Color Conscious, or JC Watts is right

Hatip to RedState for this article on Republicans and Race!

By BlackRepub

A bit of obvious disclosure, that I am an African-American Republican. I became a Republican during the 2004 campaign season, right as I had just turned 19 so my first ever Presidential vote was for George W. Bush, or as my friends and I like to call him, G Dubs. I believe that the Republican Party is the natural home for African Americans, because of our stances on school choice, lower taxes, economic policies such as an opposition to raising the minimum wage and illegal immigration, and of course the social issues of crime, gay marriage and abortion. RNC Chair Ken Mehlman was the person who really confirmed my decision to remain a registered Republican rather than stay and independent who leaned Republican. I believed him when he said the GOP will not be complete until more African-Americans come back home. 2006, hailed as the year of the Black Republican was obviously a disappointment resultswise, but I felt was something to build upon because the GOP had finally broken through with a large crop of candidates on the national stage, something I have long advocated was necessary to counter the unelected race pimps in the Democratic Party.

Now I will admit, that I'm young, and haven't been around politics or the GOP for very long, but I must say I am gravely disappointed with how the GOP has conducted itself in terms of African-Americans this cycle. I am not arguing for affirmative action candidates, but the two facts that there are no high profile Black candidates running under the banner of the GOP is disgraceful and should be unacceptable to the Party. The common argument is why fight for a constituency that considers white Republicans racist and Black Republicans Uncle Toms is a foolish one considering that Michael Steele was able to get 40 percent of the Black vote and Ken Blackwell was able to get 35 percent.

If the Republican Party could get 25 percent of the African American vote, we would win a majority of our races. If the GOP could get 35 to 40 percent, it would make up for the Hispanics that are being bamboozled by the La Raza pimps on the immigration issue. I was disappointed, as my RedState mentor Gamecock was, to see that none of the first tier candidates went to the African American summit. And yes, Tavis Smiley is a liberal, but if they can stand up to Chris Matthews they can stand up to Smiley, and it comes down to the reason why Rudy went to a socially conservative conference: you win simply by showing up. If the top tier ha d simply shown up to debate, they would have been able to go into the Black community and say I care about your issues, and I have a plan to address them.

You see, younger African-Americans are not the Civil Rights generation are not beholden to the poverty pimps as our grandparents and our parents were. We know the truth, that while racism certainly exists, it is by no means the all encompassing factor that it was to blocking opportunities for African-Americans. In fact where racism exists, it is often the Republicans that should be calling out the Democratic Party for is unabashed racism (ie Steele and Oreo Cookies, Cosby on Clarence Thomas, Robert Byrd, resident Senate Imperial Wizard.) yet we are afraid to because we have ceded the ground on race. I for one am tired of seeing my party cede ground on every major issue.

he thing that got my vote was seeing George Bush stand in front of the Urban League and tell Black America and say, I'm here to ask for your vote. The only man I can see doing that right now, is Mike Huckabee, who I consequently am supporting. I believe Huck is the only one who will lay out a plan for the African-American community much like George Bush did with talking about Pell Grants, NCLB, minority home ownership, and abortion and gay marriage. In a time where we are pushing to win an election, every vote is going to count, and we don't need to expand our ideology with Rudy, we need to expand the tent and bring conservative voters into the fold. I'm willing to meet the GOP halfway this year, but we must as a Party do better; otherwise we can expect that reliable 12 percent of African American Republican voters to dwindle even further.