A Trump Presidency Is The Best Option for African Americans

Posted on September 28, 2016 by DarkKnight3565

trumpheadTo the surprise of very many, Donald Trump is actually doing great with African American voters.

Of course “great” is a relative term. Mr. Trump is no threat to win a majority or even a plurality of the Black vote. But according to the LA Times tracking poll, as of September 21st Mr. Trump’s support among Blacks is at 19.6% nationally, very nearly at the 20-25% point where writer Deroy Murdock claimed would be “curtains for the Democrats.”

In certain state polls, Donald Trump has polled even better. In a recent Trafalgar Group poll, as of September 14th, Trump is winning 26% of the Black vote in South Carolina. And on August 24th a Florida Atlantic University saw Trump at 20% popularity among Floridian Blacks, a 400% increase over the percentage of the Black vote Mitt Romney and 67% over the percent Rick Scott won in 2012.

To further underline these numbers, consider that in presidential elections after 1960 Republican candidates have won only 10.15% of the African American vote. Since and including the 2000 election Republican candidates have won only 7.25% of the Black vote. These are disastrous numbers for the GOP even if they won in 2000 and 2004. As Deroy Murdock pointed out after the 2012 election in which Governor Romney only lost by 3.8 percentage points, even a marginal increase in his Black support in certain key states – from 3% to 5% in Ohio, for example – may have won Mitt Romney the presidency, with barely an uptick in support from White voters.

Much credit should be given to the Trump campaign for making an effort to reach the Black voter, as opposed to other GOP presidential candidates who even when they did seek the Black vote – say, give an obligatory NAACP speech for example – gave the impression of ‘getting it out of the way’ reminiscent of a child wolfing down his broccoli so that he can get to his mac and cheese.

But what makes these numbers even more interesting is that they are for a candidate many consider to be racist. True, it would be a challenge to find a living Republican who has not been smeared as a racist at some point – including most Black Republicans – but the charge does seem to have a bit more credibility than usual, particularly because of the early 70s lawsuits in which the Trumps were charged with discriminating against Blacks seeking to rent property from them. (These charges, it should be pointed out, were settled without an admission of guilt, and seemed to reflect business practices from Donald’s father Fred that were very common in NYC in real estate and employment agencies, even when I moved in NYC more than a decade later.)

Yet if Donald Trump is a racist,, or was a racist, it has been the history of African American voting that this may matter very little. If the candidates’ racism was pivotal to African Americans when deciding for whom to vote, Lyndon Johnson – who according to several historians and witnesses used the “n-word” as frequently as Captain Marvel yells “Shazam!” – would not have won 94% of the Black vote against Barry Goldwater, founding member of the Arizona chapter of the NAACP.

Rather than race, many 20th century Black voters – sandwiched as they were between the injustices of slavery and Jim Crow laws – sought justice in the form of Leftist economic policies. Progressive redistribution of wealth became in a sense the primary civil right for many Black voters, as the yearning for economic equality surpassed the want for social or political equality.

W.E.B. DuBois joined the Socialist Party in 1911 and the Communist Party in 1961, Paul Robertson became an advocate for the Soviet Union in 1934, and Dr. Martin Luther King said in a 1965 speech “Call it democracy or call it Democratic Socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.” All three serve as good examples of the Black mindset that saw 71% of Blacks vote for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936 and never fail to deliver less than 61% of its vote to the more Progressive presidential candidate in every election since.

Even many of the Black Republicans between the New Deal to the Reagan Revolution proved to be an easy audience for the Left. The most prominent African American elected official during this time for example was Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke. Senator Brooke was indeed a great and popular political figure, but it is telling that the claim that naming him as Gerald Ford’s running mate would guarantee Ford’s victory came not from the Republican Party but from Jesse Jackson.

More telling, the American Conservative Union (ACU), which ranks congressmen on their conservatism on a 0-100 scale, gives Senator Tim Scott a lifetime rating of 96, and gives Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders lifetime ratings of 10, 8, and 6 respectively. In 1976 Senator Brooke’s ACU rating was 3. Only Senators Tim Kaine and Tammy Baldwin are considered more liberal than Senator Brooke in the current Senate.

While many of Republican presidential candidate, and recent speeches from Trump himself sound as though they were written by the Heritage Foundation, very few consider Trump as less than a Progressive-at-heart. Even as a GOP candidate Trump has argued for government controlled universal healthcare, higher taxes for the rich, a higher minimum wage, penalties for companies wishing to relocate to a tax-friendlier nations, continued funding for Planned Parenthood, and so on. Even his mantra “I will fix it” – invoking increased presidential powers – is as rooted in Progressivism as “Yes We Can!”

That Trump is largely a Progressive is to his advantage in courting the Black vote. But ironically it is his Conservative views – assuming that they are heartfelt – that makes him the best candidate for African Americans.

One issue that demonstrates my assertion is abortion, which Trump promises to oppose. Abortion has become so epidemic in the Black community that its effects has become akin to a slow genocide of Black people. As Pastor Walter E. Hoye points out “The Total Fertility Rate for Black American’s is 1.8, which is again below the replacement level fertility rate of 2.1 or the rate at which a generation can replace itself. Clearly, abortion is the biggest single negative force on Black American growth generally.” In other words, as Pastor Hoye demonstrates, Black population is not reproducing at a rate to sustain itself largely because one Black child is being aborted every 74 seconds in the U.S.

Another issue on which Trump takes the conservative (opposing) position is illegal immigration. In their 2009 paper, Immigration and the Economic Status of African-American Men, scholars George Borjas of Harvard, and Jeffrey Grogger and Gordon Hanson of the University of Chicago, present analysis that suggests that “a 10-percent immigration-induced increase in the supply of a particular skill group reduced the black wage by about 3 percent, lowered the employment rate of black men by about 5 percentage points, and increased the incarceration rate of blacks by one percentage point.”

