I briefly blogged at oldschoolrepublicans.net until I told my homeboy that although he was a Republican (and made the strongest argument I’d heard in favor of blacks joining the GOP) I didn’t roll like that. In my most recent NPR piece I talk about some of the recent scandals involving the GOP and racism. I’d say “the GOP and race” but you all know what whenever someone mentions “race” in a statement like that they really mean racism.
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I agree that the Republican party needs to be more integrated, simply because it seems that blacks put all their eggs in one basket by heavily relying on the Democratic party when it comes to voting. Which makes it seem like every so many terms, blacks will be fine as long as a Democrat is in office. Though I think in the last election I believe that Bush went up about 3% in the black vote (correct me if I am wrong), it seems that we cannot rely on either party and that we have a lot of work to do. My question to you is, do you think it is better to integrate the Republican party with blacks or does it better serve us to run Independent? For example, some months ago in Chicago, Rev. James Meeks threatened to run against Democratic Governor Blagojevich under an Independent Party if he didn’t meet their demands for more spending on education, prison reform and drug treatment. (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=4050966). The first thing I thought about this was that it would be a waste to run under the Independent party. But then I thought that the battle between Republicans and Democrats is something that has hurt us and I wonder would it take longer for us to run under an Independent ticket, than integrating with the Republican party?
Running as an independent at the national level doesn’t work, not even when you’ve got tremendous resources–think Perot.
But independent party politics can work at the local level and at the state level. Particularly in one-party cities. Still takes a lot of effort and the cards are stacked against you but there is much more room to maneuver.
With that said I believe the best program for black people is to articulate policies they are interested in, using the language of both parties. Then support the candidate that supports the policies. Most of America has been doing the opposite, supporting candidates they trust in the hopes that the candidates will come UP with policies when they get in office. Doesn’t work that way.
Thanks for the response!
Doc if I’m wrong correct me,did you not just gave a definition of political independency
yeah but i actually didn’t answer chanda’s question as i think about it. which would take longer? integrating into the republican party or building an independent party? depends on the scale. it would take much longer to build an indepedent party at a national level. it wouldn’t take as long at the local level i don’t think.
I agree but the Replublicans smell win by catering to the Black righti.e. Butler in Mich Swann in Penn.I believe a crated grass roots party can broker and agenda,from the majors.
Dr. Spence,
So what do you think about “Cousin Jeff” Johnson’s decision to endorse Blackwell in Ohio? I saw his lengthy explanation on playahata.com.
Rev. Sen. Meeks ran as an Indepedent to get his Senate seat. He ran as an Independent, but he supports all the Democratic policies. Even so, he won a state senate seat as a minister of a fairly large church on the southside of Chicago, which gained popularity more and more with some of the things he was doing. One of the things he did was got the area of Roseland (community name – it’s still Chicago) to go dry (no liquor).
He has been part of some good things, but I don’t think he’s truly an Independent, and his so-called threat he did with Illinois Governor, Blago, was as laughable as the so-called march he did against King Richard (mayor of Chicago). There’s a church sitting where a a couple of schools could have been built, and he pastors it. Meeks wants to seem like he’s the outsider, when he knows his district is strongly Democrat, his congregation is strongly democrat, and Indepedent seemed, in my opinion, to make him come off as neither.
I agree though, that nationally a third party has no chance. Also, getting a blacks to “actually” move to the GOP would be a task and there not enough space on your blog to spell it out. 😉
you got that right! : )
Dumi by the time you see this I’ll probably have posted my response on the blog.
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