Larry Elders,
I take exception to your force feeding me facts, many that took place in a much different time and place in our countries history. This feels paramount to being cornered by religious fanatics with blinders on to support their own causes.
Beyond the facts and beyond the politics, many people will vote based on the want to champion one of their own, very much like many woman were going to vote for Hillary based on gender alone.
Don't blame the ignorance of the ungroomed voter for their zeal in wanting to see a face like theirs in a position of respect and power. I suggest you go after the campaigns with terms such as "Vote or Die" or "Rock the Vote" these campaigns give the young people nothing more than perception to aim their votes at, rather than the principles and the character behind each candidate.
Rather than very lopsidedly blasting a party for being one side rather than the other, may I suggest you use your powers of persuasion and intelligence to allow the voters to make their own decisions based pros and cons behind both parties.
What you're doing, like all politicians and their supporters, is being incredibly irresponsible with your voice. A voice that many Americans, Black or White, Democrat or Republican have defended and died for. Your ability to speak freely is your right but understand that half of that check that bought your freedoms today, have been paid in Democratic blood.
Personally, I'm a bit of both parties depending on the subject and maybe that's what this country needs a bit more of, flexibility. Let's stop the mudslinging and politicing and get back to healing our country which is ailing from the whitehouse to every crackhouse across the country.
Many facts sound like they were from a time long ago and others sound recent. Many of the fingers pointed would have nothing to do with political parties, but rather peoples personal choices. If there were no parties, who would we blame then?
Many of the struggles our Government have attempted to correct and have failed at were based on corruption with in the Government by both parties. Many of the failures came from the citizens themselves and the unwillingness to change, or the unwillingness to help solve the problems in their own neighborhoods.
So please don't insult me by addressing me by a color as a voter in order to push your opinions on me. I'm an American citizen and that's where the vote counts. Many minority voters will vote based on what they see and nothing else, it's going to happen. In the next few generations, minorities will take a larger interest as they see their own people becoming a regular in races for power in Government. But for now, Obamam is huge because it's a first, same with Hillary for many females. As the country evolves into accepting faces other than (old) white men, then the responsibility and pride each voter will take shall evolve as well. If I were black and not an American citizen, I wouldn't have a vote, so address me as I will be in the booth, a citizen, not just a color.
Vincent Alfonzo Jamal, Voting American
----------------- Original Message -----------------
Date: Sep 10, 2008 8:47 PM
Attn Black Voter........
Body: I direct this letter towards you simply because alot (not all) dont seem to know or want to know the TRUTH. I would love to see a Black man as the President of these Great United States of America and it WILL happen, but THIS isnt the guy for the job!!! I beg you to look beyond his race and see what his character is and what he is about.
We should never choose a President based on his skin color, LOOK AT THE ISSUES!!!!!
Do you have any Republican friends, let alone black ones? If so, how many of them want to make it harder "for the underprivileged"?
You also might want to familiarize yourself with the history of the Democratic and Republican parties, and see which party has stood up longer for the rights of people of color.
Do you know that Democrats opposed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution – abolishing slavery, granting citizenship rights to newly freed slaves, and guaranteeing the right to vote (at least on paper) to blacks, respectively? Do you know that most of the politicians who stood for segregation were Southern Democrats? Do you know that the Ku Klux Klan was founded by Democrats, one of whose goals was to stop the spread of the Republican Party? Do you know that, as a percentage of the party, more Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
Do you know that inner-city parents want vouchers – the right to determine where their children go to school? Do you know most Democrats, including Barack Obama, oppose this? Republicans, for the most part, support vouchers. Where vouchers have been tried, kids appear to perform better, with higher parental satisfaction.
You tell me, how many things are more important than a child's education?
Do you know that 36 percent of babies aborted are black, while blacks make up 17 percent of live births? Do you know that polls show blacks are more pro-life than are whites? Yet the Democratic Party – to which over 90 percent of blacks belong – is the party of Roe v. Wade, requiring states to legalize abortion on demand. Do you know that Margaret Sanger, the founder of the organization that became Planned Parenthood, believed that poor blacks were inferior and that aborting their babies made our society better? Look it up.
Do you know that blacks stand to benefit more than whites through Social Security privatization, a position opposed by Obama but supported by McCain? Are you even familiar with the issue and what a powerful income-generating vehicle it would be for blacks? If not, take a look at the research done by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute and the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.
Porous borders enable illegal aliens to enter our country and threaten the jobs and lower the wages of Americans, many of whom are unskilled people of color. Which party is more determined to deal with this – Republicans or Democrats? Obama called the foes of the House anti-illegal immigration bill "ugly and racist." I did not support the bill, but vehemently object to characterizing those who did as "ugly and racist.
"
You speak of policies that have "proven not to work." What about the "war on poverty" that began in the '60s, the policies that Obama and his party want to continue and expand? Do you know that today 70 percent of black children and over 50 percent of Hispanics are born outside of wedlock? The welfare state – which Democrats want to expand – has played a huge role in discouraging marriage and destabilizing families.
Speaking of helping the "underprivileged," I'd suggest you read a book called "Who Really Cares," by Arthur C. Brooks. A non-Republican professor raised by Democrats, he examined the charitable spending habits of Democrats and Republicans. The results surprised him. Brooks found that Republicans give far more of their money and time for charitable purposes than do Democrats. And the giving is not confined to their churches or other houses of worship. This, by the way, has nothing to do with income. Poor Republicans give more than poor Democrats.
Compassion is not about making people dependent on government. Compassion is about encouraging personal responsibility, and getting people to understand that life is about making choices. Poverty does not cause crime. Crime causes poverty. Poverty does not cause a child to have a child. A child having a child causes poverty. Finishing high school is a choice. Not joining a gang is a choice. Not having a child until you have the maturity and the means to raise that child is a choice.
You ask how can a "fellow black American feel this way"? Quite a statement. You may disagree, but it doesn't make me less caring and compassionate than you are. I'm sure you truly consider yourself open-minded and tolerant. But based on your letter, tolerance ends – especially with "fellow black Americans" – if someone has an opposing point of view.
Larry Elders, American Black man