Where’s the handbasket? The country’s gone all to hell….

It’s been a while as I’ve watched on the sideline as the country continues to spiral ever downward into a cesspool of liberal induced death, like an unsuspecting impala dragged down to his death by a crocodile in a Nature documentary.  Except this is no documentary and the impala in question is far from unsuspecting.  Indeed the government we have is the government we elected, and although I did not pull the lever for an bloated, indebted, unresponsive nanny-state, many millions of others did.  Most likely they were seduced by a combination of threats  (if you don’t vote for us you’re uncompassionate), bribes (vote for us and well take care of granny for you), and outright fraud (see everything the Democratic Party has ever done to win elections since the Reconstruction Era). And of course you have the vast unwashed, barely literate masses whose voting knowledge can be reduced to various expressions of, “He make me feel safe,” or “She give me hope,” and it is no wonder we have the politicians we do.

And now in consequence of the ignorance and irresponsibility of the general American populace, we have an elected class that is in general more ignorant and more irresponsible than average.  Our credit rating has gone from AAA to AA+ which largely means that the ratings agencies are not quite convinced that we yet willing to sell our grandchildren’s grandchildren into debt slavery in order to finance the retirement and health care of the generation of Baby Boomers who has given us everything from no fault divorce to grown men and women wearing sweatpants in the mall to Snookie, whoever the h3ll she is.

Do I sound bitter?  Perhaps no more so than the other “bitter clingers,” but I’m a Gen-X’er and cynicism is our right. After all we have had to live in the shadow of the Baby Boomers our entire lives whilst we swim in the detritus of their collective excess.

So what difference does it make if a few Wall Street goofs thinks our country is no longer “AAA.”  President Obama assures us that we will always be AAA in his book, sounding not unlike a post-modern parent trying to soothe the feelings of a kid just kicked off the baseball team.

Well in the short term, probably not much.  In the long term, not much either, except perhaps a recognition by the rest of the world that, yeah, they aren’t buying the notion that the good ole’ USA can continue to defy the laws of economics, physics, or even common sense forever and that eventually even Uncle Sam will have to pay his bills.

And pay the bills we will, albeit in a deflated currency that will erode the savings of the middle class, further impoverish the poor, and undermine the foundations of American prosperity for the foreseeable future.

But at least we got to have a Black President!!

Bill Clinton resumes presidency while Barack goes to a party… no, seriously

It really doesn’t get any better than this does it?  I mean… seriously.  President (can we still call him that after this episode) Barack Obama held a press conference today in which he played the role of master of ceremonies tasked with the honor of introducing….

Bill Clinton.

Yes… it’s true.  The president of the United States went to a party with his wife and left President Clinton to press conference duty.

How odd is this really? Is it a sign that Obama has completely given up any semblance of being in charge, or is it an attempt to play off Clinton’s enduring popularity without having to execute any Clintonian “triangulation”?

Bitter Clinging is Back!

Just when you thought it was over, Obama has brought back a beloved meme from the 2008 election. Bitter clinging is back for a repeat performance!

I — I do think that it’s important for us to recognize that right now, the country’s going through a very difficult time, as a consequence of years of neglect in a whole range of areas. Our schools not working the way they need to, so we’ve slipped in terms of the number of college graduates, you know?

A financial system that was not, you know, operating in a way that maintained integrity and assured that the people who were investing or who were buying a home or were using a credit card weren’t getting in some way cheated. We had a health care system that was broken and that was bankrupting families and businesses. All those issues are big, tough, difficult issues. And those are just our domestic issues. That’s before we get to policy issues in two wars. And a continuing battle against terrorists who want to do us harm.

So, given all those anxieties — and given the fact that, you know, in none of these situations are you going to be fix things overnight. It’s not surprising that somebody like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of the country. That’s been true throughout our history.

Yes, all of the concerns expressed at the Glenn Beck rally (which I did not follow) boil down to the same thing for Obama: when times are hard, the bitter cling harder. It is never about policy, or the constitution, or anything substantive for the left. It is always about economics.  It is always about money.

