More Blacks Run As Republicans in South

[2Design]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040614/ap_on_el_ge/black_republicans_2

I wonder if these guys liked Reagan's legacy and what Bush is doing now???

ATLANTA - Herman Cain is a well-to-do black businessman with a strong belief that the Democratic Party that blacks embraced during the civil rights struggle has swung too far to the left.

<snip>

That may be why the Republican National Committee (news - web sites) has an office dedicated to courting black voters and candidates, and has several blacks running in high-profile races.


In North Carolina, Winston-Salem City Councilman Vernon Robinson is running for Congress with campaign mailings likening himself to the state's arch-conservative icon: "Jesse Helms is back! And this time he's black."

<snip>

"It's not just people who've already moved into the middle class, but people who are trying to move up economically who are deciding that they are better aligned with many of the Republican candidates," said Senate candidate Cain.

[beanball]

1. Black Republicans

before Nixon embraced the southern democrats and started the southern movement of whites to the former party of Lincoln,there were liberal republicans,men like Jake Javits,Earl Warren,and other men of good will.I just can't understand why any black person would want to be in the party of Trent Lott,who has replaced Lincoln as one of the figure heads of the party.

[meow2u3]

18. Re: Black Republicans

are like Jewish Nazis, female Wahabis, and Islamic neocons.

Show me one of those, and I'll show you a glutton for punishment.

[maggrwaggr]

2. here in LA a lot of the people I see driving Hummer H2s are black

Maybe someone could explain this.

It's probably 70% hummer drivers that I've seen on the westside in LA are black.

???

[pnb]

3. Uh...errr....

...well, perhaps they have money?!?

[gatorboy]

4. No stranger then gay Republicans

I mean, talk about a group that loves adding insult to injury!

"Hmmmm, they seem to hate us....Hey, I'll join them! Weeee!"

[SemperEadem]

22. And over here in Glendale, most of them are either Armenian

or Asian.

what is your point?

[bushwakker]

5. Uncle Tom's Cabin Republicans*

[bushwakker]

6. Go Yankees - from deep in the heart of Red Sox Nation

I live very very close to Fenway Park....

[Outlaw420]

7. What??

What does being black have to do with anything? People are people

[MadHound]

8. And this phenomenon is suprising how?

Gee, it isn't like African Americans aren't growing in personal wealth. And since the Republican party is supposed to be the party of the rich, it only makes sense that rich African Americans wouldn't become Republican. Hey, tax breaks for the wealthy cross all racial barriers.

Then there is the growing problem of African Americans feeling like the Democratic Party takes them for granted. Like leftists and the working/union man, African Americans have been traditionally seen as being part of the "Democratic reservation", with the ongoing caveat of "who else you gonna vote for, a 'Pug? HAHAHA!!" Well, more and more people are starting to do just that, simply in order to get some, any attention to the matters that are important to them. Being taken for granted isn't a pleasant prospect for anyone, and sooner or later people will start doing something in order to get their issues noticed. The leftists are voting Nader/Green, and African Americans are going Republican. So far it seems that the Democratic Party doesn't care, but sooner or later they need to wake up and address these problems, otherwise they will become irrelevant and fade into oblivion.

[Blue Wally]

11. Third Parties

One of the reasons that third parties have not been overly successful in the US is that by the time they reach critical mass, one of the other of the major parties coopts their issues.

If a large number of people vote Green or for a "black" party, the hurt it would put on the Democratic party would cause the Democrats to move in the direction of the third party that is hurting them and coopt their issues.

[MadHound]

12. I fully agree with that premises

However, it seems like the Democrats have yet to learn this lesson from the '00 and '02 election cycles. If they continue with this political amnesia this year, they will lose.

The Democratic party needs to wake up and smell the coffee and stop trying to be Republican lite. They need to steal a couple of planks from the Greens and put it into their platform. They need to energize their leftist/African American/working stiff base. But the DLC/DNC leadership is hell bent on bringing about the one party system in this country, and thus will make America a living hell for all of us.

[Blue Wally]

14. Maybe you have to hit bottom....

before you do something about it.