Even open-border advocates routinely concede that their policy would hurt the poor. Professor Bryan Caplan – a former AACONS guest – wrote in his paper, Why Should We Restrict Immigration? that, “Under open borders, low-skilled wages are indeed likely to fall” and “Immigration makes low-skilled natives worse off.” Well, one can argue for or against Caplan’s assertion that the benefits of open-borders would outweigh the damage such a policy would do to “low-skilled natives”, but there can be no argument against the realization that a disproportionate number of these natives will be Black.

Donald Trump has also been what too many politicians attempting to appeal to Black votes have been afraid to be – an advocate for law and order. Here is his answer to the ‘racial divide’ from his first debate with Hillary Clinton:

Secretary Clinton doesn’t want to use a couple of words, and that’s law and order. And we need law and order. If we don’t have it, we’re not going to have a country.

We have a situation where we have our inner cities, African- Americans, Hispanics are living in hell because it’s so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot.

In Chicago, they’ve had thousands of shootings, thousands since January 1st. Thousands of shootings. And I’m saying, where is this? Is this a war-torn country? What are we doing? And we have to stop the violence. We have to bring back law and order. In a place like Chicago, where thousands of people have been killed, thousands over the last number of years, in fact, almost 4,000 have been killed since Barack Obama became president, over — almost 4,000 people in Chicago have been killed. We have to bring back law and order.

Now, whether or not in a place like Chicago you do stop and frisk, which worked very well, Mayor Giuliani is here, worked very well in New York. It brought the crime rate way down. But you take the gun away from criminals that shouldn’t be having it.

We have gangs roaming the street. And in many cases, they’re illegally here, illegal immigrants. And they have guns. And they shoot people. And we have to be very strong. And we have to be very vigilant.

Right now, our police, in many cases, are afraid to do anything. We have to protect our inner cities, because African-American communities are being decimated by crime, decimated.

Quite is quite a contrast with Hillary Clinton, who is so timid in her support of law and order that she refused to seek the endorsement of the National Fraternal Order of Police.

Trump asks in his appeal to Black voters “What do you have to lose?” Perhaps the question should be “How much do you have to gain by supporting me?” It is assumed in many African American political circles that the more Progressive a candidate is, the more pro-Black he or she will surely be. However, I would argue the precise opposite, that the more Conservative a candidate is, the better he or she will be for the African American community. And as Trump is the most conservative candidate in the race, it profits African Americans to support him.

One should pray however that the last 70 days or so of Trump’s espousal of Conservatism offsets the previous 70 or so years of his Progressivism, and that his election would not be the death knell of true Conservatism.

– DK

 

Posted in Community, Current events/topics, Elections, GOP/RNC | Leave a comment

AACONS Published at American Thinker

Posted on August 13, 2016 by AACONS

at-painterAfrican-American Conservatives (AACONS) did something a little different with our latest article: we published it at American Thinker. The reaction wasn’t quite what we expected, but we were thankful for the opportunity to spread our wings a bit.

 

Posted in Activism, Activism/Advocacy, Attacks from the Left, Cultural, Current events/topics, DNC/Democrats, Media & Media Bias, Race/Racism/Race Relations, racism | Leave a comment

Will Blacks Be Included in Trump’s GOP?

Posted on July 22, 2016 by DarkKnight3565

GOPIn a National Review piece, one of my favorite political writers, Deroy Murdock, once commented that, “Republicans need not win the Black vote, or even a third of it. Securing 15 percent of the Black electorate severely erodes the stalwart-Democrat base. If 20 to 25 percent of Blacks vote GOP, it’s curtains for Democrats.”

This comment has stayed with me since, and I have used it often in my writing for AACONS. I think that if I was a political consultant for the Republican Party, the day I was told that by simply increasing the percentage of the Black vote won from 6% (which Romney got in 2012) to as little as 20% the GOP could guarantee itself victory in every national election, would be a very happy one for me. I would schedule all the candidates under my purview to as many events before a Black audience as possible, then go retire to some nice beach somewhere.

Certainly it can be done. I, like many, but most famously PBS host Tavis Smiley have observed, “Black folk, in the era of Obama, have lost ground in every major economic category.”

In fact, economic conditions for Blacks have regressed so much that if the President’s complexion more closely matched his mother’s rather than his father’s, Kanye West would be on TV saying Obama did not care for Black people.

As economist Peter Morici wrote for Fox.com:

On Mr. Obama’s watch, African-American family incomes are down by about $2,200, while those for Hispanics and Asian-Americans are up $800 and $2,100, respectively. The wealth gap with Whites has widened tremendously, and African-Americans have regained far fewer of the jobs lost in the Great Recession than other Americans. African-Americans are disproportionately saddled with student loans after dropping out of college after a few years or earning a degree that hardly imparts the skills necessary to earn a living. President Obama was elected on the promise to create greater economic justice but for African-Americans conditions have become decidedly worse.

As economic conditions for Blacks regress under Democratic leadership, the audience within the Black community who would be receptive to Republican policies should be expanding. How foolish is it then for Republicans to not attempt to reach them?

In 2014, AACONS’ Co-Founder and radio show moderator, Marie Stroughter, asked Newt Gingrich what advice he had for Republican candidates in 2016 to build upon the inroads into the Black vote some saw by the GOP that year.

Gingrich responded:

I would say that every Republican candidate should look at what Governor John Kasich has done. Kasich from Ohio has gone into the community. I emphasize inclusion rather than outreach. Outreach is sitting on the outside waiting for someone in the meeting to call you. Inclusion is when you’re in the meeting. Kasich was endorsed by the largest African American newspaper in Ohio. He got 26% of the Black vote, probably the high water mark for the last 50 years for Ohio Republicans. He has continued to do it and he does it the old-fashioned way. He goes into the community. He sits down and works with people. He listens to small business owners. He listens to preachers. He listens to mothers and fathers. He is passionate about every American having their God given right to pursue happiness. He actually means it. .… As you well know, if we can get 26 – 40% of the African American vote in 2016 we would win the election decisively and it would be a historic moment. I believe Kasich has begun to figure out an approach that honest, that’s inclusive, that solves problems, and that people would pay attention to and respond to.