And this is how we really know that Obama views the world through a Marxist lens, because for the Marxist materialist, the pocketbook is the only book that matters. Everything else, including religion, culture, constitutional ideals, etc., are only instruments to keep the otherwise needing to be enlightened proletarians duped and deceived. The common man and woman in this scenario simply needs to have an already enlightened vanguard to step to the plate and solve all their problems for them and thus usher in an age of economic and social bliss! So why don’t these damn kulaks, I mean bitter clingers get with the program?

It is a sad reality, but this is the essential limitation of the left.  They cannot imagine that people may have legitimate concerns that surpass their supposed economic self interest.  Leaving aside for a moment the question of whether leftist economic policy works (it doesn’t), fundamentally they believe that everything can be reduced to a cost / benefit analysis.  It is all pragmatism and social science in which there is no room for transcendent ideas like liberty, family, morality, religion.  In fact, these things are usually impediments to the implementation of leftist ideas, which is why people like Tom Friedman of the New York Times wishes we were more like China where what is good for us can be simply shoved down our throats.

Beck’s rally was the antithesis of this obsession on the part of the left.  They cannot conceive that anything can be other than political, and in fact for leftists, everything IS political.  They just can’t believe that some people would rather have freedom and economic insecurity than bondage and be provided for from cradle to grave.  They don’t understand that for pro-life people, it really doesn’t matter if down the road some cure could possibly come from the destruction of human embryos in the present: it is still wrong, and they just don’t understand that having the right to spend as much of one’s own hard earned money as possible keeping grandpa alive just one more week is more important than getting “free” health care.

The Feminist Plantation

I don’t think there is anything I can add to this:

Originally posted at NewsReal

90 years after the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving women the vote, Democrats are actively seeking to figuratively repeal the amendment. They are striving for a form of reverse-suffrage, wherein every woman must walk in lockstep with their ideology, or you are not a “real” woman. How dare women step off the gender-baiting, Democrat plantation and vote based on their own beliefs and convictions? They believe women should all think the same way and vote along their ideological agenda, in effect, giving up their vote. They deserve it you see and women are helpless and hapless victims, unable to achieve equality without their nanny state aid – or so they would have women believe, through the lies they have perpetuated for generations.

The lies have been countless, but, thankfully they are now being exposed. The true beliefs of Democrats regarding women are also being exposed, yet they are pitifully and desperately clinging to the false claims of being For The Women. Just yesterday, the DNC sent out an email daring to compare the myth of a wage gap, and other busy work issues that they toss over to women, with the Suffrage Movement. Instead of rejoicing over the fact that in this country men and women are equal, they continue to further myths and propagate lies in an attempt to shroud women in a cloak of victim-hood.  They’ve gone so far as to scrub reports from the Labor Department itself that shatter this myth:

CONSAD found that controlling for career interruption and other factors reduced the pay gap from about 20 percent to about 5 percent. Data limitations prevented it from considering many other factors. For example, the data did not permit an examination of total compensation, which would examine health insurance and other benefits, and instead focused solely on wages paid. The data were also limited with respect to work experience, job tenure, and other factors.

The Labor Department’s conclusion was that the gender pay gap was the result of a multitude of factors and that the “raw wage gap should not be used as the basis for [legislative] correction. Indeed, there may be nothing to correct. The differences in raw wages may be almost entirely the result of individual choices being made by both male and female workers.”

Huh. I wonder why they scrubbed it? Doesn’t really fit with the woe-is-us agenda, does it? Even more infuriating to the left than having “inequality” lies uncovered is the fact that some women don’t believe that their liberation is tied to their uterus. Instead, they value what is created in that uterus. They value life itself. Of late, this has sparked a storm of stompy foot temper tantrums from the left, especially the faux-feminists/femisogynists therein who have taken the miracle of life, that only we can create, and have made it expendable. On purpose. As such, articles galore sprung up demanding that pro-life women not be considered feminists – and how dare they even consider themselves as such!  A woman who particularly irks them to the point of losing their already slim grasp on sanity is Sarah Palin. She confronts them head on in her latest facebook posting, in honor of the 90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment. And she reminds them of a little fact that they often overlook – the original feminists were pro-life.

