(05-31-2020, 07:19 PM)jj82284 Wrote:

(05-31-2020, 03:00 PM)Bullseye Wrote: First, who African Americans choose to lead us is our choice, nobody else's.

From a purely theoretical standpoint, there is an argument to be made for more African Americans to be conservative.  Having been previously denied the right to vote, it only makes sense that we'd use our franchise in accordance to our beliefs, interests, consciences, etc.  Not being a monolith, it stands to reason some would choose various political parties.  However, politics do not occur in a theoretical vacuum.  There are real world concerns to weigh.  Do we have a strength in numbers approach, or do we seek to have influence in both parties?  It may well be the case the Democratic Party doesn't truly care about African Americans beyond the extent our voting block leads to political power (though there are certainly arguments against that proposition, and that is party ambivalence is also the case for just about any political constituency).  But Democratic ambivalence towards African Americans is a far lesser evil than Republican HOSTILITY to African Americans.  Had republicans not so thoroughly aligned their platform with the racist/segregationist cause, I guarantee there would be more black republicans. 

We must not tell lies, Deloris...  

Every Jim Crow law was passed by the Democratic party.  The southern pledge in the late 50s was a pledge by southern Democrats to support segregation and oppose black voting rights.  People who voted against the Civil rights acts in its earlier inclinations include Al Gores father, LBJ, and i believe JFK.  Every Slave owner in 1860 was a democrat.  The black vote was largely concentrated in the republican party since it was formed for the express purpose of freeing the slaves and subsequently passed the slave amendments.  Democrats who acknowledge that they were mentored by segregationists include Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Roberty Byrd was a grand Cyclops of the KKK and they made him Senate Majority leader for crying out loud.  

The "big switch myth" is propagated by a progressive academic establishment that wants to sweep away the legitimate sins against the black community by the democratic party in service of their own progressive agenda.  Of the 18 or so Dixie Crats in the senate the only one to switch parties was Stram Thurmond, the rest remained and DIED democrats.  The greatest example is George Wallace.  This is the poster child for southern segregation.  This is the man that stood in the schoolhouse doors saying "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."  The Big switch myth would have you believe that he became a republican.  NOT SO.  And when he ran for governor as a Democrat later in his career he received 80% of the black vote.  

In reality, the Black Migration to the democratic party began in the 1930's with the New Deal.  During the great depression the Dubois wing of black intelligencia overtook the Booker T. Washington wing and we began to embrace the idea of state intervention to ease the economic burden.  At the time, there were writings about how pained Black Americans were to leave the party of their freedom and embrace those who opposed their integration and suffrage.  

I don't know why, but i frankly expected better from you.  

I might be one.  Instead, they embraced disaffected segregationists who continue to work to undermine the very laws that have supposedly "ended racism" as the other poster posited earlier.   If conservative ideology/methodology (race notwithstanding) is truly a superior approach, make the effort to convince African Americans.  Don't weaken the laws that gave us the right to vote.  Don't dismiss the African American vote as not worth the effort.  Don't look to suppress our vote (2000 election and voting roll purges).  Don't presume we embrace gangs    Most African Americans are repulsed at the concept, but there are many who truly see no other viable options.

In fairness, there have been conservatives who have taken a stance against the blatant racism and general dysfunction of the current administration, including George Will, Joe Walsh, Steve Schmidt, and William Kristol.  They are to be lauded to at least some degree.  However, their current dalliance with political conscience is sullied by past indifference towards their party's embrace of racial politics, and it pales in comparison to the sycophantic devotion to the current occupant in the white house.

Again, you're just lying.  Taking the black vote for granted, racist in chief.  Donald Trump has lead the most meaningful courtship of the Black community since the passage of the civil rights movement by a republican president.  You talk about sentencing guidelines, but you don't mention the fact that the Trump administration spearheaded criminal justice reform.  You talk about Florida Sentencing Disparities but you neglect to mention that Trumps greatest state ally just appointed two minority justices to the Florida Supreme Court.  This administration made funding to HBCU's permanent.  We established enterprise zones in underfunded neighborhoods.  This administrations Trade and immigration policy coupled with deregulation lead to the largest expansion in black wages and wealth on record.  But hey, they're just the "people who hate us" because you said so?  please

Conversely, your beloved Democrats enacted the war on poverty.  The incentive structure of which contributed to what was nearly 80% legitimacy rate in the black community in 1960 to fall to just over 25% today.  That, not white supremacy, institutional bias, not fling spaghetti monsters is the greatest contributing factor to the wealth and incarceration gap.  They also run every major urban area and have control of most of the police departments that we are collectively railing against.  Almost ever level of municipal and state power in Minnesota is run by the Democrat party.  Every level in Maryland and the Freddie Gray Case is run by the Democrat party, Every level of state and municipal power in NY is controlled by the Democrat party, Eric Garner was killed essentially during a tax collection action.  But that's not what gets discussed in these cases.  You want to go back to "They're trying to weaken the laws that gave us the right to vote" etc. because we didn't want a baker to bake a cake against his will or we wanted to remove dead people from the voting roles.  

But hey, whatever works for you.