As I have said before, the NAACP has a proud history dating back to the days when they were truly needed. Their present is not so proud. As a supposedly non-partisan organization, I'll bet there were not 15 people in that room who are going to vote for Romney. Yet, it is a required visit for a president or presidential candidate lest they make an uproar by snubbing the nation's most prestigious civil rights organization. So people like Romney dutifully go into these venues and drop the names of their close political allies who happen to be black, how their fathers marched for civil rights, or how their policies are best for black Americans. It is so patronizing, and it makes no impression at all.
Did I say it is required to speak before the NAACP? Not for Obama. He's skipping the convention and sending Joe Biden to do a stand-up routine. Why should he bother? He has their votes and support locked up.
Even more silly is Al Sharpton's take today on his MSNBC daytime comedy show Politics Nation. You see, according to Reverend Al, Romney deliberately provoked the booing so as to appeal to his right-wing base (or did he say "white-ring base"?)
Back to the NAACP: The guy they should have booed was Eric Holder yesterday. Secondly, Romney should have talked turkey with them. A few points:
Let's stop with the race-based politics and pitting black against white.
Instead of fighting the battles of the 50s and 60s, how about addressing the problems of the 2000s?
The biggest problem facing black America is not white racism. It is the lack of a two-parent family, the breakdown of the black family, if you will. (I am quoting Larry Elder here. If you never heard of him, you should do the research.)
What can we do to protect black families who live in inner city neighborhoods plagued by gangs and drug dealers?
Why is it that most every major city where you find rampant crime and failing schools is run by Democrats? This is the party you give about 90% of your vote to. Why don't you ever hold them accountable?
Why do you constantly denigrate black conservatives?
We (white conservative Republicans) are not your enemy.
Republican candidates might just as well mail it in. I suggest next time around, the candidate just send them a post card. It won't make any difference. The fact is that right now, the black vote is, indeed, monolithic. The problem is when one party takes your vote for granted, they don't have to do anything other than what it takes to keep that constituency "on the plantation" so to speak. Yes, references to plantations can be very offensive to blacks, but it is precisely the term that black conservatives use to describe the African-American attachment to the Democratic party.
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You're about half right, Gary. We will not end racism by wallowing in it. We will end racism by throwing it away. I do think those who could choose to think of themselves as "white" should go first, i.e. by renouncing the identity "white," because it and the identity "black" were made up by people who saw money to be made calling themselves "white." But those who identify as "black" have to admit that this is an artificial identity foisted on their ancestors by someone who called himself "white." Pulling together and surviving all that nonsense is something to be proud of. Clinging to the artificial identity is a dead end.
There are reasons the NAACP does not give a warm, respectful welcome to Republicans. In 1956, Thurgood Marshall was quoted in the Pittsburgh Courier predicting a massive surge of black voters back to the Republican Party. After all, the Democrats were paralyzed by their Dixie wing, and Eisenhower had just sent troops to Little Rock. In 1960, Richard Nixon made a point of campaigning in black neighborhoods, and Martin Luther King, Sr. initially meant to endorse him.
But, Kennedy made a calculated strategic decision to make a phone call when MLK,Jr. was in a Georgia prison camp (old school chain gang variety), and Nixon made a calculated decision not to. Then, once LBJ twisted the arms of enough Democrats to pass a civil rights act with a lot of northern and western Republican votes, Nixon in 1968 and his party for the next 20-30 years made a point of inviting the orphaned Dixiecrats to come join them.
That might be good politics, but it wasn't a way to obtain a warm welcome from the NAACP. That's unfortunate, because it sidelined a lot of sensible black Republicans like Elaine Brown Jenkins and her husband Howard -- who were a lot harder to dismiss than a clown like Herman Cain, or ideologues like Thomas Sowell.
If Romney baldly stated "I will repeal Obamacare" he is a fool or a knave. IF he went in and said "I know many of you admire President Obama for passing the most comprehensive health care reform in decades -- but let me tell you why I think it is badly structured, and how we could do much better..." he might have gotten a polite silence instead. But I don't think he has the mental capacity to outline anything of the kind. He's the king of hollow one-liners.
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