Posted on 12/30/2005 4:53:16 AM PST by beaversmom
Herman Cain is on a mission. The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza was in the area this week preaching the gospel of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a group dedicated to free market reforms. Cain, 59, who ran unsuccessfully in 2004 for the U.S. Senate in Georgia as a Republican, also wanted to talk about breaking down barriers and the traditional two-party political system. A former chairman of the Federal Reserve in Kansas and now a syndicated talk show host and author, Cain talked with Journal Sentinel urban affairs reporter Leonard Sykes Jr.
Q. Typically when African-Americans hear the phrase "black conservative," they bring a lot of assumptions to the table. What's your definition of a black conservative?
A. Someone who believes in traditional principles and traditional values. If I had to rewrite how conservatives talk about conservatives, I would use the word traditional. . . . The U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence laid out traditional beliefs and traditional principles. That's what being conservative means, traditional. We believe in the traditional family structure, the tradition of having less, but not too much, government. Traditional in this country should mean less taxes, not crazy taxation. When I think of conservative, I think of the traditional concepts that founded this country.
Q. So what's your message to black audiences?
A. Too many of us don't know the history of the various parties in this country. They're not aware of which party really did more to push the desegregation issue forward in terms of culminating into the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Q. But don't you think a lot of people know it was the Republican Party and not the so-called "Dixiecrats" who advanced it?
A. Right. But some of us don't know. So, number one, we've got to learn the history of the parties. Number two, be open-minded. Take former Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young, for example. I talked with him before I ran for the Senate. He told me something I'll never forget. He said: "Herman, as black people, some of us haven't learned that we have no permanent parties. We have permanent issues." So if you're open-minded, you're looking for solutions, not rhetoric.
Q. Don't you think, by nature, most black Americans are conservative?
A. Yes, I do, absolutely. And let me give you an example. I go to a church in Atlanta. It's about 12,000 in membership. When I ran for the U.S. Senate, I had four people in my church, which is 99.5 percent black, come up to me and say, "I've been listening to your message, and I'm really going to consider some of the things you're saying only because they mean something to me as a Christian." I joined that church when I was about 4 years old, and, because they knew me, they weren't skeptical about what I was saying even though I was running as a Republican.
Q. Isn't the bottom line really the fact that most black people in this country aren't really tied down to a party, Democrat or Republican?
A. I would say that about 50 percent of us aren't tied to a traditional party. But you still have probably something like 49 percent or 50 percent who are just going to remain tied (to a party). I had some friends who said, "I can't vote for you because you're running as a Republican." I had to tell them, "You know me." I think where as one point in time we voted about 90 percent Democratic, I don't think today those numbers are anywhere close to that.
I think that maybe, I now understand why Mr Cain was not elected to the Senate.
Why do you think he wasn't elected?
I am still sporting my "Cain for US Senate" bumper sticker on my Honda. I'll take him over Isakson any day.
He seems like a good guy. I heard him on Bennett this morning. I've heard him on Medved a couple of times too. It's a shame he couldn't have gotten in. He lost in the primary, right? Who eventually won the seat--Repub or Dem?
He lost the GOP primary to Johnny Isakson who eventually won the General election. I tried to persuade some of my liberal 'friends' to cross the line and vote for Cain in the GOP primary considering there was nothing to vote for in the Dem primary. Needless to say, they were too close-minded to take a chance at voting for a black Republican. Go figure.
why don't you share this epiphany with us....
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