While President Obama and the Democrats still have a lockhold on the majority of black Americans, there are some signs of hope and change:
Among the many reverberations of President Obama’s election, here is one he probably never anticipated: at least 32 African-Americans are running for Congress this year as Republicans, the biggest surge since Reconstruction, according to party officials.
The House has not had a black Republican since 2003, when J. C. Watts of Oklahoma left after eight years.
But now black Republicans are running across the country — from a largely white swath of beach communities in Florida to the suburbs of Phoenix, where an African-American candidate has raised more money than all but two of his nine (white) Republican competitors in the primary. {...}
“I ran in 2008 and raised half a million dollars, and the state party didn’t support me and the national party didn’t support me,” said Allen West, who is running for Congress in Florida and is one of roughly five black candidates the party believes could win. “But we came back and we’re running and things are looking great.”
Lt. Colonel Allen West has been mentioned on these pages before. He's a highly decorated war hero whose awards and decorations include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal (two Oak Leaf Clusters), Army Commendation Medal (two Oak Leaf Clusters, one Valor Device), Army Achievement Medal (one Oak Leaf Cluster), Valorous Unit Award, Air Assault Badge and the Parachutist Badge.
He also has some unique views on national defense and Israel that make me wish I lived in Florida just so I could help him get into Congress.
Ironically, Obama's election seems to have emboldened black Republicans to step into the arena:
“There is no denying that one of the things that came out of the election of Obama was that you have a lot of African-Americans running in both parties now,” said Vernon Parker, who is running for an open seat in Arizona’s Third District. His competition in the Aug. 24 primary includes the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, Ben Quayle.
Princella Smith, who is running for an open seat in Arkansas, said she viewed the president’s victory through both the lens of history and partisan politics. “Aside from the fact that I disagree fundamentally with all his views, I am proud of my nation for proving that we have the ability to do something like that,” Ms. Smith said.
State and national party officials say that this year’s cast of black Republicans is far more experienced than the more fringy players of yore, and include elected officials, former military personnel and candidates who have run before.
Mr. Parker is the mayor of Paradise Valley, Ariz. Ryan Frazier is a councilman in Aurora, Colo., one of four at-large members who represent the whole city. And Tim Scott is the only black Republican elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives since Reconstruction.
“These are not just people pulled out of the hole,” said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a black conservative group. That is “the nice thing about being on this side of history,” he said.
Despite Michael Steele's nonsense, there are actually plenty of reasons for blacks to return to the part of Lincoln. It's about time someone started articulating them, and an articulate, charismatic GOP Congress members like Allen west are a great place to start.
It's all about liberation.
while ff is straight forward in his discussion, and the significance of black republicans, may i offer some background information.
ReplyDeletej.c. watts is from eufaula, oklahoma. about 40 miles northwest of my home town. we play them in football as they are the same size community. j.c. watts is a democrat. the watts family are democrats as far back as my mom could remember(we had the discussion many years before she passed away). the reason j.c. is a registered R, is because he went to the state D party and said he wanted to run for US congress. they patted him on his black head and said thanks, but no thanks, BOY, we want a white congressman from the third district.
you see, dimocrats can say things like that.
i digress.
so j.c. walks down the street, literally, and walks into the R state party headquarters and says he wants to run for US congress.
and the rest, as they say, oh you know what they say.
when j.c., senior, ran for labor commissioner, as a D, his campaign was the ruin of state senator gene stipe, as everyone knew he was going to be stipe's BOY, and was funding him through a third party.
not even stipe's clout in the state could fend off the wave of an investigation.
where i'm going with this, is, it's all well/good for any/every one to participate in this, the experiment in governance that our founding fathers put together.
however, the proof is in the pudding.
ms. smith comments and her own stance on the issues go farther, imo, than just an R after a name.
i also find interesting the comments of col. west regarding his funding from the 2008 election.
in 2004, senator coburn, R-okla, was not supported by the state/nat'l republican party. the reason. coburn is a conservative, not a republican. with the dumm mass steele in charge, he will receive insignificant support at best this time around as he is polling better than 50% against all potential opponents.
also, ff did not mention star parker running from the 37th congressional district in kahleefournia as a republican as well.
full disclosure: regarding the pudding comment above, i was going to use the expression, it's quite another to call a spade a spade, but i had already clicked the publish your comment button.
Hi Louie,
ReplyDeleteI am by nature an optimist.Therefore, in hearing that a number of blacks are getting off the plantation and working for their best interests, I find that a positive development.
Allen West in particular excites me and I really hope he wins. He's a heroic man, an inspiring speaker and a deep thinker who understands the War on Jihad innately. You might find the link I included under 'Israel' of interest.
Star Parker's a Republican conservative running in a deeply Democrat gerrymandered district where she's unlikely to have any success.Sorry, but that's the way it is.
I found the background on JC Watts interesting. I met him here in California after he gave a speech here and found him to bright, energetic and thoughtful.
Regards,
Rob
OT regarding your j.c. comment.
ReplyDeletei don't doubt he was. he was one of the best quarterbacks OU has had. he was also a corporation commissioner appointee of frank keating.
third district dimocrats in oklahoma still think they are voting for FDR.
sound familiar ff?
they have very little in common with the nat'l party. boren is in big trouble simply because he is D. no one down there has any real problem with him. he voted against the healthcare thingy. they just view him as a reason pelosi is in the chair.
if you detect a little more than usual cynicism on my part, it is because i viewed j.c. as a political animal, long before i had ever heard the term.