Yet, we are now in 2016 and see very little of the approach John Kasich used to such great success in Ohio being emulated at a national level by the GOP, and certainly not by the Trump campaign.

Donald Trump has, for example, turned down invitations to speak at the NAACP annual convention, and has further alienated Black voters by tweeting smears against Blacks, such as the claim that 81 percent of White homicide victims are killed by Blacks. His bizarre refusal to denounce KKK Grand Wizard David Duke on national television also still confuses many would-be Black Trump supporters — especially because he had denounced Duke not long prior. The Progressive media has put “Trump’s Racist Past” stories in such heavy rotation, it’s as if they were disc jockeys and these stories were the latest Adele single.

The recent GOP convention provides another illustrative example of the Republican Party’s increasing disregard for the Black vote. Out of 2,474 delegates, only 18 were Black. One can hardly be serious about obtaining 20% of the vote from 13% of the population when that population only represents 0.7 percent of your party’s delegates.

To put this number in perspective, let’s recall the famous Romney Christmas picture that was mocked on MSNBC because of how the one Black grandchild stood out while surrounded by 22 White grandchildren. A comedian even joked that the picture “really sums up the diversity of the Republican party, the RNC.” Not quite. For this picture to truly represent the diversity of the Republican Party (as evidenced by its delegates) Romney’s Black grandchild would have to be not one out of 23 White grandchildren, but rather one out of nearly 140.

It is worth noting that while the convention did feature several African American speakers such as Dr. Ben Carson, senatorial candidate Darryl Glenn, and Sheriff David Clarke, many others — such as Lt. Col. Allen West, who in my view rivals Dr. Thomas Sowell as the nation’s most prominent Black Conservative — were not invited to speak, or even asked to attend.

Even more infuriating to African American conservatives than the sparsity of Black delegates is the refusal of the Trump campaign to consider an African American vice-presidential pick. According to Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, “that would be viewed as pandering.”

Of course if Trump did “pander” by selecting an African American as his running mate, that person selected would hardly be the first running mate selected to pander to one group or the other. Most picks selected to be a running mate are done so in the hope that he or she would appeal to certain demographic, whether that demographic is determined by age, religion, or locality, or so on, down the list. In fact, Trump picked Governor Pence to be his running mate largely to pander to #NeverTrump conservatives.

Yet, though both parties pander to certain groups in their pick of running mates, when it comes to Blacks, many Republicans behave like a pretty high school girl who is still dateless a week before the prom, yet refuses to flirt with any potential escorts, thinking that everyone should recognize her cuteness, and, if anyone doesn’t, it’s their loss.

Besides, even if it was pandering, it would be a pretty good effort. To return to Allen West for a moment, as popular a ticket as Trump-Pence might be, a Trump-West may be as popular, or even more so.

92% of poll takers at TheTruthTakers.com said that Trump-West would be “a fantastic ticket.” In a similar poll USAPoliticsToday.com 97% said they would support Allen West as Trump’s Vice-President.

Allen West is a brilliant speaker, has over two decades of military experience, two Master’s degrees, is a solid conservative, and was a Congressman from Florida where Trump is currently losing to Hillary Clinton. His selection would have undermined the Democratic strategy of portraying Trump as a racist, and would have likely increased Trump’s popularity among Blacks.

If Allen West was not considered to be Trump’s running mate because of the color of his skin, as I suspect based upon Manafort’s remark, it smacks of the worst kind of discrimination.

Of course no running mate or number of Black delegates is going to increase Donald Trump’s standing in the Black community without effort from Trump himself. Although we have seen very little such effort from him until now, his nomination speech at the GOP convention gave encouraging signs that he is moving in a positive direction.

Said Mr. Trump in his speech, “When I am President, I will work to ensure that all of our kids are treated equally, and protected equally. Every action I take, I will ask myself: does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Ferguson who have the same right to live out their dreams as any other child in America?”

Such overtures may exemplify what Gingrich meant by outreach to Blacks rather than inclusion, but it sets a tone that many welcome from the Republican nominee.

– DK

 

Posted in Current events/topics, Elections, GOP/RNC, Race/Racism/Race Relations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Allen West Snubbed by #RNCinCLE

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Marie Stroughter

Allen.MarieLast night I learned that Conservative firebrand and icon, Allen West, has not been invited to speak at #RNCinCLE. This information comes directly from LTC West himself. He further stated that not only was he not approached about speaking at the 2016 RNC Convention next week in Cleveland, he was not invited to speak in 2012, when 1) he was an elected official, and 2) where the convention was being held in his (then) home state of FL.

Beyond that, LTC West attests that he and his wife, Dr. Angela Graham-West, were not even offered tickets to the Presidential debate in 2012, when held at Lynn University, which is in the District he represented.

This is the Party of Lincoln, who freed the slaves. The Party of Frederick Douglass who stated, “I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress;” and, “I recognize the Republican party as the sheet anchor of the colored man’s political hopes and the ark of his safety.”  This is the Party that had Black Republicans in Congress right after slavery ended, whereas the Democrats did not until 70 years later. This is the Party that toiled to get Civil Rights legislation passed despite Democrat opposition – and yes, I’m aware a Democrat President signed it . . . a Democrat who said, “I’ll have those n*****rs voting Democrat for the next 200 years,” by the way. This is a Party whose values align with the Black community and oppose the genocide of our children, and the extermination of Black lives in the womb. This is the Party that wants to provide more school choice and educational opportunities, when our own President, a Black man, pulled the plug on the successful DC voucher program. Yet, despite the rise of Tim Scott, Mia Love, Allen West, Will Hurd and others . . . it comes to this.

