Sunday, February 10, 2008

Racist Republicans? No

The Press-Enterprise, Feb. 8, 2008, at B8.

Leonard Pitts' assertion that conservatives have never supported black people is an intriguing theory ("Where the right is wrong," Feb. 6).

If he means conservatives will not sign on to some kind of black agenda -- support for the welfare state and affirmative action -- then I will plead guilty as charged. However, to suggest that conservatives are basically racist is just dumb.

A bit of rhetoric, especially in the election cycle, is to be expected. However, carte blanche irresponsible statements cross the line.

[Above is the edited version published by The Press-Enterprise. Since they took out all the meat, below I am posting the original submission.]

Leonard Pitts' assertion that conservatives "have never supported black people" is a beautiful theory rebutted by some ugly facts. If he means conservatives will not sign-on to the black agenda -- support for the welfare state and affirmative action -- then I will plead guilty as charged. However, to make a statement, that they are basically racist is almost as stupid and irresponsible as the idiot that proclaimed, "Bush hates black people."

It was Bush (a conservative) that gave us our 1st and 2nd black Secretaries of State (Powell and Rice) and our first black (and female) National Security Adviser (Rice). One can argue that these high-powered blacks in the Executive branch may have laid the ground work for a future President Obama.

A bit of rhetoric, especially in the election cycle, is to be expected. However, carte blanche irresponsible statements cross the line.