The earliest leaders of the women’s movement, when one was needed, were Pro-Life. Pro-Life is Pro-Woman. Susan B. Anthony was Pro-Life, as was one of the authors of the original Equal Rights Amendment. I’ll refresh the memories of  those on the left who seek to marginalize and, for all intents and purposes, disenfranchise women: her name was Alice Paul and she said “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.” She was, and is, right. Not only have women been exploited and harmed by the diminishing of motherhood and the devaluation of life, but they are also being exploited by those who use abortion as a way to keep women in line. Don’t let those pesky women speak or even think for themselves! Scare them into believing that the only reason they aren’t oppressed chattel is because they can legally kill their unborn children!

Not only have they attempted to teach women to resent their basic anatomy and biology, but they’ve reduced women to wombs only. And if you aren’t focused on keeping that womb “punishment” free, then there is something wrong with you and you must be “checked” before being allowed to vote, as was suggested by Democrat Representative Janis Sontany:

At a Democratic gathering over the weekend, Sontany said of women Republican state lawmakers: “You have to lift their skirts to find out if they are women. You sure can’t find out by how they vote!” State GOP chairman Chris Devaney quickly issued a press release calling her comment “inappropriate and disrespectful” and demanding that various Democrats denounce Sontany.

Funny, but I think that is a good thing. Why would I be able to tell what gender a person is by their vote?  Unlike Democrats, I don’t believe that women should vote based on myths, falsities and agendas that actually harm them and their families. I don’t believe women should throw themselves on the pyre of liberal policy, harmful to both themselves and their families, to prove some kind of gender cred. That’s the opposite of equality and it is the antithesis of the Woman’s Suffrage Movement. In fact, it spits in the face of all who fought for, and achieved, equality.

Democrats do not empower women, but rather exploit them.They try to play the victim card incessantly, but , in reality, they are the victimizers. Victimizers who now seek a form of reverse suffrage by either scaring women into voting blindly and in lock-step or by marginalizing women who refuse to do so. Well, guess what?

We ain’t marginalized. And we’ll see you in November.

Here’s to hoping that there will indeed be an escape from these shackles.

Why does something so right feel so wrong?

How can something so right (voting) feel so wrong?

It’s easy when it’s your first time to cast a vote in the Republican Party primary when all your life you’ve been a staunch Democrat (or at least a loyal one).

I felt so dirty, so naked and disloyal asking for my ballot and marking the “Republican” check box in front of a Black  men  and women old enough to be my grandparents.   He said nothing to me, though I’m fairly sure that he and they were all Democrats… which is not a difficult guess given the demographics in the room: older, Black.  They’ve probably voted for Democrats longer than I’ve been alive and I’m sure that the election of Barack Obama as president was something none of them imagined possible in their lifetimes.

I felt a bit dirty as I shuffled from one foot to the other; impatiently waiting while the ancient Black woman in front of me was helped to use the voting machine first by a poll worker who was himself in not much better physical condition than she and then (probably illegally) by another voter, also Black but younger.    I stepped up and handed the voting machine operator my card, hoping she would just program the machine and say nothing.

“You’re a Republican?”

I mumbled something resembling yes in a tone that betrayed my embarrassed desire to not really have to answer that question.

“I have to ask,” she said.

Well she didn’t really have to ask I suppose since it was plainly marked on my voting card, or maybe she did.  I don’t remember ever being asked before if I was a Democrat.  I just think she was surprised or maybe wanted to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake by marking the wrong box on the card.  I could see why she would be concerned about that;  I’m sure mine was one of the few Republican ballots they’d seen that day and certainly one of the very few cast by a Black man.

I stood shakily in front of the touch screen,  feeling conspicuous and vulnerable as I struggled to pretend not to overhear the conversation between the ancient woman on my left and the younger woman who was helping her understand the voting machine.

“Is this what I push?“

“Well these are the choices.  Yes… you push the button next to the one you want.”

“The Democratic ones?”