Black staffers are leaving the RNC en masse. There are no solo Black hosts on FOX. And, now, look at the list of speakers at the RNC Convention in Cleveland.

A few years ago, Pat Buchanan told me on the AACONS radio show that RNC money “goes where the votes are,” and that’s not to Black communities. I pointed out how myopic this view is, in not better communicating ideals to a community whose values are so aligned, yet, time has borne out the truth of Mr. Buchanan’s statement.

When you are a political party that many believe to be racist and have two Caucasian men at the top of a ticket, and a speakers list that looks like a snowstorm in New York in January, despite a plethora of qualified Conservatives of color . . . yes, there is a problem.

I do not say this for “quota’s sake.” I say this because until the Party outwardly looks like the people it claims to serve, nothing will change. The first time I saw an interracial ad on TV, I did a double take, because it was so rare to see. Now I don’t bat an eye, because it’s commonplace. The same needs to happen with the GOP. We are diverse, and America needs to see this. Especially now, given the racial tensions in our country. With the behavior America sees playing out on TV screens everywhere – rioting, looting, and the like – the Country needs to see that not every Black man is a “thug,” or every Black woman is a “ghetto fabulous welfare queen.”

Black Conservatives have a hard lot. We are seen as “tokens” by the Left, “house Negroes” by the largely Democrat Black community, and the White Right tends to just trot us out to discuss racial issues, despite the fact that we have so many in our ranks who can address school choice, military affairs, fiscal issues and the like.

The fact that a highly decorated man, who has dedicated most of his life in service to his country would not be invited to speak at his Party’s convention is beyond insulting. Allen West goes viral just about every time he opens his mouth, and not only is he a skilled and sought after speaker . . . he is more than that. This is a man that is qualified to lead our country . . . a man who could (and should) be on the top of a ticket. And, he’s not even asked to speak?

Even though I am an Independent, and not a Republican, I often vote Republican because of the values so closely aligning to my beliefs as a Christian. But, this is my breakup letter. I am done. A group of high level Black Conservatives has put forth a proposal to shake things up and I am all in.

I am boycotting the Convention. I will not watch any of it on television. I am putting my energies into letting them know they blew it (again), and directing my energies into affecting change where it is welcomed, appreciated and necessary.

Many Blacks have been wary of the Republican Party and are #NeverGOP, but I’m saddened to see the GOP is increasingly #NeverBrown

– Marie

Posted in Current events/topics, GOP/RNC, Race/Racism/Race Relations | 12 Comments

Should Conservatives Vote For Donald Trump?

Posted on May 9, 2016 by DarkKnight3565
Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty

Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty

On May 3, 2016, not long after Senator Ted Cruz suspended his presidential campaign, Donald Trump gave a speech that was likely chilling to Conservatives already devastated by Cruz’s defeat.

In this speech —  that sounded as though it was being delivered by a king-in-waiting rather than by a presumptive Republican nominee — Donald Trump the First regally decreed:

We are not going to let these companies think they can do to another country, sell their products back to us, and we only get unemployment. Not going to happen. We are going to bring back our jobs and we are going to keep our jobs. We are not going to let companies leave. They want to go to a different state, good luck. When they go to different countries, countries that devalue their currency and make it impossible for our companies to compete, that is not going to happen. If they want to do it anyway, there will be consequences.

Although Conservatives may argue for incentives to, say, convince Ford to build their next auto plan in New Mexico rather than San Luis Potosí, Mexico, few things are more antithetical to Conservatism than the government using warnings of “consequences” to compel a private business to do so. Yet Trump shows no hesitation against issuing such threats. He feels similarly entitled to “take a look at” the minimum wage businesses are to be allowed to pay its employees, and even at the right a private homeowner has to keep his or her home if a private business believes it can make profitable use of the land where the home sits.

Clearly, Trump is no Conservative. Instead, his core political belief is Trumpism: a philosophy that is a mix of progressivism (with all of its inherent authoritarianism), and an overwhelming though somewhat unjustifiable confidence in his own abilities.

Whether or not Trump, say, funds Planned Parenthood, matters little to his supporters who are either devoid of political passions, or have abandoned whatever political principles they once had for the sake of being on ‘the winning team.’ As I wrote at LegalInsurrection.com for its popular, “Trump is the Nominee, What Now? Legal Insurrection Authors Debate” thread:

Like baseball fans who wear “My Favorite Team Is Whoever Is Playing The New York Yankees” t-shirts, seeing Hillary and the Dems defeated has become, to many, even more important than by whom or by what means they are so. It matters little to most Trump supporters that he holds or has held positions similar to Hillary’s views on almost every conceivable issue, or that a Trump administration would be surprising similar to a Hillary Clinton administration. What is of paramount importance is that Trump be the winner he has brilliantly marketed himself to be.

Trump has been a salesman most of his life. He is well-practiced in selling everything from mortgage companies to casinos to golf courses to multi-million dollar apartments to even steaks and bottled water. He is especially talented in selling his most important asset — himself. Like a holy man with a private helicopter, Trump has persuaded his devotees that through anything is possible. More than any set of beliefs he has, it is due to Trump’s ability to sell himself that Trump voters support him.

Conservatives are cut from a different cloth. We are not known to seek holy men, nor do we easily compromise our ideals. Progressive voters may look to someone to be “The One,” a political messiah to deliver them to their promised land, but Conservatives are principled voters who support candidates based upon their adherence to those principles. The more conservative the candidate is, the more we like her/him. And vice versa. Conservatives did not support Cruz because they were awed by his charisma and stump speeches. Conservatives supported Cruz because he was a conservative.

