Posted on 09/27/2003 2:03:51 PM PDT by webber
Winston-Salem Journal - An excerpt from his letter.
If my name is familiar, it may be because you recently saw me on the FOX NEWS CHANNEL. Fox News called me a "Rising Star" and "the next J.C. Watts" and said that I am "the new face of the Republican Party." The Wall Street Journal called me "the next black Republican Congressman."
Even if you haven't heard of me yet, you know many conservatives who have. At one time or another I have been endorsed by Jesse Helms, Elizabeth Dole, Dick Armey, Gary Bauer, the NRA, Right-to-Life, Jack Kemp, Bill Bennett, Pat Buchanan, Pete du Pont, Alan Keyes, Tom Tancredo, and Jeb Bush.
President Bush honored me with an appointment in his administration and hired me to work on his campaign. That should give you a pretty good idea of where I stand.
Currently I am the senior Republican member of the Winston-Salem City Council, where I represent a heavily Democrat district. In my last election I got an unheard-of 70% of the white vote and 20% of the black vote.
I am a proven vote-getter -- the only black Republican in North Carolina to be re-elected to partisan public office and the first black candidate to win the votes of more than one million white voters. In 2002, I ran 15 points ahead of our popular new Senator (Elizabeth Dole) in the precincts our races had in common. No other Republican can say that.
This success hasn't come by accident. I earned the confidence of the voters and these national conservative leaders the same way Ronald Reagan and Jesse Helms did -- by proving that I am willing to stand up for my *traditional American conservative* principles -- no matter what the political cost, and no matter what the liberal media try to say about me.
I don't head for the high grass when the Left turns up the heat. That's just not my style. I put my trust in God, not my finger to the wind, and my record proves it.
I jokingly tell my Democrat friends that their party is made up of "the Old Left, the New Left, and the What's Left." I'm proud to tell you that my voting record has infuriated them all:
* the pro-abortion fanatics and the radical feminists
* the atheists who file lawsuits attacking the Pledge of Allegiance and the Ten Commandments
* the gun grabbers, the illegal immigrants, and the environmentalist, tree-huggin' granolas
* the trial lawyers and the animal rights extremists
* the "one world" globalists who worship at the altar of the United Nations
* the militant homosexuals and the burned-out, hippie peaceniks
* the racial agitators like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton
* the union bosses and the socialists posing as journalists & college professors
* the government bureaucrats and the tax-and-spend junkies who create their jobs, and
* the Hollywood elitists -- air-headed actors and singers who think we care what they think.
I am pro-Constitution, pro-national sovereignty, pro-business, pro-property rights, pro-growth, pro-family, pro-farmer, pro-states' rights, pro-gun, and pro-life.
I support the death penalty and am disgusted that there are people who believe a convicted murderer like Charles Manson has a right to life, but unborn children do not.
A nationally recognized expert on education reform, I authored North Carolina's Charter Schools Act, and founded two non-profit corporations. One promotes school choice and the other provides scholarships to private schools for poor children from inner-city homes.
Today's public schools are caught between the massive government bureaucracy and the vile teachers' unions. Most of the public schools serving the inner city are nothing but pre-prison, pre-welfare programs for the students sentenced to attend them. The answer is market-based reform, not "Midnight Basketball" and more wasteful spending.
As a black Republican, I will be *especially reviled* by the Left. That's because I will be able to say the kinds of things many conservatives are afraid to say out of fear that the liberal media will brand them racist.
For instance, the greatest threat facing young blacks today has *nothing to do with* white racism or displaying the Confederate flag -- it is ILLEGITIMACY, which has reached a shameful 71% among American blacks. A lack of morality and personal responsibility is at the root of the problem. And we have a federal welfare system that encourages and rewards such behavior!
This must change.
Nor will I be bashful about insisting that the federal government abolish ALL racial preferences, quotas, and set-asides. I was so outraged by the Supreme Court's recent ruling in the Michigan law school case (allowing race to determine who is admitted into public colleges) that I am already working with legal scholars to devise a lawful means for Congress to withhold federal funds from any institution (private or public) that uses race in its admissions process.
