the street. In pledging to increase funding for Pell Grants and community colleges, he also promised to strengthen early intervention programs aimed at stemming the tide of black and Hispanic students that drop out of high schools every year.
As a lifelong independent, and the daughter of a die-hard Demo- crat, I may never bring myself to punch a Republican ballot.
But the black Republicans I ran into this week convinced me of one thing: Black people can only benefit from their courage.
Thanks Cincinatus'.........*~*
I sincerly hope you are right. Unfortunatly, I know successful blacks who still vote democrat. I think they are manipulated by the white, liberal areas where they live, in which they are the token black.
CHICAGOLAND PING
"As a lifelong independent, and the daughter of a die-hard Democrat, I may never bring myself to punch a Republican ballot."
Independent? But at least it sounds like Ms. Mitchell may have enjoyed a lucid moment or two before going back to carrying water for the democrats.
They're called LIBERALS.
Who does Vivica Fox support?
I e-mailed this to Ms. Mitchell with respect to her earlier column:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/mitchell/cst-nws-mitch30.html
Dear Ms. Mitchell:
With all due respect, your father sounds badly miseducated about the history of civil rights legislation in the 50's and 60's especially when you consider the part that Illinois played in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
To set the record straight, here is a brief summary: Both Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy attempted to get civil rights legislation through congress but were always blocked by the Democratic Senate which was led in the 50s by Lyndon Baines Johnson. Finally, in 1964 the late Everett McKinley Dirksen, conservative senator of Illinois, led Republican efforts to form a coalition of Republicans and northern Democrats to get a Civil Rights bill already passed in the House of Representatives through the Senate. After a 52 day "Dixiecrat Democrat" filibuster, a vote was taken and the 1964 Civil Rights bill passed 73 - 27 with 6 Republicans and 21 Democrats including Robert Byrd, William Fulbright, Al Gore Sr., Ernest Hollings, and Richard Russell voting against it.
When Senator Dirksen was asked why he worked so hard to help President Johnson enact a bill that Johnson's own party wouldn't give to him, he would only say, "I am involved in mankind, and whatever the skin, we are all included in mankind."
You also may recall that it was President Eisenhower who took on Arkansas' racist Democrat Governor Orval Faubus, even bringing in the 101st Airborne to uphold the Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education ruling and desegregate Little Rock schools.
I believe the real concern is that black Republicans are, in the eyes of white liberals, "the wrong type of black", and are thus discounted.
By the way, how large was the black representation at the NYC protests? I saw Jesse Jackson sharing a chili dog with Michael Moore but not many others out there.
Thanks and best regards.
That's Joseph C. PHILIPS, Joe Williams, who was also on Cosby died in 1999.
That's Joseph C. Phillips, not Williams!
Black conservative ping
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I was wondering about that too, especially after my IMDB.com research turned up Joe Williams of Cosby Show fame having passed away in 1999!
"The Republican values are the same values that are in most African-American homes.
That's how I see it. The black familes I know are very close, decent, fun-loving, faith holding, and God honoring. They belong with us.
I think you're right, and the lack of a strong male parent isn't just a problem in the black community - but within the white community as well. It contributes to teen pregnancies which perpetuates the whole cycle over again.
The myth of single parent households being just as good as traditional households has really taken hold.
It surprises me how little some thought people put into this. I've had a number of conversations with divorced (white) moms who're in denial about any impact that not having a father around is having on their kids. By the time I'm done with my one parent isn't as good as two speil they're usually very very quiet.
Ping!
I'm curious about your response to Bill Cosby's comments at Howard University?
I actually don't think he went far enough. Would love to hear what you have to say. I think Bill had better be careful lest he be labeled a conservative. I find 2 things fascinating. First the lack of outrage expressed by everyday blacks -- in fact the number of voices from the community that signified with the Cos, gives truth to John McWhorters thesis of the black silent majority. Most Black peopel recognize that the time has passed for laying all of our problems at the feet of the white racist power structure. Proof of the second part of McWhorters thesis -- that of a black double consciousness -- is to be found in how quickly Cosby began to tap dance after his remarks. There was a sense from the elite and the victocrats that while he may have been speaking truth it is better not to acknowledge such things in front of whitey. Cosby had to dance away from his remarks (the media distorted what I said etc) in order to keep his street cred. God forbid he find himself on the same side of the fence with guys like Shelby Steel and Thomas Sowell who have been saying the same thing for years!
Dear Lyndon B. Johnson,
Your 200 years are ticking away.
Of course they get quiet. Only twisted, feminazi so-called logic can believe saying that both situations are the same, all things being equal.
"I don't know that black voters have that many disagreements with conservative Republicans any more than most other Democrats do. They just reflexively vote for the Democrat candidate and listen to the propaganda from their party not the proposals from the cI don't know that black voters have that many disagreements with conservative Republicans any more than most other Democrats do. They just reflexively vote for the Democrat candidate and listen to the propaganda from their party not the proposals from the conservatives.
Also every news outlet and every TV sitcom that speaks of anything political bashes republicans. We get this lib indoctrination from the womb to the voting booth. I didn't become a republican until I became a Christian and started listening to talk radio. Oh yea there was this one time in the late 80's or early 90's I saw Rush on Donnahue and thought I don't disagree with anything this dude is saying.
One on my co-workers, who is Mexican, and who has always
voted with the Rats, confessed to me that his faith and
morals, have helped him to switch parties. Come November,
he will vote for Bush!
However, I do not support the ever-increasing Federal budget on education or other big government spending programs proposed by president Bush. This will continue to be an area with which the president and I will disagree.
"The Democrats used to have a solid hold in the South."
And we didn't mind (much), as long as they were cut from the same mold as Zell!
Divide and conquer....and don't let any two victim groups get too close to each other, because they might not need you anymore.
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