a.k.a. My first annual M.L.K. Day rant on race.
Now, before some of you get your bowels in an uproar, let me clarify that I am not saying that all liberals/Democrats are racists. What I am saying, though, is that racist attitudes, policies, and practices are much more associated with Democrats than Republicans—despite the conventional wisdom, which would have Americans believe the opposite.
Last week a colleague encouraged us all to spend Martin Luther King Day remembering and honoring the great civil rights leader. So, here is my contribution: a post devoted to various issues regarding Democrats, Republicans, and race in the U.S. And this opinionated Jew has a lot to say.
"HEY MAN, YOU GOT TO LIGHTEN UP!"
Those were the first words of an email I received from a friend after expressing my distaste for his initial email, which contained photo-shopped depictions of various Republicans, conservatives, and Fox News commentators making racist or pro-slavery remarks.
Why was I so angry? What’s so wrong with a picture of Bill O’Reilly cheering on firehose-wielding racists, or Shepherd Smith glorifying segregation?
Well, let’s say you’re Jewish (and if you’re reading this, you probably are) and someone sends you pictures of big-nosed Jews with evil laughs while drinking the blood of children, stealing money, or other things anti-Semitic cartoonists have drawn since the dawn of time. Wouldn’t you be hopping mad?
Hey man, you got to lighten up!
That settles that problem, doesn’t it?
Didn’t think so. Because such pictures are mean-spirited and not true. They’re meant only to perpetuate the false, hateful beliefs that some people have about other groups of people. (And I thought liberals/Democrats were opposed to such intolerant actions! Boy, what was I thinking?) Therefore, when pictures depict a certain group of people in a way that isn’t true, I get pissed—and so should you.
By the way, I freely admit to having tolerance for mean-spirited cartoons, as long as they accurately express the truth. I’m a big boy and can handle mean-spiritedness. As my girl Ann (Coulter) says: “The truth cannot be delivered with novocaine.” It’s the absence of truth that I consider unacceptable.
THE FACTS
In the third Indiana Jones movie, Harrison Ford tells his archeology class: “Archeology is the search for facts, not truth. If it’s truth you’re looking for, Dr. Tyree’s philosophy class is right down the hall.”
Fair enough. Most philosophers (and lawyers and politicians) probably have their own subjective truth. Facts, theoretically, should be objective and fixed, right? So, here are some facts about Democrats, Republicans, and racism that I know our youth aren’t being taught in school (just the way the Democrats want it.)
FACT: Martin Luther King was a Republican. In fact, from the inception of the Republican Party in the 1850’s up until around the time of JFK a century later, blacks were overwhelmingly Republican.
FACT: The KKK, Black Codes, and Jim Crow laws were all created by Democrats.
FACT: George Wallace, the pro-segregationist elected governor of Alabama four times between 1962 and 1982, was a Democrat.
FACT: While serving as A.G. under Democrat LBJ, Democrat Bobby Kennedy had Dr. King—a private citizen—wiretapped by the FBI (I thought they were against that sort of things. Oh, yeah: Wiretapping terrorists = bad. Wiretapping American citizens who pose a threat your political power = good.)
FACT: It was Republicans, not Democrats, who voted overwhelmingly for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Among those Democrats who voted against it were Al Gore, Sr. (D-TN) and Robert Byrd (D-WV), who was a former KKK kleagle and is still in the Senate 40 years later.
FACT: It was Republicans, not Democrats, who voted overwhelmingly for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Among those Democrats who voted against it was J. William Fulbright (D-AR), former employer and mentor of Bill Clinton.
FACT: Affirmative action (which most liberal Democrats agree with but most conservative Republicans don’t) was started by Republican president Richard Nixon.
FACT: Martin Luther King Day was signed into law as a national holiday by Republican president Ronald Reagan.
FACT: The most virulently racist and anti-Semitic black leaders are Democrats or Democrat-supporters, including Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, and Leonard Jeffries. [UPDATE: We can now add to that list Jeremiah Wright, the close friend and mentor of president-elect Barack Obama]
THE DIVERSITY SCAM: THE DEMOCRAT STRATEGY ON RACE IS ALL RHETORIC, NO ACTION
We hear a lot these days about promoting diversity, including from our Democrat presidential candidates. Today Fred Schwarz of the National Review published an article on Hillary’s and Obama’s personal record on diversity (Here’s the spoiler: It’s not a very stellar one):
For all their talk of diversity in education, the leading Democratic presidential contenders did not practice it in their own young lives. Hillary Clinton went to all-female Wellesley, while Barack Obama was a member of the last all-male class at Columbia …
Clinton says being sheltered from men helped her learn to deal with them:
Black and women’s colleges cater to students who want live among people like them — perhaps to avoid being marginalized, perhaps because they don’t feel like serving as diversity providers for their classmates, or perhaps just to increase the size of their dating pool. Many other examples could be found of liberation through segregation: Colleges with a specific religious or political orientation are common, and students at places like MIT and Caltech often say things like, “In high school I was an outcast, but here everyone’s a nerdy geek like me.”
Shwarz concludes:
If colleges were free to admit whoever they pleased, the cause of diversity would be advanced immeasurably. Admissions offices wouldn’t be bothered by pesky types who insist that “discrimination on account of race or gender” means what it says, so they could rejigger entrance standards, count beans, and engineer students’ social lives to their hearts’ content. Students who prize diversity could have it, and those who, like Clinton and Obama, do not could choose a college on other grounds. But that would require politicians and faculty members to concede that racism and sexism are no longer all-encompassing and ubiquitous throughout American society — including universities. And even the most hybrid-driving, Kucinich-voting, peace-marching college administrator would have a hard time admitting that he or she isn’t, at heart, a racist.
