Black Conservatives speak

This is commentary on the article I posted last night.

They got off to a bad start.

AJC: How do you define being a conservative?

Cobb: I'm thinking more of behavioral type things like taking personal responsibility. Beliefs and behaviors that move you to the next level. That resonates with me more than anything.

Hullum: To me, conservatism goes back to family structure. And to me it goes back to accountability and morals.

I wonder if we'll ever have a discussion in The King's English instead of verbal cartoons. Terms of art like "personal responsibility" and "family structure" do not define anything anyone disagrees with. I would like Black Republicans to state plainly what they feel differentiates them from the rest of the community.

Bartell: Conservatism for me means to have a reliable base for national defense and to take a leadership role in defense of the international community, being the superpower that we are.

What the hell has that got to do with Conservatism? As many Democrats as have stepped forward to support invading Iraq, as hard as they pushed until Bush had no choice but to accept an investigation of the run-up to 9/11 (he fought it, remember), the hallucination that only Republicans favor a strong national defense can only be supported by ignoring the facts. If it weren't for Congressional Democrats there would be no Department of Homeland Defense. There would have been no review of the intelligence system. Bush and his crew can only take credit for recognizing the inevitable.

AJC: Is a strong value system something you think is not prevalent in the Democratic Party?

Cobb: For me it's not. For example, Armstrong Williams —  big snafu with him. He comes out and says, "Hey, I was wrong. I shouldn't have done it and I apologize." If I typically see a Democratic politician, they're going to fight it nail and tooth, even though they know it was really wrong. That's just the big picture for me, not taking responsibility when it's clearly wrong. Especially if you're stealing money from the state or the city or whatever, and then you say, "Oh, why are you indicting me?" [That's not] taking responsibility.

I would like to see an example of a Democratic politician caught wrong and fighting it tooth and nail. And Armstrong Williams is not a politician. It's hard to see someone equating Williams with any elected official and take them seriously.

Anyway, we see how the discussion is to be framed. I keep that in mind as I read. But there's stuff that confuses me.

Cobb: I think [blacks] have a difficulty with saying, "Oh, I'm a Republican," because the broader Republican Party has a branding problem. Some [white Republicans] have a little bit of difficulty with the whole thing possibly becoming darker.

The party becoming darker, the way it was with the Democrats. I was down in South Georgia and a lot of folks are really happy with the Republican Party. We've done a heck of a job out there working for them. But I don't think folks want people to say at [election time], "Wow, the Republican Party's becoming more and more African-American. Now, where are we gonna go?'"

It's kind of that Catch-22.

That's not a "branding problem."

AJC: Where is the disconnect between the Republicans and how you feel as black person in this country, state and community?

Bartell: The disconnect is in leadership. Many positions by leaders in the Republican Party have been dictated by special interest groups. Particularly corporate special interest groups. There needs to be a new kind of leadership that understands the diversity of America and is willing to include that voice in the public policy process.

Cobb: [We] agree on that. In Georgia especially.

Gould: One of my problems with the Republican Party is that it does not ever court the black vote. They won't spend any time or energy trying to recruit us or trying to re-educate people about what they really stand for in the black community. We have all these ideas in our community about what the Republican Party stands for, and a lot of those notions are based on things that are not true.

Hullum: I think there is just an ignorance today, which is surprising because there is so much information available to us. People don't even understand what the Republican Party is. [To many, politics is] just black and white.

Harris: Rich and poor.

Hullum: I have a lot of friends who seem confused when I tell them I'm a Republican.

Okay, they know this. And accept it.

Bartell: The only opportunity is an opportunity to teach. I don't think [we should expect] Republican leadership to understand diversity. What I expect is for those of us who are of African descent, whether they're African-American or not, to teach the leadership of the Republican Party and teach members of the black community.

...because there seems to be a deep misunderstanding of how politics works.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on February 22, 2005 - 8:10pm :: Race and Identity
 
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"Conservatism" means "claiming all possible self-evident virtues for oneself and then pretending that people who disagree with you on actual policy matters don't have any of those virtues."

Posted by  paperwight on February 23, 2005 - 4:01am.
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P6, you know that black conservatives will never baldly state what it is that they believe differentiates them from blacks holding progressive or liberal views and black Democrats. All of this talk about personal responsibility and family values is just euphemistic coded language intended to convey the impression that their political opponents have, at best, the most mininal acquaintance with these virtues. If black conservatives were to plainly declare where they stand on the issues, they would reduce even further their short chances of recruiting more African Americans over to their side of the aisle.

The above is what I believe on my better days. On my not-so-good days I believe that they don't talk about policy issues because a great many of them know very little about the issues that their putative political party supports. I have never heard any of them, for example, actually defend the invasion of Iraq. What you generally get, in my opinion, is a lot of chuckleheaded deference to the wisdom of George Bush, Colin Powell and Condi Rice. Almost none of them baldly declares their support for a war that most African Americans were clearly opposed then and now because they don't have a clue as to the geo-political issues considered by their leaders as sufficient reason and cause to invade Iraq.

Posted by  PTCruiser on February 23, 2005 - 4:41pm.
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"Bartell: The only opportunity is an opportunity to teach. I don't think [we should expect] Republican leadership to understand diversity. What I expect is for those of us who are of African descent, whether they're African-American or not, to teach the leadership of the Republican Party and teach members of the black community."

I am old enough to remember a time in the black community when it was not considered odd for a black person to be a member of the Republican Party. No one, I mean, no one ever questioned the integrity, honesty and commitment of those black Republicans. I suspect that many of these people, if they were still alive today, would wonder why folks like Bartell are members of the current Republican Party. Even folks like Faye Anderson, who worked for Bush I and organized events for Bob Dole, eventually had to create some distance between themselves and the current Republican Party because they found that it truly was not committed to diversity and, worse, expected black Republicans to support issues that were anathema to the black community.

Posted by  PTCruiser on February 23, 2005 - 4:56pm.
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