This distinction was best explained in Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America which states, “The mob characteristic most gustily exhibited by liberals is the tendency to idolize their political leaders, while considering ‘as enemies all by whom [their beliefs] are not accepted.’” The book also adds, “Conservatives … like Republicans, we like many things about Buckley, Reagan, and Goldwater. They’re not God. Not even Reagan.”

Ironically, the author of Demonic is none other than “conservative” Ann Coulter, who so idolizes Donald Trump that she tweeted that a foreign policy speech he delivered was the “GREATEST FOREIGN POLICY SPEECH SINCE WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS” almost before he had finished delivering it, and whose forthcoming book is rumored to be entitled, In Trump, We Trust.

If we are to be honest, it is not simply a matter of Trump’s campaign not being tethered to anything beyond Trump’s ability to self-promote and his progressive instinct that bothers Conservative voters. Frankly, Conservatives just don’t like him. According to recent data, 69% of Cruz supporters say they do not like Trump, and only 62% of them say they would vote for him. Amazingly, 13% of Cruz-ers — the most conservative voters in the country — say they would rather vote for Hillary Clinton than their presumptive nominee.

Much of this dislike of Trump is derived from how Trump treated these voters’ favorite candidate. For example, many supporters of Carly Fiorina – the people who put on the buttons and put up the lawn signs and sent $25 to her campaign – were as offended as Ms. Fiorina must have been to hear Trump mock her face. Such an insult will make it harder for them to place an X next to Trump’s name come November.

That’s why it was so interesting to see Newt Gingrich mock #NeverTrumpers recently, because Conservatives rallied to Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign much the way they supported Ted Cruz in 2016. Although there was harshness between the two, with Gingrich famously calling Romney a liar, Gingrich did endorse Romney, which helped most (although not as many as I would have liked) Conservatives supported Mitt Romney as well.

Could Gingrich have endorsed Romney if “Lying Newt” was a regular applause line during Romney’s campaign speeches, or if Romney insulted Newt’s wife and father? Maybe not. Many primary campaigns have seen the rhetoric of candidates boil over into vitriol. But no candidate in my memory has used insults, – not as a reaction – but as a tactic.

If Conservatives find Trump to be a Progressive who they personally dislike, then there is only one reason to vote for Trump, and that is to help him defeat Hillary Clinton. But even this reason isn’t compelling.

Hillary is running on the legacy of one of the nation’s least successful presidents. She has such a history of dishonesty that she once claimed to have escaped sniper fire at a Bosnian airport until video proved that instead of gunshots she was greeted by a flower girl. So unpopular is she that she is struggling to defeat a 74 year old largely unknown socialist in her party’s primary.

Trump, with his great appeal among non-ideological Republicans, Independents, and even Democrats, doesn’t need Conservatives, as he has admitted. Rather than court Conservatives, Trump seems to be shifting to the Left.” As Glenn Beck asked Ted Cruz recently, “How do we get behind a group of people who don’t have any interest in asking Conservatives for their vote?”

– DK

Posted in Current events/topics, Elections, GOP/RNC, Progressivism | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Marie Stroughter Speaks at #ProtestPP Rally

Posted on April 26, 2016 by AACONS

On Saturday, April 24, 2016, thousands of activists across the country spoke out against Planned Parenthood and its insidious practices. African-American Conservatives (AACONS) Co-Founder, Marie Stroughter, was one such speaker.

Transcript:

We’ve heard the stories, time and again, on the news: A vibrant, pregnant woman, ripe with new life, only to be cut down, child ripped from her womb. And when we hear such stories, we utter a collective gasp because of the brutality, inhumanity, and the savage disregard for human life.

We don’t understand the depravity that would cause a mind to commit such a heinous atrocity. Yet, when the child is willingly sacrificed – when the mother opts to allow someone to use tools that kill – and end that unborn child’s life . . . well, this is called “choice,” and this was merely a “clump of cells,” “products of conception,” or a “fetus.” We have to use these euphemistic terms, because the reality is brutal. It is ugly, and it is savage.

Similar to our inability to figure out which bathroom to use, we are perplexed by basic biological science: two simple concepts: 1) a living cell, fertilized by another living cell, produces something that is . . . living. And if those two cells are human, what they have created is also human. 2) If there is a body inside of my body, and further, this body moves of it’s own volition, eats of its own volition, creates waste matter and does so in a way that I have no control over . . . how can I say, “My body, my choice?” One body is mine, for sure, but the other body is a separate, distinct entity with its own brain, heartbeat and organs.

If I offer you a drink of this, but, there’s a drop of poison in it . . . will you drink it? But most of it is clean, healthy, good for you, even . . . why wouldn’t you drink it? Because of the poison? But it’s just one drop. We all understand this. So why don’t we understand this with Planned Parenthood? “Oh, but we offer health services . . . screenings . . . contraception . . . “ Really? Because Planned Parenthood is deceptive in its statistical practices, engaging in something known as “unbundling” wherein each “encounter” can – and is – recorded multiple times depending on the reason for the visit. In other words, I may come in for a pap smear, and yet receive contraceptives. Thus, my visit is counted as two separate units. However, one thing is certain according to FactCheck.org, Heritage and other outlets: the claim that Planned Parenthood makes about its abortion services is false. They state their abortion services account for only 3% . . . but when adjusted for their “unbundling” fudging, it’s more like 12%. And, in recent years, fewer are seeking these ancillary services, available elsewhere in the community – yet their rate of performing abortions is increasing. Why do they “unbundle?” To make it appear that these services other than abortion are being sought moreso, and to make the abortion number appear smaller, because they know it is unpalatable to the taxpayers they seek funding from. According to Gallup, the majority of Americans still disfavor abortion.

