2006-03-14
No Requiem for a Black Conservative
"Conservatives desperately need blacks such as Allen to maintain the public illusion that black conservatives have real clout and a popular following in black communities. Their great value is that they promote the myth that a big segment of blacks support political conservative principles."
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9 comments:
Nadir: It is no myth that whereas about only 10% of blacks vote for democrats, several times this fraction of blacks support:
- Lower and flatter tax rates
- School vouchers
- Permission of public school teachers to conduct volutary christian prayers.
- Denying various rights to gay people
- Outlawing abortion
- Ending school busing
- Drastic welfare reform
- Tough criminal laws
I am absolutely certain that within two presidential election cycles the black repo vote will increase to 20%.
Also, as a fraction of voters, blacks have much more success obtaining powerful positions within the repo party than the demo party. Consider that 30% or so of all demo voters are black. Compare that to the fraction of blacks among national and state democratic leadershp positions, including senators, governers, house reps, and high-level staff of such. If you subtract black house reps from black-majority districts, the figure is really pathetic.
Now consider that blacks compose about just 1 or 2% of the total repo vote, and compare this to the fraction of blacks in important repo positions in natinal and state offices. If the repos do achieve their goal of electing two black senators and a black governer, these statistics will be even more devistating.
Anecdotally I see significant growing sympathy of republican positions amoung blacks, held back only by habit, actual myths (such as the assumption that democrats passed the 1960s civil rights laws), and oversights (the republican party was formed as the abolitionist party, and the democratic party for about 150 years represented a tool for white racists to suppress black rights).
Talk about a straw man! There is no "public illusion that black conservatives have real clout and a popular following in black communities"! To the contrary, a pervassive myth is that blacks have no power within the repo party, and that blacks provide the repos with no support. Republicans are trying to both expose the truth about blacks within their party and increase this reality, while simultaneously increase their black support.
This essay disproves its own thesis:
On the one hand the author claims that there is a myth that lots of blacks support the repos, yet also reveals that the repos really are working to increase black support... though failing.
Also the author claims that there is a "myth" that blacks have power in the repo party, then goes on to document the authetic rise of some blacks to real levels of power. The record of blacks within Bush's administration surely trumps the records of the demo candidates that blacks supported!
It is a myth that "lots of blacks" support the republican party because there is not a great number of blacks who vote republican. That number is small when compared to the total black population, most of whom don't vote at all historically.
A few token blacks have risen in republican politics, and that number is growing as some opportunists like that asshole Ken Blackwell or Robert Johnson see an opportunity to enrich themselves among other greedy motherfuckers who are more like them than they (the Blackwells and Johnsons) are like most other black folks.
Blacks are often more socially conservative as a result of the strong influence of Christianity in the community. Bush was successful at exploiting this by using the "faith-based initiatives" to bribe preachers. Those jack-leg preachers then instructed their congregations to vote against their own self interests because of issues like gay marriage and abortion.
These are issues which you find the republican stance to be abhorent, but you're all for it if it gets more black folks to vote republican.
True there are more people of dark pigmentation in Bush's administration, but you are closer culturally to black folks than any of them.
===Nadir====
It is a myth that "lots of blacks" support the republican party because there is not a great number of blacks who vote republican.
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The above is illogical; "it is a myth *becauase*" requires you to demonstrate that the public believes something that is untrue. All you do here is claim that the following is true: few blacks support republicans. Neither you nor the author of the article show where people's view on this issue belies the fact that you both describe, and that nobody disputes.
=========Nadir =====
Blacks are often more socially conservative as a result of the strong influence of Christianity in the community. Bush was successful at exploiting this by using the "faith-based initiatives" to bribe preachers. Those jack-leg preachers then instructed their congregations to vote against their own self interests because of issues like gay marriage and abortion.
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This statement of yours, Nadir, undermines your claim that there is a "myth" that lots of blacks support Bush; here you are claiming that there really is a significant number of blacks supporting Bush! You even explain why they are doing so: they are less smart and/or less ethical than you, and as a result have been "bribed" and/or duped. Thus it is the ethical and smarter blacks who remain committed to the Democrats, such as ethicist Kwame Kilpatrick, and his paid stumpers Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakan, and Al Sharpton.
Nadir: I hardly think I'm any more culturally black than former Howard student and professor Tom Sowell, who grew up in all-black neighborhoods in the rural south and Harlem. I have found that black conservatives are no more likely to have such backgrounds than are black leftists... many of whom come from the honkey subburbs and whose socialization is very, very honkey.
I meant to write, "any *less* likely" to be culturally black. Nadir, I the left has no shortage of nerdy "white-talking" blacks who have little black socialization.
"This statement of yours, Nadir, undermines your claim that there is a "myth" that lots of blacks support Bush; here you are claiming that there really is a significant number of blacks supporting Bush!"
Nonsense. My statement explains the increase in black support for Bush, not a claim that this number is somehow significant.
"You even explain why they are doing so: they are less smart and/or less ethical than you, and as a result have been "bribed" and/or duped. Thus it is the ethical and smarter blacks who remain committed to the Democrats, such as ethicist Kwame Kilpatrick, and his paid stumpers Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakan, and Al Sharpton."
I only said they were persuaded to vote against their self interest. I was persuaded to vote against my own self interest when I voted for Kerry. I really wanted to vote for Nader. Does that make me any smarter than them?
"I hardly think I'm any more culturally black than former Howard student and professor Tom Sowell, who grew up in all-black neighborhoods in the rural south and Harlem. I have found that black conservatives are no more likely to have such backgrounds than are black leftists... many of whom come from the honkey subburbs and whose socialization is very, very honkey."
I didn't say anything about Tom Sowell. To my knowledge Sowell isn't a part of the Bush administration.
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