“Yes, these are Democrats.  Now this next screen is where you vote for the judges.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that…”

And so it went as I went page by page through the ballot searching for the names of candidates I’d heard of and realizing how many uncontested offices there are with only “Democrat” and “Write-In” listed as options.  Resisting the temptation to write my own name in one of the ballot lines, I skipped over those, voted for an independent candidate instead of the Democrat in one race, hoping that they are independent on the right rather than the left but also figuring that a loony moon-bat but independent leftist is probably better than a Democrat.  I voted to recall two judges, neither of whom I knew anything about, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to throw someone out of office for a change, just like it’s sometimes just a good idea to buy new carpet even if the old one isn’t quite worn out yet.

And then it was done.

I hurriedly left the polling place knowing I’d done my civic duty, but feeling dirty none the less.

How can something so right feel so wrong?

Ahhhhhh…..I can’t hear you, I can’t you, I can’t hear you!

Cute in a kid. Not so cute in adults.

We’ve all seen little kids do it.  Stick their fingers in their ears when they hear something that they would rather ignore, usually accompanied by a whining, “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you, lalalalalala.”  It’s understandable in a kid.  Annoying perhaps, but not really anything to be shocked or surprised by. If it is our child, we are careful to correct them.  If it is the child of another, we shake our heads perhaps  in a bit of embarrassment for the parent whose child is throwing a tantrum, or disgust that the parent isn’t correcting the child.  In any case though, we recognize it as the behavior of a child.

In the case of an adult though, well…I would venture to say that most of us wouldn’t expect such behavior from adults unless they have some sort of mental disability, or incapacity that keeps their level of reason and understanding on the level of a child.  In these cases we may feel pity rather than annoyance, and perhaps some bit of sorrow at the vagaries of fate.  We would smile nervously and rush on to whatever else we were doing, or maybe turn our faces away so as not to be embarrassed by our lack of knowing just what is the right thing to do in such situations.

But what can we do when it is neither a child nor a mentally disabled adult who acts this way?  When it is someone of reasonable intelligence, educated perhaps in good schools and who displays all the markings of being mature and rational…

until it comes to politics and race.

Somehow the reasoned, rational, mature people we know are transformed into unreasonable, irrational, immature children who metaphorical (and sometimes literally) scream, “lalalalalalalala…. I can’t hear you!!” when confronted with the facts about leftist political posturing and race baiting.

Recently a friend of mine posted a comment on her facebook that said, in essence, that she was tired of all the racist tea party people.  She mentioned the incident where tea party people allegedly spat on a Congressman and called him racial names, she mentioned the Shirley Sherrod incident, and finally she said that the tea party is just a bunch of angry white people.

Unfortunately I departed from my normal reticence and asked what evidence she had for any of these claims.  Unsurprisingly she had none, but responded via private message that she felt the President was skittish on race

Angry mob of white tea partiers

because he doesn’t want to confront the right wing and that the tea party is just a bunch of angry white people who are mad that the country is different than it was 20-30 years ago and who are offended that their values of individualism and ‘pulling yourself up by your bootstraps’ are being trampled on.

I responded with facts: the demographics of the tea party, the swift repudiation of Williams for his silly letter, and the irony of her condemnation of an entire group of people based on race.  I also mentioned that it is quite the strategy of the left to shut down (and shout down) any discussion of the merits of an issue by crying RACISM.  In fact it really doesn’t matter what the issue is, whether it is good for Blacks or not, or even if it is promulgated by Blacks.  If it is different than the party line, it is racist.

Of course it doesn’t matter.  Her mind is made up, and no amount of facts, figures, statistics or reason will make any difference.  Conservatives are by definition, racists.  And if you’re black and conservative, then you’re deluded at best or an Uncle Tom.

So she didn’t respond to any of the facts, and there are plenty more to go on.  The fact that Blacks have largely given their vote and support to Democrat Socialists for 40 years and are absolutely no better off than they were is irrelevant.  The fact that the policies of the left have caused absolute devastation in the Black family and community (not to mention everyone else, but we’re talking Black folks for now), is irrelevant.  That a biracial president is presiding over the highest Black unemployment rate in decades is irrelevant.  That Black political leaders are inured from the consequences of the policies they promulgate is irrelevant.  All that matters is the color of one’s politics: RED.

