South Carolina Governor appoints 1st Black GOP US Senator in over 30 years

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

 

 

"South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced Monday that Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) will replace outgoing Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) in Congress.

"This man loves South Carolina," Haley said during a press conference at the state capitol. "It was with that that I knew that he was the right person. I have no doubt that he will fly through 2014."

Both Scott and DeMint appeared with Haley at the news conference, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and the rest of the state's Republican congressional delegation.

Scott, who has represented South Carolina's 1st congressional district since 2011, will become the first black Republican to serve in the U.S. Senate since Edward Brooke (R-Mass.) left his seat in 1979. He will also be the state's first African American senator since the 19th century, as well as the only African American in the Senate.

"South Carolina Republicans are thrilled with Governor Haley’s historic selection of Rep. Scott," Chad Connelly, the state's GOP chairman, said in a statement. "Rep. Scott embodies our American dream. He is a man of faith, a small businessman, and a consistent voice for common sense reforms. We look forward to Rep. Scott carrying Senator Jim DeMint’s torch of conservative leadership."

Earlier this month, DeMint announced that he would retire from Congress in January in order to take over as president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, DC."

 

http://www.huffingto..._n_2315830.html

 

 

 

FYI. In a normal day this would be big news as Congreeman Scott is also the 1st Afro-American US Senator from the "deep south" since the post Civil War era i.e 1865-1880. However the tragic events of the Newtown School Shootings has overshadowed it. PS The last Black Republican US Senator was Edward Brooke (who was an Eisenhower/Rockfeller/Colin Powell type GOPer) from Mass.

Edited December 17, 2012 by Shortline Bus

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,598]

I'm sure this story will get a few of these... -->

 

[lilbluefoxie 820]

watch how the usual suspects demonizes him like they do Clarence Thomas and Allan West

[qjtransitmaster 216]

I am NOT surprised it started with obama spoiler alert it's not getting old soon!!!! It was gonna happen eventually

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

watch how the usual suspects demonizes him like they do Clarence Thomas and Allan West

 

 

Yup. I don't know much about Mr. Scott other than saying him on couple of Fox News talk shows such as "Hannity. With that said, since Mr. West just lost re-election in a close race, Rev. Al, Rachel, Chris, Ed and the other hosts at MSNBC fair or not, now have a new so called "Uncle Tom" woops traitor lol to try to dis on their shows for the next couple of years.

 

While Rush, Sean and other consertative/Tea Party supporters will now claim the GOP is inclusive. Hope now(for his sake) Sen. Scott is ready for "prime time" in the national spotlight of the US Senate.

[MHV9218 5,215]

watch how the usual suspects demonizes him like they do Clarence Thomas and Allan West

 

 

Do you never stop to think that Thomas and West are criticized for their stances and politics, not their races? West says some of the dumbest things of any politician be him black, white, brown, or blue, and he'll continue to be criticized for those ridiculous comments in the future. The fact it took the Republicans 30 years to even elect a black senator says enough about the race situation in that party.

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

Do you never stop to think that Thomas and West are criticized for their stances and politics, not their races? West says some of the dumbest things of any politician be him black, white, brown, or blue, and he'll continue to be criticized for those ridiculous comments in the future. The fact it took the Republicans 30 years to even elect a black senator says enough about the race situation in that party.

 

 

MHV techincally Congressman Scott was not elected. That SC senate seat was suppose to be held by Jim DeMint who was re elected in Nov. However, a couple of weeks ago, DeMint decided to resign and take a job as head of the Hertiage Foundation. IMO Scott a rising star in the GOP was handpicked by Gov. Haley, Demint and Sen. Graham partly because of his race. Also for the national GOP party to try to "reinvent" themselves w/ a goal to attract as voters, "people of color" who are somewhat conservative.

 

Plus if Scott does a good job, he could be a future VP pick as early as 2016 for say Paul Ryan or Marco Rubio.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Shortline Bus

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,598]

MHV techincally Congressman Scott was not elected. That SC senate seat was suppose to be held by Jim DeMint who was re elected in Nov. However, a couple of weeks ago, DeMint decided to resign and take a job as head of the Hertiage Foundation. IMO Scott a rising star in the GOP was handpicked by Gov. Haley, Demint and Sen. Graham partly because of his race. Also for the national GOP party to try to "reinvent" themselves w/ a goal to attract as voters, "people of color" who are somewhat conservative.

 

Plus if Scott does a good job, he could be a future VP pick as early as 2016 for say Paul Ryan or Marco Rubio.

