Black Republicans Make the Case for Bush
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| Sun, 10-03-2004 - 3:49am |
During the Rep.Convention in NYC, our national tv broadcasted a documentary about a "Black Republican Woman in NYC". A camera and a mic followed her around while she was handing out flyers and kindly urging people to register to vote (I'm sure there's a term for this?). With the documentarist she shared that as a woman, being black ánd being a lifelong republican, ánd living&working in NYC, she has always had to face opposition and suspicion on those very 'levels' that lable her. I was really impressed by her, especially how she shrugged at it all as she went about her busy-ness, strongly believing in what she was doing.
She shared how many within her own 'community' treated her as if she was somehow betraying them.
When I was working to try and improve the 'traditional' situation of my 'community'. (Fly out of that assigned-by-history/society pigeonhole because there is so much more 'out there', so to speak), I learned hów deeply the (in my case) colonial strategy of divide-and-conquer had been drummed into my 'community' in the course of history.
I am wondering if the same (or something similar) process is going on within the general black community in the USA.
(oy, I so hope I'm making sense here, as I struggle to find the correct English terms!). I know this lady was invited to participate in the Convention. If anyone here remembers her name, please let me know. TIA!!
Anyway, on my (unsuccessful) search for a link to that documentary, I stumbled upon the article below.
Any thoughts/comments with you?
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005703
Why We Back Bush
Five elected black Republicans make the case for the president.
Friday, October 1, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT
(This article is written by J.C. Watts, Michael Steele, Jennette Bradley, J. Kenneth Blackwell and Michael Williams.)
John Kerry wants to be president. But he doesn't want to discuss his unproductive time in the Senate. And he isn't offering credible ideas to extend opportunity and promote ownership in our communities. Instead, he's going back into the old Democratic Party bag of tricks and pulling out . . . the race card. Mr. Kerry has tried to paint President Bush as a racist bent on destroying civil rights. But when you look at the real record, you see that George W. Bush has done more to empower African-Americans and other minorities than any president in recent history.
President Bush has taken action to create opportunities for minorities through improved education and increased homeownership. His No Child Left Behind education reform was designed to close the achievement gap between white and minority students. He has worked for an increase in funding for historically black colleges and universities. And President Bush set a national goal of helping 5.5 million minorities become homeowners. Just two years later, we're a third of the way there, and today more minority families than ever before own their home.
President Bush has improved minority communities, reducing violent crime rates with initiatives like Project Safe Neighborhoods, which is taking gun criminals off the streets. His Faith-Based and Community Initiative is boosting the efforts of charities that bring real help to people in urban neighborhoods. President Bush's tax relief has also helped businesses create 1.7 million jobs in the last year and he has worked to create more opportunities for small and minority-owned businesses. He has even launched the most ambitious American effort ever aimed at combating AIDS and other diseases in Africa. It's a record that we, as African-Americans, are proud to support.
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He said there's a "Do not enter" sign on the White House door, to keep blacks out. And he raised the specter of voter disenfranchisement, claiming "some say" the president has plans to keep African Americans out of polling places throughout the land. Mr. Kerry's rhetoric is false. It's frustrating. And it shouldn't be tolerated by people from our community who want substance over talk.
As black Americans who have served at the top levels of government, we know that America today is a land of greater opportunity than ever before. We've all been elected to high office in the last decade--from states as diverse as Maryland, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. And that just couldn't have happened a few decades ago. Americans are today more united, and more able to look beyond racial differences, than at any point in our history.
But rather than celebrate this success and highlight the opportunities available to Americans of every color, Mr. Kerry wants to come between us. He's got a divide-and-conquer strategy to make black voters feel disconnected from the success and prosperity of America--even though more black Americans than ever before are achieving their dreams. Mr. Kerry knows the only way he's going to win this election is if he splits Americans into opposing camps--black and white, rich and poor. But a man who wants to divide our nation into "two Americas" has no business being president.