How can a people ever be free while living with their finger stuck in their ears about the things that matter most?  Americans, educated in government run schools are fed a steady diet of leftist propaganda that is designed to place the blame for ever ill somewhere else.  Black Americans in particular are taught to despise the US and to place their faith in the same government that tramples their rights.  What will it take for us to wake up to this kind of shallow pandering and ignorant propagandizing?

Elena Kagan and other tragedies

The new face of justice

Obama’s latest obamination is his nomination of another “wise” woman to the United States Supreme Court.  By now, much has been written about how thoroughly unqualified, unoriginal (and incidentally unattractive) this nominee is.  She is a hack in the worse sense of the word and can be counted on, when nominated, to serve as a rubber stamp for the very worst of far leftists socialist ideals of what the United States is supposed to be rather than being faithful to honor her oath to defend the Constitution.

Now this is not especially unexpected.  Obama is a far leftist, and can be expected to nominate those who share his philosophy to the bench.  It is also unexpected that Dean Kagan will be confirmed.  What is likewise unexceptional is that most Republicans will find themselves bound by some vague idea of honor, bipartisanship, and camaraderie and vote to confirm this woman to the court despite the fact that she is not only manifestly unqualified, but that she will actively work against the very things Republicans claim to be for.  In fact, Sen. Lindsay Graham has already voted to advance her nomination to the floor from the Senate Judiciary Committee where is serves as resident go-along to get-along Republican of “elections have consequences” fame.

What is rather odd, and in my view unforgivable is Graham’s assertion that, “she will serve this nation honorably.”  Graham must have a rather strange notion of honor!

It is no honorable thing to give an oath before God in the presence of witnesses to uphold the sacred trust of defending the Constitution when one knows that is the further thing from the intention in one’s heart.  There was arguably more honor among the warriors of World War II Imperial Japan whose loyalty was pledged to the Emperor and many of whom died defending that pledge of loyalty even though much of what happened in the war was dishonorable indeed.  It is certainly not honorable to lie boldly in confirmation hearings by saying what one knows the listeners want to hear.

The entire charade of Senate confirmation hearings lacks the entertainment value of any stage play.  There is no tension, no drama, no unexpected twists or turns, and everyone knows exactly what the verdict will be: Confirmation.  At least that’s the case when the Democrats are in power.  When they are out of power, they through sticks, stones, unearth skeletons and do whatever is necessary to clog the machinery of governance and get their way.  And often Republicans join them.

Our Republic has little hope of survival when so called Republicans like Sen. Graham employ such facile reasoning to such weighty issues.  Yes, Sen. Graham, elections have consequences.  And you, no less than the President have a responsibility to uphold the Constitution and vote against confirmation for those would be judges who refuse to do so.

“Pass the bill to find out what’s in it..” Except they knew what was in it

Well it seems the democrats are up to their old shenanigans yet again.  After Nancy Pelosi famously opined that we needed to pass the monstrous health “care” legislation in order to find out what was in it, it turns out that the Democrats already knew what the effects would be. From Gateway Pundit:

More hope and change–
A damning health care report generated by actuaries at the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department was given to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius more than a week before the health care vote. She hid the report from the public until a month after democrats rammed their nationalized health care bill through Congress.

The results from the report were troubling. The report released by Medicare and Medicaid actuaries shows that medical costs will skyrocket rising $389 billion 10 years. 14 million will lose their employer-based coverage. Millions of Americans will be left without insurance. And, millions more may be dumped into the already overwhelmed Medicaid system. 4 million American families will be hit with tax penalties under this new law.

Of course, these were ALL things that President Obama and Democratic leaders assured us would not happen.

Not to mention they were things that the regular folks also knew would happen.  But nothing must stand in the way of Hope N’ Change!

So it seems the administration itself was aware of the issue and push this legislation anyway, just so Obama could have his win.

Not only will costs go up, but it seems that many employers may find it much easier to simply dump their insurance coverage (particularly for retirees) and pay the fines, funneling millions into an already overstretched Medicare system:  (My apologies in advance for linking to the New York Slimes!):

Under another provision, employers may be subject to financial penalties if they do not offer health insurance to employees. Documents provided to Congress by AT&T indicate that its medical costs in 2009 were $4.7 billion, divided about equally between active employees and retirees — far more than it would pay in penalties if it did not provide coverage.