 

lol... And the fact that he's a Republican and black will work against the Republicans. He's a dark skinned black guy and a Republican so he'll be automatically labeled as an Uncle Tom. With Obama, at the beginning the blacks couldn't come to terms with the fact that he's half white, so he had to profess his "blackness" in order for black folks to vote for him because the mixed guy is generally labeled as an outsider in the black community. I still didn't forget that nasty comment that Jackson made talking about how he would cut his you know off. Smh Edited December 21, 2012 by Via Garibaldi 8

[B35 via Church 9,415]

....He's a dark skinned black guy and a Republican so he'll be automatically labeled as an Uncle Tom.

 

To be labeled/called a 'tom? The fact that he's dark skinned has nothin to do with it....

That simple.

 

Black man w/ an education that doesn't co-sign the nzzzz mentality & isn't "down for the cause" so to speak, more often than not, gets called a 'tom (See Robert Griffin the 3rd).... Of course being a republican doesn't help (there's been this running thing where black=democrat & white=republican)..... Still though, whoever the hell this guy is could've been a light skinned democrat & dudes would've still called him a 'tom....

 

Hell, I, myself have been called a tom by this one ignorant nzzzz in one of my family friend's circle of friends....

I told the MF-er "Thanks for the compliment".

 

With Obama, at the beginning the blacks couldn't come to terms with the fact that he's half white, so he had to profess his "blackness" in order for black folks to vote for him because the mixed guy is generally labeled as an outsider in the black community.

Yeah, and it sure as hell wasn't the black community that questioned his birth certificate.... Apparently, whites didn't want him on their side either....

 

I don't know what you mean exactly by "the beginning", but my point is Obama's "blackness" wasn't immediately questioned by the black community.... He was generally accepted; w/ that whole "HNIC" & "we goin have a black president" & "we running sh*t now" mentality..... Now you get as many blacks that feel as if Obama has "failed them".... Any black man (or woman, but it's men way more often) that comes at me with that "what has Obama done for us blacks" or "do you feel that Obama has helped us as a people" bit will be ignored..... Also, anyone else that makes a sarcastic remark basically saying "what has your president done for your people" (emphasis on the "your") will be met with the same (non) reaction..... Like, don't bother me when it comes to politics.

 

The issues mulatto's face is a whole 'nother topic; they get it from both sides.....

 

 

 

Do you never stop to think that Thomas and West are criticized for their stances and politics, not their races?

Of course not... I mean, aren't all blacks supposed to stick together no matter what......

(sarcasm)

 

I don't know why this is even a thread in the first place, but whatever.....

[Turbo19 2,509]

Of course not... I mean, aren't all blacks supposed to stick together no matter what......

(sarcasm)

 

I don't know why this is even a thread in the first place, but whatever.....

 

Well it's obvious everyone has their own agenda. (sarcasm)

 

Apperently it's such a big deal in 2012 that a black man is in the Senate and belongs to the Republican party. Very radical and obviously newsworthy. (sarcasm)

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,598]

To be labeled/called a 'tom? The fact that he's dark skinned has nothin to do with it....

That simple.

 

Black man w/ an education that doesn't co-sign the nzzzz mentality & isn't "down for the cause" so to speak, more often than not, gets called a 'tom (See Robert Griffin the 3rd).... Of course being a republican doesn't help (there's been this running thing where black=democrat & white=republican)..... Still though, whoever the hell this guy is could've been a light skinned democrat & dudes would've still called him a 'tom....

 

Hell, I, myself have been called a tom by this one ignorant nzzzz in one of my family friend's circle of friends....

I told the MF-er "Thanks for the compliment".

It's the so called icing on the cake if you catch my drift. I've always heard comments made about Clarence Thomas over the years talking about he's an Uncle Tom and how he's got nerve especially seeing how dark skinned he is. Now take that biracial guy from the South who is a Democrat (Harold Ford, Jr). He's always having to justify being a Democrat and his being "black" because of how he looks. Behind the scenes he might as well be a conservative Republican to some just based on how he looks. It's funny but that's exactly how he comes off when he's interviewed when I watch him on Meet The Press or any of those other political shows that I watch. He always seems to emphasize how he's fighting for the people and talking about injustices and such.

 

I don't know what you mean exactly by "the beginning", but my point is Obama's "blackness" wasn't immediately questioned by the black community.... He was generally accepted; w/ that whole "HNIC" & "we goin have a black president" & "we running sh*t now" mentality..... Now you get as many blacks that feel as if Obama has "failed them".... Any black man (or woman, but it's men way more often) that comes at me with that "what has Obama done for us blacks" or "do you feel that Obama has helped us as a people" bit will be ignored..... Also, anyone else that makes a sarcastic remark basically saying "what has your president done for your people" (emphasis on the "your") will be met with the same (non) reaction..... Like, don't bother me when it comes to politics.