How about that "Do not enter" sign on the White House door? Funny, we've all been to the White House and we didn't notice any sign telling us to stay away. Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, the two highest-ranking black leaders in American history, definitely have not seen the sign. Rod Paige, the secretary of education, and Alphonso Jackson, the secretary of housing and urban development--both black, both in President Bush's cabinet--have not seen the sign either. George W. Bush has appointed more minorities to high-level government positions than any other president. His critics just hate to admit it.
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It's unbecoming of a presidential candidate to spread these rumors. It demeans the intelligence of black voters. We will not be swayed by ugly whispering campaigns and malicious gossip. We look at facts. We study the record. And we choose a leader who treats us with respect.
There are four weeks left in this presidential campaign. And we will not allow John Kerry to use that time to divide Americans and distort the president's record while running away from his own. Nor will we allow the Democratic Party to take black voters for granted. Black voters have a real choice in this election. We cannot allow gossip and innuendo to crowd out the truth. President Bush is the leader our times demand.
Mr. Watts is a former congressman from Oklahoma; Mr. Steele is lieutenant governor of Maryland; Ms. Bradley is lieutenant governor of Ohio, where Mr. Blackwell is secretary of state, and Mr. Williams is a Texas railroad commissioner.





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<<You're drawing a false analagy between Bush not accepting an invitation to speak before the NAACP and Kerry not appearing on Bill O'Reilly. >>
You're not reading carefully. My comment about Bill O'Reilly was in response to a comment about Bush not going on BET.
<As president, he has repeatedly refused to return. >>
Because of the treatment he has received from the NAACP, which over the last few years has given up all pretense at political neutrality and become blatantly
Renee ~~~
It would be far easier to track replies if the original comments were quoted preceeding a response.
It's a standard that's not always followed on this board.
>>The question is, why does Kerry only want Jesse Jackson when there is less than a month to go in the election and after Bush has doubled his AA support?<<
Do you have a link to back up your figure that Bush has doubled his support among black voters?
This was a response I got. http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-elpoliticsto&msg=3543.2
Roughly, 90% of Blacks vote Democrat, rather than being more evenly spread out among the parties. The percentages are very slowly changing towards the Republicans. Bush's numbers are up (slightly) while Kerry's have gone down. Don't know if it reflects a change of parties necessarily, but more AA's are planning on voting for him than expected. A century or more ago Blacks overwhelmingly voted Republican. I, personally, find all of this interesting.
A mini-history:
- The Democrat Party was solidly pro-slavery prior to the Civil War, seeking to expand slavery to all of the States.
- The Republican Party was founded just prior to the Civil War and was anti-slavery.
- President Lincoln was the first Republican president. President Lincoln changed Vice Presidents for his second term, selecting Andrew Johnson, a pro-slavery Democrat, to broaden his base and appeal to borderline Democrats.
- After the end of the Civil War, Southern Democrats passed Black Codes in the South to suppress, restrict and deny blacks the same privileges that were available to whites.
- Republicans enacted the Freedman Bureau to assist the newly freed slaves.
- Upon being sworn in to replace the assassinated Lincoln, President Johnson stated: "This is a country for white men and long as I am president it will be a government for white men."
- The Ku Klux Klan was formed as the terrorist arm of the Democrat Party.
- Initially in the South after the Civil War, many blacks were Republicans, including many elected officials. The only black US Senator from the South was a Republican until Barbara Jordan, a Democrat, was elected from Texas in 1972.
- Federal troops were stationed in the South to protect blacks until removed by President Hayes in 1877, but they did not prevail against the terrorist acts of the Klan, which continued to intimidate blacks, causing many to not vote or to vote Democrat.
- The terror situation prevailed until well after 1900. In 1900, three white persons founded the NAACP to publicize and stop the lynchings. There were 94 known lynchings in 1900.
- Rich Republican whites funded and supported many of the black colleges, including Morehouse where Martin Luther King Jr. studied. Many southern Democrats opposed the colleges and tried to diminish their effectiveness.
- The many Civil Rights Acts of the 1960's and 70's were supported by more Republicans than Democrats, and in many cases passed over the objections of Southern Democrats.
... in turning to the government for support rather than the traditional black church, the black community has lost a lot of its resiliency.
... the Democratic Party has never officially apologized for slavery or their terrorist war against black Americans.