Another frequently heard cry is “what about cases of rape or incest?” My response is, what about adoption? An innocent person is victimized through no fault of their own – This applies to the person raped, as well as to the child conceived and aborted through this crime. One argument offered is why make the victim “bear the burden” of this brutal act against them? One, will aborting the child, rather than placing him or her for adoption erase the thought of the crime? Just because there is no “tangible” reminder in the form of a child, will the nightmares cease? Will the person never again think of the rape? Secondly, why is the innocent punished for the crimes of the guilty? If I am mad at my boss, is it right or fair that I come home and beat my kids or kick the dog? And, assuming I do . . . does that fix things with my boss?

As with much of human nature, greed and other elements of a very sick underbelly come to the fore. As we have recently seen, from the grisly Gosnell debacle, to the undercover videos that have surfaced indicting Planned Parenthood, abortion is ugly business, but make no mistake . . . it is business. From the unsanitary practices revealed in the Gosnell scandal, to his brutal participation in partial birth abortions and late term abortions – his love of money was at the root of his evil. No less is the case for the so-called “non-profit,” Planned Parenthood with its sales of harvested organs and tissues. Cecile Richards, CEO of Planned Parenthood admitted under oath that, in 2014, her organization had $127 million dollars in excess revenue after expenses. TheHill.com editorialized and stated that this “is what normal people call a ‘profit.’” Further, Ms. Richards also admitted that Planned Parenthood spent $40 million dollars per year, on travel and parties, which translates to $13,000 dollars per day. In these undercover videos, Planned Parenthood executives are seen dining in upscale venues with chianti and laughing about Lamborghinis – a car with a base price in the neighborhood of $200,000.

Let’s not forget Planned Parenthood’s humble beginnings as The Negro Project, headed by racist eugenicist, Margaret Sanger. Going back to that cup with the drop of poison in it: some may see the “other services” provided by Planned Parenthood, and totally overlook the “poison” that it was founded upon: to reduce “undesirable” populations.

Margaret Sanger is quoted as saying the United States should adopt “a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.”

Another eye opening quote: “Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race.” And, while we are parked here, let us note that Ms. Sanger gave a speech to the Ku Klux Klan, and stated she received many such invitations from them to speak. Further, she was a member of the American Eugenics Society and was involved with the Euthanasia Society. She praised Nazi Germany’s sterilization policies — policies based on her work.

Further, she asked, “What is social planning without a quota?” Margaret Sanger is further quoted as saying, “Eugenists emphasize the mating of healthy couples for the conscious purpose of producing healthy children, the sterilization of the unfit to prevent their populating the world with their kind and they may, perhaps, agree with us that contraception is a necessary measure among the masses of the workers . . ..”

Ms. Sanger advanced something called The American Baby Code, in which she wrote, “The results desired are obviously selective births.” Additionally, this “code” would, “protect society against the propagation and increase of the unfit.” She also said, “Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law, is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives.”

Since Planned Parenthood clinics are disproportionately located in low-income and/or minority communities . . . to whom do you think she refers to as “unfit,” “undesirable,” “defective,” and other such pejorative and derogatory terms?

Unconvinced? Let this quote from Ms. Sanger seal the deal: “We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

Planned Parenthood was founded upon a racial discrimination and prejudice that continues to this day, evidenced by the fact that they prey on minorities and the low-income. Unfit. Defective. Undesirable. That’s what they think of people who look like me, people who look like some of you, and our children that they so desperately not only want to kill, but to profit from doing so.

Planned Parenthood, we reject your racist, eugenicist roots. We reject your “help” in controlling “our” population, and we reject your blood-thirst for our children.

I leave you with the words of Proverbs 6:16-19, words that eerily echo all that Planned Parenthood is and stands for:

16 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him:

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,

19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Thank you and may God bless our children, including those in our wombs.

Watch all of the Concord, CA speakers here.

Posted in Abortion, Activism, Activism/Advocacy, Attacks from the Left, Cultural, Current events/topics, Healthcare, racism | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Bernie and the “Free” Stuff

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Marie Stroughter

BernieFreeSounds like a band, doesn’t it: Bernie and the Free Stuff? But, actually, those of us on the Right know that nothing is free. If I give you a present for your birthday, it’s free gift for you, but that doesn’t mean someone didn’t pay for it!

I’m probably dating myself here, but I grew up on The Brady Bunch, both the original series, and re-runs ad nauseum. One of my favorite episodes had to do with Greg Brady and his “exact words.” His Houdini-like ability to worm his way out of trouble came because he insisted, time and again, those weren’t his parents’ “exact words.”

This, in turn, has led to many valuable teaching moments with my children, and for fun, we recently watched the episode on YouTube. Now they love to crack up when I talk about “exact words!”

Maybe if we used “exact words,” people would begin to understand Bernie Sanders’ socialist agenda in much clearer terms:

  • “Free” college would become “college by taxpayer-mandated funding.”
  • “Free” healthcare would become “Tax rates at 90% so we can shove poor quality care with long wait times down your throat.”
  • “Free” childcare would become “government-sponsored child warehouses.”

It’s not very sexy nomenclature, and thus takes a bit of the allure away. It sounds so very enlightened of us to say, in our country, we hand out “free” things willy-nilly like the T-shirt cannon at a sporting event. But someone underwrites those T-shirts, just like Americans will be mandated to pay through the nose, for these “free” things. And, what, may I ask, has the government ever run well? Social Security? The Postal Service? VA Hospitals? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

Greg Brady may have been on to something, but sadly, should Senator Sanders win, America will be the one, if I may paraphrase, to “Feel the Burn.”

– Marie

Photo credit: berniementum.blogspot.com

Posted in DNC/Democrats, Economy/Fiscal Issues, Education, Elections, Government, Progressivism | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Guns

Posted on October 16, 2015 by DarkKnight3565

gunWith one side accusing the other of preferring to allow mass killings rather than endure even modest gun safety laws, and the other firing back with accusations of an attempt at total gun confiscation, all in the dust of the mass killing at Umpqua, it is easy to see how some very simple yet interesting facts can get lost.