After their disaster in 1964, the Republican rebuilt (not in a way we would like).

[JayS]

23. "they will become irrelevant and fade into oblivion"

Too late!!! hehehehe :)

[THUNDER HANDS]

9. not just in the South, but on Long Island too

One of the most interesting House races this year will be in my district - the 4th Congressional District of NY - where incumbant Carolyn McCarthy (D- Hempstead) will be challenged by James Garner (R- Hempstead) the mayor of the Town of Hempstead, the largest town in America.

Garner is black. The district is overly middle class with a mix of both poor and rich areas.

He could win this seat. It's a bit of a longshot now, since McCarthy is still popular and hasn't done anything to warrant losing her seat - but the idea of sending the only black Republican to congress might entice people to vote for him. The 4th District is still an area where Republicans outnumber Democrats by a fairly large margin.

[AP]

10. It's the only way for Republicans to get Black votes.

But there were a couple elections last November where black republicans ran against White, asian, and other Democrats in Democratic districts and STILL couldn't win significant black votes, much less win.

I wish I could remember the races.

Tavis Smiley did a story on this.

[John_H]

13. Good. Maybe they'll talk some sense into the morons that run their party.

[candy331]

15. Well some day maybe the Democrats will wake up

and address their needs rather than only go out to visit Harlem during elections. Blacks may feel that that they have nothing to loose since Democrats take them for granted and Dems really have moved so far to the repub side that they are only a few steps away from being republican anyway.

[JayS]

16. Well said. n/t

n/t

[progressivebydesign]

19. I never really got the whole "take them for granted" thing..

Yet, it's repeated here, almost daily. How exactly are the Democrats taking them for granted? The Democrat's positions haven't changed.. In an equal world, where we should be color-blind, what special things do you think blacks would like from the Democrats?

Either you agree with the Democrat's ideology, or you don't. If people of any color feel that what a party stands for no longer works for them.. then they should vote the other party. But.. the idea that a party should do special things, beyond promoting candidates of all colors and religions, beyond being the party that supports working families, beyond being the party that truly supports children, beyond being the party that is actively trying to solve the health insurance crisis.. I'm just not sure what they'd want.

Are people being a bit dismissive of blacks? Do people assume that blacks haven't moved toward the right, especially the religious right, as many other Americans did after 9/11? Are they they assuming that the blacks that have become more affluent aren't doing what people of other races often do? They move to the party they THINK is better at letting them keep what they earn?

I think the idea that a race or religious group switching parties because they feel "taken for granted" is just as dismissive toward them as believing that blacks only vote for black candidates, and Jewish people only vote as it relates to Israel. People paint such a one-dimensional portrait of people.

[JayS]

21. I think the "taken for granted" statements made here are usually...

...referring to the notion that the black (or hispanic) vote is automatic. That would be disturbing to anyone affected no matter what their political beliefs are.

I am sure that blacks, like other groups of people, have specific things that they want from the party but I am not up on exactly what those things are. One thing that would be nice is more consideration given to the fact that the War On Drugs has a large number of them in jail or that were once in jail...and with a drug conviction that pretty much amounts to the same thing.

[progressivebydesign]

20. If the problem is that the Dems are too close the right..

..then wouldn't it make more sense for Blacks (in your scenario) to move toward the Greens? Or Independents? Your logic doesn't work. If people feel the Democrats are moving too far to the right, why would they join a group even further to the right?

[cheezus]

17. The Dems are further to the left than during civil rights movement????

Whatever that dude is smoking, I want some.

[HFishbine]

24. Vernon Robinson

is a bigot; a traitor to the principles of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the hard fought battle for racial equality.

You can listen to his radio ads here:

http://vernonrobinson.com/radio.shtml

You can also boycott Papa Johns Pizza. Their president supports this crap with campaign contributions to Robinson.

[robbedvoter]

25. An RNC production. Vernon Robinson is from West LA

I am sure these are all set-ups - like the recall, redistricting...Remember, they have a 100% congress representation. I wonder how much advice on this operation comes from "sista Donna"