Mensch tracht, und Gott lacht

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

A Light Fades, Darkness Falls

When Black GOP congressman J.C. Watts was considering retirement, he received the following note:

"Dear Congressman Watts, thank you for your years of service to the United States House of Representatives. Many people are proud you have been dedicated to an opportunity few people of African-American descent have in this land. If you can, please remain as a pioneer on the Republican side until others come to assist you. I am glad I stayed in my seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus December 1, 1955. I did not know at that time people would rally as they did. I was pleased about their support, but it has sometimes been lonely.

"Through the years my life has had peaks and valleys, but I have never been sorry about my decision. The Lord has always provided.

"I would also like you to keep your seat and not think of your mantle as heavy, but think that you are chosen to prepare the way.

"Peace and prosperity, Rosa Parks."


She obviously reasoned that it would be good for Black folks to have friends and influence on both sides of the aisle, instead of just one.

DRUDGE links to a story about the attacks Black gubernatorial candidate Michael Steele can expect from Black Democrats.
Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican.

Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.

Operatives for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) also obtained a copy of his credit report -- the only Republican candidate so targeted.

But black Democrats say there is nothing wrong with "pointing out the obvious."

"There is a difference between pointing out the obvious and calling someone names," said a campaign spokesman for Kweisi Mfume, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.


R.I.P., Rosa Parks. You were not only brave but wise. Your successors are craven and foolish. But that is pointing out the obvious.

11 comments:

Hunter Baker said...

Tom, I have long known that Rosa Parks had a more enlightened view of the GOP. I think that is part of why she is sometimes demeaned (as in the film Barbershop) as a lady who was just too lazy to get out of a seat.

It is often forgotten that the GOP had a lock on the black vote for a long time, then had an equal share post the New Deal, and only lost ground with Richard Nixon's failure to visit MLK in prison and the later big push for the LBJ War on Poverty as THE SOLUTION to racial ills.

Hunter Baker said...

A higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act. Significantly higher.

The GOP support for ending slavery and enforcing civil rights has a lot to do with the small government, freedom of contract emphasis of the party. See, the free-market is a highly anti-slavery position. Capitalistic industrialism killed slavery.

James F. Elliott said...

::Sigh:: Yes, Hunter, as Tlaloc pointed out, a high number of Southern Democrats - the Dixiecrats - voted against the CRA and then defected to the GOP who embraced the Southern Strategy. Give me a break. No one has room to be terribly proud on that one.

That said, Tom's post just makes me sad. Assuming it's not taken out of context, it's a sad state of affairs.

Jay D. Homnick said...

Impressive thinking and writing by Rosa, period. Add to that the fact that she was almost ninety at the time, and the aura of greatness is unmistakable.

Kathy Hutchins said...

Darn it, Tom beat me to it. And this is my neck of the woods too.

I assure you, James, not only are these slurs and attacks not taken out of context, Tom has spared you some of the grosser ones. The caption on the aforesaid Steele as Black Minstrel Photoshop job read: I'se Simple Sambo, and I'se runnin' fo' da Big House!

I'll be happy to supply more enlightened commentary from various Maryland Senators and Delegates. It's pretty ugly. On the day Rosa Parks is laid to rest, Baltimore Democrats got out a backhoe and started digging their own graves. They cannot win statewide elections if they don't hold onto the guilty white liberal Montgomery Co. vote, and this is not going to do that.

Hunter Baker said...

James, I gave it to you short and sweet. Capitalism is a highly anti-slavery ideology. Each man buys and sells independently, including his own labor. That's the ideology. Slavery didn't cut it. Don't you know the capitalistic, industrialized North crushed the more feudalistic South?

Matt Huisman said...

Here's one story from Thomas Sowell (gasp!) that supports Hunter's claim.

It describes the origins of segregated bus seating, and how market forces were working to fight against segregation.

Hunter Baker said...

There's something else, James. You act as though I'm ridiculous and say you have info about the pre-WWII South keeping the black man down. Well, duh. They hadn't embraced true capitalism and were artificially undervaluing the black man's labor and productivity. Fits what I said perfectly. The more truly capitalistic we are, the less racist we will be because in market terms racism is irrational.

Francis Beckwith said...

Of course, the Democrats had their "Northern strategy," getting blue-collar union social conservative to vote Democratic and against their own moral views.

Because many of those "Reagan Democrats" have defected to the Republican party, the Democratic party has pandered to the race-baiting left, including Farrakhan, Sharpton, and the others who they cannot publicly criticize with their base disintegrating.

Let's face it, each party has its freaks. Let's just admit it and move on. After all, it's politics and it's messy.

Hunter Baker said...

There were plenty of aha moments when you looked at that large group of mostly minority folks streaming into the Superdome. More than enough to go around, ideologically speaking.

James F. Elliott said...

The caption on the aforesaid Steele as Black Minstrel Photoshop job read: I'se Simple Sambo, and I'se runnin' fo' da Big House!

That's just plain depressing in this day and age. Grown people are writing that crap.