One such fact is that mass killings, although horrific, are very minor, relative to the number of homicides that occur in the United States. According to IJReview.com  from 2009 and 2013, the US lost 227 people to “rampage shootings.” We can all wish that this number was much lower, but it is still only 0.003% of the number of overall murder victims during the same period.

Secondly, despite the President’s claim that “This type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency,” this sort of mass killing happens in a number of other advanced countries, and with greater frequency than in the United States.

Also, there seems to be no clear correlation between the number of gun ownership and the number of gun murders. The United States ranks first on the list of guns owned per capita but 111th on list of countries by intentional homicide rate, while Switzerland ranks fourth on the list of nations by gun ownership but ranks only 209 on the list of gun murders per capita, for example. Furthermore, according to the National Review, “The number of guns in the United States has increased by 62% since 1994 but gun violence has decreased by 49% since 1993.

While it would be difficult for anyone who looks at the ranking of countries by intentional homicide rate to miss that while poverty seems to be a contributing factor for a country to have a high homicide rate, it is far from the most decisive factor. Honduras, for example, although a poor nation, is a wealthier nation than the Ivory Coast, but has a homicide rate several times as high, despite a similar rate of gun ownership. It seems safe to assume then that culture plays a greater role than either income or rate of gun ownership in causing high homicide rate.

We see a similar pattern here in the United States. According to neighborhoodscount.com, the Utah county of Tooele has one of the highest number of guns per household in the country (59.1%), a median household income of similar to the New Jersey city of Trenton, but saw no gun murders in 2012, while Trenton saw 37.

The cultural impact upon the murder rate is even more vivid along racial lines. According to FBI.gov, 50% of all murder victims in the United States are African Americans, and 93% of these victims were killed by other African Americans.

“. . . according to the National Review, ‘The number of guns in the United States has increased by 62% since 1994 but gun violence has decreased by 49% since 1993.’“

It should be noted in a discussion on the correlation between the rates of gun ownership and gun murders that “gun free zones” are not necessarily safer than zones that are not gun free, at least in terms of multiple victim killings. As breitbart.com reports “92% of mass public shootings between January 2009 and July 2014 took place in gun-free zones.” Professor John Lott painted a vivid picture on the attraction gun-free zones have on people intent to killing a mass number of report, reporting that the Aurora mass-killer James Holmes “appears to have carefully selected the theater he did: Seven theaters within a 20-minute drive of his apartment were showing the premier of The Dark Knight Returns. He chose the only one posting signs banning concealed guns — not the theater closest to his apartment or the one prominently advertising the largest auditoriums in Colorado.”

So although the President asks, “So how can you, with a straight face, make the argument that more guns will make us safer?”, evidence suggests that it is not the number of guns that endanger us, it is the culture of our community; and more guns can indeed make us safer.

However, this is not to say that all guns are equal, or that they should be treated equally. Some guns are clearly more dangerous than others. Weapons like the TEC-DC9, for example, which was used in the Columbine massacre, and the Bushmaster AR-15, which was used in the Sandy Hook and Aurora massacres, are guns designed to fire multiple rounds in mere seconds, and have no legitimate purpose other than the mass killings for which they are most known. Furthermore, the AR-15 and other similar weapons can be loaded with armor-piercing bullets which are useful, but only for those who wish to be able to shoot several of them per second at police officers wearing bulletproof vests.

It may be impossible to legislate a ruling that would allow homeowners the ability to protect their lives and property with a gun, while preventing the rare individual who wishes to use a gun to kill a group of victims, but there is hope that we prevent the manufacture of weapons designed solely for the purpose of mass killing.

More than passionate speeches following multiple victim shootings or arguing that people need a semi-automatic weapon that can shoot 45 armor piercing bullets a minute for home protection, if our goal is to reduce our homicide rate, our focus should then be to those people most likely to fall victim to homicides.

Few programs did so as effectively as New York City’s Stop-And-Frisk program. Unfortunately, the Stop-and-Frisk is being discontinued by Mayor DeBlasio’s administration, who is acting with the encouragement of President Obama. The reason for phrasing out this program cannot be to decrease the murder victims the President correctly argues we should be angered and saddened by. In fact, murders in NYC in June of 2015 is up 19.5% over June of 2014. Rather, the reason for ending Stop-And-Frisk is that it was deemed racist to protect the people most likely to be murdered from the people who are most likely to murder them.

– DK

Posted in Community, Cultural, Current events/topics, Gun control | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Fact Check: Hillary, Champion of Women

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Marie Stroughter

Hillary-ClintonYesterday, while stumping in Ohio, Hillary Clinton “champion of women,” stated that her GOP rivals for the presidency of the United States hold “extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups, we expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world, but it’s a little hard to take from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States. Yet they espouse out of date, out of touch policies. They are dead wrong for 21st century America. We are going forward, we are not going back.”

I would find this laughable, if it wasn’t tragic on so many levels:

First, this is a woman who has shamelessly taken millions upon millions of dollars from countries that truly “hold extreme views about women,” and “espouse out of date, out of touch policies” through her “charitable” Foundation. These are countries that condone “honor” killings, force children into marriages with grown men, do not let women drive or go out of the home without a male relative escort, and stone women. Have I missed anything, Madame Secretary?

Secondly, Hillary Clinton has not been shy about her admiration for Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger. And, if you want to talk about “out of date, out of touch views,” look no further than avowed racist and eugenicist, Margaret Sanger! Let’s just look at a few of her quotes, to underscore the point, and hold up this “shining beacon” that Mrs. Clinton admires so much:

“Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race.” 1

“We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” 2

Further, Secretary Clinton is the proud recipient of the Margaret Sanger award, and though she says she “deplores” the racist statements, she still admires the woman, her work (which was the extermination of “undesirables”), and accepts the award!