Verizon said it was taking a $970 million charge against earnings because of the change in tax treatment of a subsidy it receives for retiree drug coverage. In addition, Verizon said it could be affected by a new tax on high-cost health plans that takes effect in 2018.

“Many of the plans that Verizon offers to employees and retirees are projected to have costs above the thresholds in the legislation and will be subject to the 40 percent excise tax,” the company told employees.

In a general analysis of the new law, Verizon said, “To avoid additional costs and regulations, employers may consider exiting the employer health market and send employees” to state-run insurance exchanges, where people can buy insurance.

A Caterpillar executive made a similar point in an e-mail message to colleagues, saying the tax changes could “drive many employers to just drop coverage for retirees altogether, and let the government foot the whole bill.”

Uh huh.  Just like everyone (with a scintilla of intelligence) said it would.

Well this seems like a bad thing doesn’t it?  And it is until you realize that this will provide the Socialist Democrat party just the excuse it needs to ratchet up even more changes in the health care system, ultimately resulting in a “public option” that will soon become the only option, especially for those too poor to buy their way to better health.  And that ladies and gentleman is the ultimate game plan.

“I like my tea Black”

There’s been a great deal of noise being made on the increasingly frantic left about the rapid rise of “Tea Parties” in the American political consciousness.  Reporters from the so-called mainstream media cannot seem to stop themselves from focusing relentlessly on the ethnic composition of the varied groups that make up the tea partiers, and spend inordinate amounts of time looking for the supposedly  hidden racism that at any moment will result in the production of white sheets and nooses.  How soon they forget that such implements are the exclusive province of the Democrat Party?

In any event, while I can’t say that I’ve been a participant at any “Tea Party,” I am certainly sympathetic to their goals and find the hostility they arouse on the part of both the Republican and Democrat political establishment rather funny.  I can also say that certainly in my lifetime I do not recall such a wide spread, grassroots, and persistent movement developing.  I hesitate to compare it to the Civil Rights Era, but there are certainly parallels.  And as we know, the Civil Rights Era utterly upended the existing socio-political order.

Are these tea party people racist?  My guess is that they are not, at least not in any way that really matters.  Mostly they are simply regular people who dislike the direction in which the country is headed under the current administration.  Frankly many of them were dissatisfied with the country’s direction long before Barack Obama was elected, but if G.W. Bush’s spending could be compared to a mild marijuana addiction, BHO’s is a meth infused, heroin laced, crack cocaine binge the likes of which this country has never seen.  This is not good for our country, and most definitely is harmful to Black Americans, many of whom continue to bear the brunt of the decidedly illiberal, statist, and frankly racist policies of the left.  Of course no one wants to acknowledge that tea partiers are demographically just about like the rest of the country:

Are the tea partiers afraid of the president because he’s Black?  I’ll let this video answer that one:

I may be conservative… but I’m still Black

Conservative AND Black

In my political journey from idealistic stalwart Democrat to die-hard conservative, I have paid little price for my convictions, chiefly because I tend to keep my political opinions to myself and don’t really feel like arguing with ill-informed people who will naturally doubt my Black “bonafides” if I publicly admit my conservative position.  The neighborhood Black barbershop is not really the place you want to advertise your political views too openly unless you have the stomach and the patience for being viewed as an Uncle Tom.  Unlike my fellow former ex-PUMA compatriot Afrocity, my little blog doesn’t attract the ire of those seeking to either educate or vilify me.  She is, after all, a double traitor to the Democratic political plantation, being both Black and a Woman.  Surely she must be either dreadfully deluded or deliciously deranged… and those are the nicer things that are said of her.   She says so well what many think of Black conservatives / Republicans:

Ooops.  I’ ve gone and lost my blackness again.  Where did it go? I am a racist too.  Now, according to this brutha, I can no longer call myself Afrocity.  The statement above is self-explanatory when it comes to illustrating how African Americans place restrictions on one another in terms of political freedom.  On the blackness radar, the bias is in favor of black Democrats. Anything else, is an imitation.