My record on this issue is particularly strong. It was my lawsuit against the University of North Carolina that put an end to its practice of electing trustees according to strict racial and gender quotas and providing blacks-only scholarships at taxpayer expense.
As you can see, I'm NOT a Jesse Jackson / Al Sharpton kind of black guy. In fact, while Al Sharpton was defaming New York law enforcement officers by falsely claiming they had raped Tawana Brawley in an alley, I was working hard on the Winston-Salem City
Council to get raises for our policemen. And while Jesse Jackson was chasing women and television cameras and shaking down corporations for contributions so he could pay hush money to his concubine for their love child, I was serving my country, earning an honest living, and working hard at raising a God-fearing family.
And Jackson and I have very different notions of what a family is. For Jackson and many left-wing public figures, a family can be everything from "Hillary Clinton's Village" or "Heather's Two Mommies" or "Daddy's Roommate" to a transvestite, two lesbians, a pedophile, and a partridge in a pear tree. In my opinion, that does not a family make.
My concept of family is the same as the one God ordained in the Garden of Eden thousands of years ago -- one man, married to one woman, with so many children as God should see fit to entrust to their care. In my case, that means me, Helene (my wife of 20 years), and our three children, the youngest two of whom we adopted when their mother died of cancer at age 41.
That's the kind of family I grew up in, too. My father was a Tuskegee Airman, and my mother was a nurse. But more importantly, they were devout Christian people who taught me right from wrong. Because of my strong Judeo-Christian upbringing, I can assure you I will not bow to the forces of political correctness on social issues. I'm proud of my beliefs, and I will vote accordingly.
I will *vigorously oppose homosexual marriages* and adoptions, as well as "gay" Scoutmasters. I just don't see how it's a good idea to put a homosexual in a pup tent with your thirteen year-old son. And yet the liberals call us bigoted for saying that. What is the world coming to?
As an Eagle Scout myself, I was furious when the United Way threatened to withhold funding from the Boy Scouts unless atheists and homosexuals were allowed to serve as Scoutmasters. While other Republicans ran scared from the issue, I organized a counter-threat to boycott contributions to the United Way unless it backed off the Scouts -- and it quickly did just that.
Dr. James Dobson featured my efforts on his "Focus on the Family" radio program, and called it a victory for people of faith across the nation. That's the same aggressive spirit I will bring to Washington.
Of course, now that our Supreme Court has "discovered" a right to commit homosexual sodomy in "our living constitution" (I can't find it in my copy, but...) it is more important than ever that we send to the Congress men and women whose sense of decency does not change with the political winds. If we don't, then homosexual marriage and adoption (and worse) won't be far behind.
On the question of taxation, let me simply say that in ALL my years in public office I have NEVER voted for a tax increase of any kind, PERIOD.
In Congress I will join those 36 courageous men and women (including Majority Leader Tom DeLay) who support the "Fair Tax" legislation, which would abolish the current code (and all individual audits, and the I.R.S. itself!) and replace it with a flat national sales tax.
As a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and a former Missile Combat Crew Commander, I can assure you I am also a staunch supporter of veterans' interests, and you will not find another member of Congress who places a higher priority on national defense. And I have to tell you that in matters of national defense there is much work to be done.
Yes, Ronald Reagan destroyed the Soviet Union, and yes, our military is the best in the world -- but you are not as safe as you think.
The world is changing, and so are the threats we face. We have no shield against intercontinental ballistic missiles, and it's getting easier and easier for the bad guys to get them.
Communist North Korea (whose standing army is larger than our own) now has the nuclear bomb, and has openly bragged that it intends to sell nuclear weapons to terrorists, including Osama Bin Laden, if the United States makes policy decisions that don't please it.
And remember, a ragtag band of Arab misfits used public transportation and a handful of box-cutters to kill more Americans in the World Trade Center attack than the Japanese killed at Pearl Harbor. What do you think an organized terrorist could do with a nuclear bomb?