And, lastly, Hillary supports abortion on demand. She may think that abortion foes are “backward thinkers,” but as recent events have shown (something pro-life supporters have known all along), abortion is the brutal murder of innocent life. What can be more horrific, more hostile to living and pre-born women than the barbaric practice of abortion? That life for “body parts” could be so casually dismissed over Chianti and salad, while discussing lavish purchases with literal “blood money,” is acceptable, and pro-lifers are “backward” and “out-of-touch?” If so, I gladly plead guilty to being “backward” for the sake of human life, rather than “enlightened” with “hands swift to shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:17).

Hillary paints herself as the “champion of women,” while embroiled in “a little ethics snafu” that should cost her the bid for the highest office in the land; with the blood of four American citizens on her hands and on her watch; and the past defense of a child rapist while painting the preteen female victim as the villain . . . none of which make her a champ, but only paint those (p)sycophants who would still vote for her in a heartbeat, as chumps.

– Marie Stroughter

 

1 Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922. Page 12. 

2 Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.

Hear me wax more poetically on this subject on our 4/14/15 radio show, during our end segment, #MarieRants

Posted in Abortion, Attacks from the Left, Current events/topics, DNC/Democrats, Elections, Media & Media Bias | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Black and White Lives Matter

Posted on August 21, 2015 by DarkKnight3565

StraightOuttaSomewhereThe #BlackLivesMatter movement has a message. It is a message they are so desperate for you to hear that they have recently shutdown an anniversary celebration of Medicare and Social Security for you to hear it, even if that meant physically bullying 73-year old Bernie Sanders off the stage. Their message is, primarily, that the police are a threat to the African American community

It is not a new message, of course. As Marco Rubio said, “It is a fact that in the African-American community around this country, there has been for a number of years now a growing resentment toward how the law enforcement and criminal justice system interacts with the community.”

As a member of that African American community, I am well aware of this resentment and of the tension between my community and the police. In fact, I am reminded of a conversation with a friend, an African-born NJ college professor, who told me of an informal experiment he likes to conduct. He would have a White student lay in the backseat of his Audi while he drove through one of NJ’s very wealthy neighborhoods. He said he would do so to show how inevitably and how quickly a police officer would find a reason to pull him over for questioning. According to him, this experiment has never failed to produce the predicted results. This experiment is never conducted with a Black student because there would be little point. Blacks almost always already assume that even a well-dressed Black in a nice car driving through a wealthy neighborhood would be stopped by the police.

Along with this resignation, and largely because of it, there is an anti-police sentiment within the African American community, further poisoning the relationship between police officers and African Americans. Our very culture helps cultivates this hostility. Ta-Nehisi Coates, for example, recently recounted that growing up he saw the police as just another force “with no real moral difference from the crews and the gangs and the packs of folks who dispensed violence throughout the neighborhood.” And Mychal Denzel Smith even argues that the police should be abolished, thinking that, “a world without police” would result in “less dead Black people.”

In fact, the most popular movie in the U.S. as I write this is Straight Outta Compton, based on the release of the album of the same name, by rap group NWA. In one of the hit songs on the album, F*** Tha Police, the group, or at least the personas the group created to appeal to their audience, complains about harassment from the Los Angeles police department because of their skin color. Ice Cube states, “F*** the police coming straight from the underground. A young n*gger got it bad cause I’m brown. And not the other color so police think they have the authority to kill a minority.”

Yet in the titular song of the album they – in their personas – boast of such things as using a sawed-off shotgun, “jack moves,” and having “a crime record like Charles Manson.” Based on that it seems as though NWA is pointing out very strongly that they have reason to have it bad from the LAPD based on much more than their skin color.

It is not a new message, of course. As Marco Rubio said, “It is a fact that in the African-American community around this country, there has been for a number of years now a growing resentment toward how the law enforcement and criminal justice system interacts with the community.”

Racism alone can not be used to explain the often tense relationship between the police and the largely African American inner city community, not when three of the police officers charged with the death of Freddie Gray are themselves Black, or when even Jesse Jackson himself stated, “There is nothing more painful to me … than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

People like NJ Senator Cory Booker often complain about “a prison system that is 61 percent African-American even though our state is just 13 percent black.” But rarely, if ever, do they mention the reason that African Americans are in prison at such high percentages is because African Americans commit a higher percentage of crimes. Despite being just roughly 14% percent of the population, Blacks are responsible for 52% of homicides overall, and 66% of drug-related homicides.

Furthermore, rarely, if ever, will those who bemoan such things as the percentage of Blacks incarcerated mention that almost all of the crimes committed by these prisoners were against other Black people. Despite the impression one would get from reading Conservative blogs, with their incessant postings about “Black thugs,” Black crime — like all crime — is nearly exclusively intraracial. 93% of the Black murderers imprisoned murdered other Blacks, 74.8% of the Black rapists rape Black women. And 68.3% of the Blacks robbed are robbed by Blacks as well.

There are many times when the police overstep badly in their interactions with the African American community. It is for this reason that I am a strong supporter of dash-cams, body cams, and any other measure to monitor and temper those interactions. As John Adams once said, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” Police officers are not angels.

However, when I read the demands of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which say “we will advocate for a decrease in law-enforcement spending at the local, state and federal levels” and “that the federal government discontinue its supply of military weaponry and equipment to local law enforcement,” it puzzles me. If the vast majority of crime is intraracial, if the overwhelmingly majority of Black crime victims are victimized by Blacks, then who are activists seeking to protect by demanding softer law enforcement against Blacks? If Black lives matter, then Blacks need more and better policing so that Black lives can be protected from the Black predators that would otherwise prey upon them.

– DK

Posted in Activism, Activism/Advocacy, Attacks from the Left, Community, Cultural, Current events/topics, DNC/Democrats, Media & Media Bias, Progressivism, Race/Racism/Race Relations, racism | Tagged , | 2 Comments