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-elpoliticsto&msg=3543.5
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The fight for black voters
Star Parker
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/StarParker/sp20041012.shtml
October 12, 2004
Recent polling by the Pew Research Center shows a notable change in black sentiment for the presidential candidates. Black support for Sen. John Kerry is now 73 percent, down from 83 percent in August, and black support for President Bush has doubled from 6 percent to12 percent. The Democrats clearly are nervous and are taking the gloves off in ads aimed at black voters.
The current ad campaign, financed by the pro-Kerry Media Fund, uses hip ghetto slang to attack Republicans, "wealthy white boys" (as if this doesn't describe Kerry and John Edwards), for causing every imaginable ill and misfortune in black America. The ads are essentially the voice of a field boss trying to scare folks from believing that life might actually be better off the plantation.
Blacks need to listen to these ads carefully. What is Kerry for? No one will ever find out listening to this ad campaign. There is not a single idea, a single proposal or single thought about what might be ailing blacks other than the fact that a Republican is in the White House. The Democrats are running a pure campaign of fear and smear in their message to a community desperately in need of real ideas.
Kerry has attacked Bush foreign policy by calling it "more of the same." This is, in fact, what Kerry offers black voters. More of the same government answers for everything, more of the same blame on everyone else for black problems.
It is time for black children to stop hearing that they can't make it, and this is exactly what they are hearing from Democrats.
I recently came across an article reporting a correlation between income and height. It is a fact of life that tall people earn more, on average, than short people. Researchers have even got the disparity down to inches. On average, income increases by $1,500 per year for every additional inch in height. Don't ask me why people pay for this kind of research, but it's out there. Additional work has been done trying to account for the disparity, but no definitive answer has emerged. We just have the fact. Tall people earn more.
What is the mother of a short child to do? Should she tell the child he or she is doomed? Should we form the National Association for the Advancement of Short People? Affirmative-action programs to address the inherent unfairness of this biologically dictated disparity? This is, of course, ridiculous. But, this is what racial politics have become.
A wonderful book was published several years ago called "Getting Rich in America." Written by Dwight R. Lee, a professor from the College of Business at the University of Georgia, and Richard B. McKenzie, a professor at the Graduate School of Business at the University of California, this is no "how to get rich quick" manual. The book discusses the results of research of the behavior of successful Americans. According to the authors, anyone following their rules for success is virtually certain to get wealthy in our country.
What are the rules? Think of America as the Land of Choices. Be optimistic about the possibilities Take the power of compound interest seriously _ then save. Resist temptation. Take control of your life. Get a good education. Get married and stay married. Take care of yourself. Take responsibility for your mind and body. Take prudent risks. Strive for balance. Recognize traditional virtues like honesty and commitment.
According to the authors, every American who follows these rules will become wealthy over the course of their life, regardless of the circumstances of their birth.
Blacks should take note of this on Election Day because these rules read like the Republican Party platform. Personal responsibility, private Social Security accounts, health-care savings accounts, school choice, traditional values and marriage.
It's time for blacks to be more concerned with what is going on in their own house than having a Democrat in the White House.
By the way, the richest American, multibillionaire Bill Gates of Microsoft, at 5-feet-10 inches, is an inch taller than the national average for males.
Renee ~~~
Renee ~~~
Do you have a link to back up your figure that Bush has doubled his support among black voters?
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No links needed. I will believe it at face value that his support went from 8 people to 16.
<< I will believe it at face value that his support went from 8 people to 16. >>
So why are Black voters moving away from Kerry and to Bush?
Renee ~~~
Renee ~~~
So why are Black voters moving away from Kerry and to Bush?
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And you quanitify that how? That's like asking 'Why are military voters moving from Bush to Kerry', because there's a few high profile stories about one military family withdrawing their support of Bush. While it might be true, it will have no effect on the election.
Just as this so-called doubling of support will no no effect on the election.
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I've already sited the Pew Poll & other national polls have shown the same trend.
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One family does not a trend make.
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Renee ~~~
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6184103
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=153815
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/ELECTION2004/100504_nw_kerry_black_vote.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20041005-1303-kerry-blackvoters.html
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