Yup… according the prevailing ideology that dominates the media, academia, political discourse, cultural memes, the NAACP, and any and all voices that somewhere somehow feel they have some right to define what Black is, being a conservative or failing to tow the party line is only possible if you hand in your Black card.

The Black Card is immediately declined for those with conservative non-approved thoughts

Unfortunately for them, I am Black whether they like it or not.    One of the true triumphs of the Civil Rights movement is that no one gets to decide for me who I am, where I can go, where I can eat, and where I stop to pee!  I’m certainly not going to allow all the marching, praying, firehose facing, singing, petitioning, crying, and working that my parents and grandparents did be essentially wasted by spitting on their sacrifice by shutting down the very good brain God gave me and allowing myself to have an identity foisted upon me because of the color of my skin and the history of my people.

I remember walking into the house one day as a child chanting loudly (who knows where I heard it), “Say it loud!  I’m Black and I’m proud.” Strong words and needed words from the Godfather of Soul, James Brown who helped redeem and recapture the God-given beauty of what it meant to be Black.  For those who don’t know, to be called BLACK was largely a pejorative term in those days among Black people.  The worse thing a child could be (especially if she were a girl) was BLACK and have nappy hair, and God only help her if she was “heavyset.”  The word BLACK spewed from snarled Negro lips with a combination of pity and disdain that is hard for some to imagine.  “Oooh that girl is so BLACK!“ And what passed for a compliment, “She’s pretty to be so BLACK!”

It was an empowering thing to Say it loud! I’m Black and I’m proud! except my mother, in her inimitable way stopped us in our tracks.  She said to us flatly and matter of factly, “You didn’t have anything to do with being Black.  Do something with yourself and then you can be proud of that.”  Well that shut our chanting down and her words have stuck with me until today.

Did my mother have some residual self-hate that she projected onto us?  Was she somehow in denial of the beauty of her own Blackness?  It would be hard to argue that a woman who would one day doff a bouffant wig and the next day leave the house with her neatly cut natural hair with her boys and husband all decked out in dashiki’s she made for

The Race Card: Just because I haven't played it doesn't mean I can't!

them felt any particular disdain for Black beauty and culture.  What was more profound was rather that being Black was for her just a thing.  The history of overcoming oppression and discrimination was something to be celebrated to be sure, but race was never a card to be played as an excuse for slovenly or slothful behavior.

But there is a word of caution here also for my fellow conservatives of the non-ethnic minority variety.    The reason I embrace conservatism is not because I have somehow adopted a color-blind, America is great, racism is a thing of the past lens of our nation.  My ethnicity matters to me a lot and the chief thing that draws me to conservative thought is that I see it as the best way to finally free my people, BLACK people, from the oppressive chains of tyrannical do-gooderism that has been the bane of our existence since we were first forcibly brought to these shores.  I do not agree with race husksters who make their living pedaling grievance and victimhood, but there are indeed real barriers, racial, economic, and cultural to the idea of bootstrapping one’s way into the middle class.

It is not easy nor empowering to live one’s life when the totality of imagery you see of yourself in popular media is negative.  Conservatism and the Republican Party are not served well by being represented over and again by men who’s accents remind us too readily and easily of those same Southern sheriffs who blocked school room doors, and when your economic history includes always having an unemployment rate that is at recession levels, there certainly is not a lot of audience for the idea of cutting taxes for those who seem to already have it made.

The history of Blacks in this country has been the history of struggle, almost perpetually.  And while I know that conservative approaches to economics and cultural issues offer the best solution for what ails, I also know that it feels insulting when I’m told to somehow “forget” my race and view myself only as an American when race has been the defining reality of my people’s collective life since we’ve arrived.  For better or worse (and as a conservative I say for worse)the federal government has been the chief guarantor and benefactor of Black Americans in this country. When private employers offered disparate pay, the federal government did not.  When other places were segregated, the federal government was the first to desegregate.  And when advocates of states’ rights and individualism were standing in school house doors railing against the overreaching power of the federal government, it was those same feds showed up. Conservatives will never tap into the wellspring of natural conservative leaning Black people unless and until that history, and the current reality, is addressed.