A couple weeks ago, the NJ State Legislature officially apologized for slavery. Whoop-dee freaking-doo. When is it going to apologize for the utter destruction this heavily Democrat-run state has wrought on blacks ever since? Newark is a sh*t hole. Paterson is a sh*t hole. Camden is a s**t hole. And across the river from Camden, Philadelphia is currently a sh*t hole. And don’t even get me started on New Orleans. All run for decades by Democrats. Coincidence? Naaahhh!
Francis Rice, chair of the National Black Republican Association, wrote a couple years ago in an article:
Democrats have been running our inner-cities for the past 30 to 40 years, and blacks are still complaining about the same problems. More than 7 trillion dollars have been spent on poverty programs since Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty with little, if any, impact on poverty. Diabolically, every election cycle, Democrats blame Republicans for the deplorable conditions in the inner-cities, then incite blacks to cast a protest vote against Republicans.
I believe she’s exactly right. Keep voting for those Democrats for the umpteenth election in a row. They’ll keep protecting you from those supposedly evil racist Republicans!
Incidentally, I agreed with the two only legislators who voted against the resolution, arguing it was nothing less than an empty PC-motivated gesture. But then I read the following tidbits on CNN.com, which I never knew: (1) New Jersey had 12,000 slaves, one of the largest in the northern colonies; and (2) The state was the last to emancipate slaves, in 1846.
Yes, that does deserve an apology.
THE MORE LIBERALS/DEMOCTATS ASK FOR THE CHANGE, THE MORE THEY KEEP THINGS THE SAME
We’ve heard Obama say it over and over: Our country needs change, change, change, and more change! I’m then reminded of a funny bumper sticker slogan: “When liberals demand change, tell them you don’t have any!”
Seriously, though. Here we have an opportunity to elect a black to high political office, indeed, the highest in the land. And if you don’t vote for Obama? Well, let’s hear what others have to say about that. Last May George Stephanopoulos said the following on ABC’s This Week:
I guess I think that anyone who’s not going to vote for Barack Obama because he is black isn’t going to vote for a Democrat anyway.
The sheer audacity of this statement is might only have been surpassed by this gem from Bryant Gumbel on NBC’s Today from back in 1989:
[The Racial Attitudes and Consciousness Exam (RACE)] is not going to tell you whether you’re a racist or a liberal.
OK, so now let’s wake up from Liberal La-La Land and look at some hard facts, namely, the results of elections in predominantly liberal states when one of the candidates is a black Republican:
The mostly BLUE state of Ohio: Ken Blackwell held several major political offices in Ohio, but lost the 2006 gubernatorial election to a white Democrat.
The mostly BLUE state of Maryland: Michael Steele, former Lt. Governor, lost the 2006 election for Senate to a white Democrat. By the way, while on the campaign trail, Steele was pelted with Oreo cookies by the tolerant liberals of the Crab State.
The mostly BLUE state of Pennsylvania: Lynn Swann, the former pro-football star, ran in 2006 for governor of Pennsylvania, and lost to a white Democrat.
“Change” my skinny white rear end. Meanwhile …
In the mostly RED state of Louisiana: Indian-American Bobby Jindal was just sworn in as the first Republican governor in the state in decades.
Looks like Democrats are really skilled in talking the talk, but rarely do they walk the walk.
RITE BLACKS
Finally, on this Martin Luther King Day, I’d like to recognize some “Rite Blacks,” those right-leaning, free-thinking African-Americans who have struggled to realize Dr. King’s true vision of a color-blind society (not color-coordinated, as Larry Elder wrote last week) and where content of character trumps color of skin. Chances are you’ve either (1) have nothing but negative opinions of these people or (2) have never heard of them to begin with. If either one is the case, then congrats to the Democrats and the mainstream media for doing their job for making it that way. These people have more honor and character in their pinkies than the Sharptons and Jacksons of the world can ever wish for.
Ward Connerly, chair of the American Civil Rights Institute. A liberal punching bag because he campaigns to end affirmative action for college admissions.
Bill Cosby, a self-professed liberal, but his positions are more right-of-center than he admits
Larry Elder, talk show host and author
Angela McGlowan, founder and president of a PR consulting firm called Political Strategies and Insights
John McWhorter, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Bob Parks, columnist, commentator, and Republican politician from Massachusetts
Star Parker, former drug addict and welfare dependent, founder and president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education (CURE)
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell. He’s the man. [UPDATE: Never mind, he’s a fake Republican, a stabber of the backs of several Republican presidents who gave him a very lucrative career over the years, and racial sell-out. The man drank the liberal Kool-Aid, got drunk on media adulation, and it was over for him. What a difference a year makes.]
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, an extremely accomplished woman (although I’m really not pleased with her politicial performance as of late)
Thomas Sowell, economist and Fellow at Stanford Univ.’s Hoover Institution
Shelby Steele, Senior Fellow at Stanford Univ.’s Hoover Institution
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whose autobiography should, but never will, be required reading in American schools.
Walter E. Williams, Prof. of Economics at George Mason Univ.
Thank you, and others like you, for continuing the struggle to realize Dr. King’s vision, despite continually being kept down by the liberal Democratic Man. I’m on your side.
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