The mastermind of that attack, Khalid Shaik Mohammed (whom we have captured), recently told U.S. officials that Al Qaeda was planning to carry out future attacks, including the firebombing of the Washington Metrorail, by smuggling operatives and equipment over our unguarded Mexican border.
We have troops in 120 countries around the world, but we won't defend our own borders with Mexico and Canada!
Our immigration policy is NUTS, and the I.N.S. is corrupt and incompetent. (The Washington area sniper was here only because of an I.N.S. foul-up!) Over 400,000 foreign students have overstayed their student visas, and we simply have NO IDEA where they are! Over thirty thousand of these are from Muslim countries.
Do I have to spell out for you why that is a problem?
My alma mater, the United States Air Force Academy, recently found it had 23 illegal aliens working for it -- more than the number that carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks.
But these illegal aliens were actually working for a military service academy!
Aliens routinely cross our borders for free medical care in American hospitals, to pick up American welfare checks, to have their babies born here (so they will be American citizens eligible for benefits), to work in sweat shops, to smuggle drugs, and, yes, occasionally to plot and carry out terrorist attacks on our citizens.
Roaming mobs of aliens intent on entering this country illegally beat ugly paths through our national forests, trample rare desert vegetation, and desecrate important Native American archeological sites. They leave their trash behind, start forest fires through carelessness, and all too often die in the desert on the way.
Then their relatives sue us for not putting "relief stations" along the more popular smuggling routes. (And now we're using scarce AMERICAN tax dollars to put these relief stations up!)
Those who manage to survive the trek take jobs away from legal immigrants and citizens, or turn to public assistance or a life of crime -- against Americans. This is not a racist observation -- it is a matter of national security, our fiscal security, and our national culture and identity.
As a Congressman, I will work with Congressman Tom Tancredo (who has endorsed me) and the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus of which he is the chairman to address these shocking failures in federal immigration policy. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
Now is definitely not the time to relax. Now, more than ever, you deserve a Congressman who will stand tall on the tough issues and not waffle even when everyone else heads for the hills.
You will be delighted to hear that my campaign has already raised over a quarter-million dollars! Mine is the only campaign in the 5th District with contributions from every county in the district, and from every state in the nation!
More than 15,000 conservatives (folks just like YOU) have already responded to my promise to fight the loony Left on every issue, no matter what the political cost, and I thank God for each and every one of them. Over a dozen Generals, 60 Colonels, and 30 church pastors have become contributors. That's the good news.
I want to put a burr in Ted Kennedy's saddle. I want to put a bee in Hillary Clinton's bonnet. I want to give Barney Frank a Maalox Moment.
There is a great deal at stake. My principal opponent is a self-described "feminist" obsessed with gender quotas who lobbied for Teddy Kennedy's so-called "Equal Rights Amendment" (ERA). As a state senator, she voted to fund blacks-only scholarships, and raised taxes and fees more than 100 times.
She even admitted that she voted for a bill without ever reading it! That's frightening!
Even more frightening is that she voted to create special rights for homosexuals, and has supported the adoption of children by homosexuals. A millionaire herself, she has been funded by the trial lawyers and the militant homosexual PAC's.
I am alarmed at the prospect that this woman may represent you and me in Congress!
With warm best wishes,
Vernon Robinson
P.S. The liberal special interest groups have already targeted me because they know that if I'm elected, the national media will cover every conservative pronouncement made by "the black Republican Congressman."
And thanks.
Good question. Except that the establishment had already chosen her Dolt. Howlin, from a first look this is a guy I would vote for. Any chance of replacing a worthless Senator with this guy in 2006?
Damn, that's a great comeback.
I have also checked his voting record in Winston-Salem for the past 6 years.
He votes conservative, less taxes, conservative, pro-property rights, conservative, etc.
He never caves into a special interest group.
The bottom line is this: "Playing nice" is less important than being a man of principles who votes the right way every time.
Do any of the other candidates have a voting record and campaign finance record like his? Not a chance.
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