Posted on 02/03/2003 12:36:32 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Gov. Jeb Bush could have chosen any of a thousand places in Florida to make a Martin Luther King Day speech. But he chose Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, where he received hugs and cheers.
The 1,300-member congregation at 450 N. Powerline Rd. is predominantly black and predominantly Republican -- a rare combination in overwhelmingly Democratic Broward County.
''Years ago, I took a closer look at the platform of both parties,'' said the Rev. O'Neal Dozier, the church founder, who freely mixes politics and religion. ``The [Republican] platform is more in line with the word of God. I am Republican because of conviction.''
Republicans are hoping such institutions will become less rare.
Blacks have long been a core constituency of the Democratic Party. But the foundation has shown cracks, especially when Democratic members of the Broward County Commission called for the suspension of Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant, a black Democrat. Many blacks felt she was being unfairly singled out.
Bush, the Republican governor, refused to suspend Oliphant. Three days later, on Martin Luther King Day, he appeared at Worldwide Christian and basked in the cheers.
Bush's relationship with blacks in Florida has often been strained, going back to his One Florida initiative, which rolled back affirmative action as it applied to the state university system's admission policies.
Many blacks blamed Jeb Bush for the chaotic 2000 ballot count in Florida that resulted in his brother becoming president.
CHURCHES HAVE A ROLE
Dorsey Miller, a longtime Republican and Bush appointee to the North Broward Hospital District, said blacks need to have representation in both parties if they want to improve their status.
''Things are never going to change if we continue to be all one party and not the other,'' he said.
Republican Party leaders say black churches can play a role.
''The black churches are a wonderful source of political activity,'' said Kevin Tynan, chairman of the Broward Republican Party. ``It's not always for my party, but they do a wonderful job of getting people interested in a race and going out and voting.''
In Dozier's case, that political activism has been controversial. He has been a vocal opponent of gay rights in a county that has been at the vanguard of gay rights. Dozier has referred to homosexuality as a ''sickness.'' He is also active in the antiabortion movement.
Dozier started his church in 1985. The congregation met in the cafetorium at North Fork Elementary School. After two years, it was time to find a new home.
He looked at what were at the time the mostly white suburbs of Plantation, Lauderdale Lakes and Lauderhill.
''I felt that the blacks were not willing to accept what I was teaching,'' Dozier said. ``I didn't want to go to an all-black community.''
But he had a hard time finding a landlord who would rent him space.
Dozier said he prayed about the issue and decided to return to where he grew up: Pompano Beach, the Collier City neighborhood.
He started in a strip mall. Membership grew. He served free barbecue and an abundance of dinners to lure members.
Soon, he had enough members to move to his current location, off Powerline Road, near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, a pawnshop, and an abandoned apartment complex. In 1996, the church moved into its 10,000-square-foot space.
WAS MET WITH BOOS
Dozier estimates that 90 percent of the congregation votes for Republicans.
With Republicans in control of the governor's mansion and both chambers of the Florida Legislature, Dozier finds himself with newfound connections.
In 2001, the governor appointed Dozier to the 17th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission, a board that recommends lawyers for local judicial openings. He's the only black member of the commission.
The Republican strategy to appeal to blacks is twofold, said David Bositis, senior researcher of a think tank for black issues, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C.
By welcoming blacks into the party, Republicans not only diversify their own ranks but make themselves more appealing to white swing voters, Bositis said.
Although Republicans have had a foothold among Broward's black elite, black Republicans are still small in number.
In 1998, 6,380 Broward County blacks registered Republican. By 2002, the number was 7,480.
People are people....
[Excerpted from "Hillary Clinton and the Radical Left"] Hillary Clinton and the Third Way ***As a student of the left, Jamie Glazov, has observed in an article about the middle-class defenders of recently captured Seventies terrorist Kathy Soliah: "if you can successfully camouflage your own pathology and hatred with a concern for the 'poor' and the 'downtrodden,' then there will always be a 'progressive' milieu to support and defend you."* Huey Newton, George Jackson, Bernadine Dohrn, Sylvia Baraldini, Rubin Carter, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rigoberta Menchu and innumerable others have all discovered this principle in the course of their criminal careers.
There is a superficial sense, of course, in which we were civil rights and peace activists-and that is certainly the way I would have described myself at the time, particularly if I were speaking to a non-left audience. It is certainly the way Mrs. Clinton and my former comrades in the left refer to themselves and their pasts in similar contexts today.
But they are lying. (And when they defend racial preferences now-a principle they denounced as "racist" then-even they must know it).
The first truth about leftist missionaries, about believing progressives, is that they are liars. But they are not liars in the ordinary way, which is to say by choice. They are liars by necessity-often without even realizing that they are. Because they also lie to themselves. It is the political lie that gives their cause its life.
Why, for example, if you were one of them, would you tell the truth? If you were serious about your role in humanity's vanguard, if you had the knowledge (which others did not), that you were certain would lead them to a better world, why would you tell them a truth that they could not "understand" and that would hold them back?
If others could understand your truth, you would not think of yourself as a "vanguard." You would no longer inhabit the morally charmed world of an elite, whose members alone can see the light and whose mission is to lead the unenlightened towards it. If everybody could see the promised horizon and knew the path to reach it, the future would already have happened and there would be no need for the vanguard of the saints.
That is both the ethical core and psychological heart of what it means to be a part of the left. That is where the gratification comes from. To see yourself as a social redeemer. To feel anointed. In other words: To be progressive is itself the most satisfying narcissism.
That is why it is of little concern to them that their socialist schemes have run aground, burying millions of human beings in their wake. That is why they don't care that their panaceas have caused more human suffering than all the injustices they have ever challenged. That is why they never learn from their "mistakes." That is why the continuance of Them is more important than any truth.
If you were active in the so-called "peace" movement or in the radical wing of the civil rights causes, why would you tell the truth? Why would you tell people that no, you weren't really a "peace activist," except in the sense that you were against America's war. Why would you draw attention to the fact that while you called yourselves "peace activists," you didn't oppose the Communists' war, and were gratified when America's enemies won?
What you were really against was not war at all, but American "imperialism" and American capitalism. What you truly hated was America's democracy, which you knew to be a "sham" because it was controlled by money in the end. That's why you wanted to "Bring the Troops Home," as your slogan said. Because if America's troops came home, America would lose and the Communists would win. And the progressive future would be one step closer.
But you never had the honesty-then or now-to admit that. You told the lie then to maintain your influence and increase your power to do good (as only the Chosen can). And you keep on telling the lie for the same reason.
Why would you admit that, despite your tactical support for civil rights, you weren't really committed to civil rights as Americans understand rights? What you really wanted was to overthrow the very Constitution that guaranteed those rights, based as it is on private property and the individual-both of which you despise.
It is because America is a democracy and the people endorse it, that the left's anti-American, but "progressive" agendas can only be achieved by deceiving the people. This is the cross the left has to bear: The better world is only achievable by lying to the very people they propose to redeem.[End Excerpt]------ Author: David Horowitz
Notice to GOP liberals:
Don't even try to scr*w with the platform!
Simplistic, fundamentalistic nonsense. Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Tony Campolo, etc., etc., can all explain that killing babies is what the Word of God calls for.
Look at their records. Just a pack of wolves wrapping themselves in sheep's clothing for personal gain.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.