Joe Birkett and African American voters
Birkett is the only Republican I've heard talk much about appealing to African American voters.
Not that I've heard all that many of the candidates talk much about anything for that matter; so I may have missed what any of the others have said.
It's just I heard him talk about growing up in Austin in the 70's and that he had African American friends from Austin who had organized to support him. Birkett always feels like a city guy to me when I hear him talk. (Sounding city is good in my book. I can listen to Rostenkowski talk and feel warm inside.)
So what should the Republican strategy be towards African American voters?
I'm done posting here for the year. Merry Christmas to all of you.
11 comments:
African Americans are not big fans of wrongful death row convictions so it will be an uphill battle for him to make any dent in the black vote.
Yeah, especially since he continues to support the death penalty, claims there was nothing wrong with the system in Illinois, attacks reforms, and wants to end the moratorium.
You have numbers to back up the death penalty views? (And only African Americans opposed to wrongful death row convictions? Poles, Bohemians, Irish saying hey what the heck, flip the switch? African Americans aren't different. Everyone's opposed to a wrongful execution!)
Somehow I think opposition to death penalty goes over better in DuPage and the North Shore maybe than the city.
But I don't have numbers here either.
Birkett mentioned he had African American friends from a pre Political life and he relied on them for support. I was interested in that.
I am always bothered by Republicans seeming lack of effort to appeal to African American voters. That's what prompted the post. I don't think they can turn things back to pre FDR times, but they sure could do better.
Bill,
Candidates in both the Dem and GOP parties ignore African Americans 300 days of the day and and act like BET the remaining 65.
They hide behind policies and position papers and hall out the choir for news conferences.
When you get good people who actually spend time in the African American community and do hands-on good work. The policy wonks and the exetreme Lefties try to do hatchet jobs on them - ' they racists Everyone ( We) know that; I watched Dr. King on Channel 11 and have his picture on the wall between Bobby and Jack!' Now that' some street cred.
Most Illinois voters are in tune with Joe Birkett. I more than likely will vote for Ed-Win, but admire Joe.
What the Republican Party needs to do – and arguably has been getting better at over the last 5 years – is demonstrate to African Americans how their policies help get their lives and communities on the track to tangible, sustainable improvements.
I have been reading Thomas Franks’s “What’s the Matter With Kansas,” and he talks a great deal about how conservative politicians have benefited from bemoaning cultural ills that they have simultaneously done almost nothing about despite their current dominance of politics and government. This is one of the few points he makes in the book that I think is at least reasonable, albeit a little oversimplified. But I think the same thing can be said about liberals/Democrats and the African American community. Franks (and others who have articulated it elsewhere) may have a point that some of the more crass and politically motivated portions of the conservative movement may deep down secretly hope that Roe never goes away, lest they lose their biggest gun. But I’d argue that there are many parts of the liberal/Democratic coalition – right here in Illinois perhaps – that feel the same way about racial injustice. What the Republicans need to do is find a way to better articulate the message that liberals are interested in extending and exploiting their plight, while conservatives can actually help them rise above it.
Birkett was for most of the reforms of the death penalty. He wrote many of them. He never said there was nothing wrong with the system. Stop lying Yellow Dog.
Black voters would be more likely to expressly vote against Birkett because of Rolando Cruz than Poles, Bohemians, and the Irish. Any increase in the Black vote that Topinka/Birkett gets from 2002 will be anti-Blagojevich rather than pro-Birkett.
Blacks are probably not as monolithic a voting group in toto
as many believe, but I think it's true that the ones who vote are pretty much kneejerk liberal tax and tax and spend and spend Dems.
The rest don't vote, don't talk, with rare exceptions.
So, Birkett is wasting his time trying to appeal to black Illinois voters.
This could change, though, as Hispanics gain in voting numbers and in influence. Dems are overtly plumping for the Hispanic vote, and blacks may not see this as in their best interest politically or financially.
As the party of Abraham Lincoln, we Republicans should have a natural advantage on this--if we can manage to shake the "Dixie-crat" image.
For a number of reasons, affirmative action doesn't sit well with the GOP base, so as long as this is seen as the major "race" issue we'll never win.
A bold solution that might just work (and would be worth doing in any case) would be to outflank the Democrats by putting the slavery reparations issue back on the table. Here's one possible way it could work.
Since Lincoln’s promise of “40 acres and a mule” to every freed slave was left largely unfulfilled in the wake of his assassination, and since decades of post-slavery bigotry by North and South alike have resulted in widespread poverty among African-Americans, American society has a promise to keep. Conservatives rightly note, however, there are also rich blacks and poor whites, and only a small percentage of these are descended from slaveholders, so a direct transfer from one group to another is all but impossible; rather than conducting a genealogical witchhunt, therefore, the proper approach is for the society as a whole to contribute to the solution in direct proportion to how they have benefited from the free labor of the slaves—that is—in proportion to their current wealth.
Thoughts?
- JCE
re: Keyes tried and everyone called him a nut, including now Sen Obama,
Obama responded to Keyes' comments by saying that the "legacy and stain of slavery is immeasurable," but that he did not believe that the form of reparations backed by Keyes was the proper method to repair that damage.
I generally think that the best strategies for moving forward involve vigorously enforcing our anti-discrimination laws in education and job training and other programs that can lift all people out of poverty," Democrat Obama said.
So wait for the lift all big Gov programs I guess.
First, an apology in advance for my ignorance of the Keyes-Obama race (I was, ironically, in Maryland at the time). :-) With that disclaimer in place, let me throw out a couple of possibly ignorant questions:
1) Am I missing something, or would the Keyes plan have disproportionately assisted blacks who were wealthy enough to be paying large amounts of taxes--and thus who had managed to "make it" to their version of the American dream without the 40 acres and a mule after all?
2) The tricky issue here is how to (a) symbolically atone for the evils of slavery and (b) take decisive strides to eradicate its longer-lasting legacies while avoiding creating racial resentment on the part of non-blacks suffering "reverse discrimination." This is the problem I have with affirmative action as well. Can anyone think of a better way to address one injustice without perpetuating another?
3) The idea that comes to my mind would be to couple
a) A special tax designed to raise a sum equal to the current value of the mules and land that were never delivered, which could be used as a legislature-proof permanent endowment to fund poverty relief services--for all Americans, regardless of race, with
b) A Truth & Reconciliation Commission-type program as a means of facilitating political forgiveness of past and present offenses.
Any thoughts? Is there anything here that hasn't been considered--and rejected--time and time before?
- JCE
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