 

Yeah, and it sure as hell wasn't the black community that questioned his birth certificate.... Apparently, whites didn't want him on their side either....

 

The issues mulatto's face is a whole 'nother topic; they get it from both sides.....

Hahaha... Your last comment said it in a nutshell and that's what I was getting at. To clarify there were a lot of things going on with whether certain groups of people would vote for Obama when he ran the first time and was up against Hillary Clinton before he won the nomination. The groups in question included blacks too because since he's half white there was a question in the media going around as to whether or not he would be truly accepted as a so called black man in the black community, as if to say can he a person of mixed race truly relate to the struggles of the black community and blacks in general? To illustrate this point, for most of the campaign he had stayed away from the whole race issue and it wasn't until that whole speech he did in Philadelphia that that issue was put to rest and that Jessie Jackson comment certainly went along the lines of the "he's not really black" thing. Explain to me why else he (Jackson) would make such a low ball comment like that?

 

Then you had the whole Latino issue as to if Latinos were so secretly racist that they wouldn't vote for a person because they're half black and believe you me I heard that swirling around too out in public because going back to the "system" if you will the Spanish saw blacks as the lowest on the so called "racial ladder". I'd be out somewhere and you'd have a Latina mother talking to her son telling him in Spanish how he'd better vote for Obama but the whole conversation conveyed a clear sense of I don't really want to vote for him because he's half black even if voting for the other candidate really isn't in my best interest but I'd prefer to vote for him (the other candidate, who was John McCain at that time) because he's white and white is better. Of course once the media shed light on these things then things sort of turned around but I even had one of my colleagues, who is a staunch Democrat, and who was quite upset when Hillary Clinton was overtaken by Obama, question whether or not they would vote for a half black candidate which to me was rather surprising because my colleague is like MVH9218. However, it wasn't just the race issue but also that Hillary is a female so there was that whole females must to stick mentality also. I mean she's a Democrat to the bone, but yet that question came up.... Smh lol Now of course the fact that they voted for him the first time made the second time around "easy", but still. Says a lot about where we are in this society.

 

It's one of those dirty little things that everyone tries to keep hush but it's there. The fact that he was voted in again doesn't really say much to me either. If anything it's a hey look we voted for Obama... We're not really racist... I've also heard people say "I just think he's so cool". I mean I don't know exactly what that means but sometimes I get the feeling that people just voted for him because they think it's "cool" to see a half black man in the White House, which to me says that there's still a lack of respect for him as being elected for what makes him qualify as being a president. I will say this though... The fact that he was biracial did help him because I don't think he would've gotten in if he was a so called true black man. Now of course there are some whites that will continue to question that he's an actual American and those folks will never be convinced otherwise because in their minds biracial or not they still very much believe in that one drop rule so they will question his Birth Certificate even after he is out of office. Donald Trump comes to mind. He gets angrier with age.

 

If you look at the states where Obama won though there are plenty of them that are heavily White so it's not necessarily an issue of race but more an issue of does race play a part in how folks vote? Clearly that answer is yes in some cases, be it for the good or for the bad.

 

Well it's obvious everyone has their own agenda. (sarcasm)

 

Apperently it's such a big deal in 2012 that a black man is in the Senate and belongs to the Republican party. Very radical and obviously newsworthy. (sarcasm)

 

LOL... In this country it is, especially speaking from a historical point of view. Blacks historically have always voted for Democrats because they were the "safe" party and the Republican party has always been seen as the White, conservative party, even if you have people of "color" in it. lol Even that's a joke because most of those so called folks of color could be classified as white based on looks (as in they're Latino but maybe Cuban or from some other Latin American country and fair skinned so they can pass as white even though they're still considered a minority officially). Edited December 21, 2012 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Turbo19 2,509]

LOL... In this country it is, especially speaking from a historical point of view. Blacks historically have always voted for Democrats because they were the "safe" party and the Republican party has always been seen as the White, conservative party, even if you have people of "color" in it. lol Even that's a joke because most of those so called folks of color could be classified as white based on looks (as in they're Latino but maybe Cuban or from some other Latin American country and fair skinned so they can pass as white even though they're still considered a minority officially).

 

Not crticizing you, but who pays that much attention to an individuals nationality?

 

It would seem as media subliminaly involuntarily promotes racsim.

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,598]

Not crticizing you, but who pays that much attention to an individuals nationality?

 

It would seem as media subliminaly involuntarily promotes racsim.

 

Are you kidding me? You should sit down and watch CNN do a breakdown on how voters vote... It's all along racial lines... You probably don't follow politics as much as I do and I don't know if you're old enough to vote yet, but believe me, race and politics go hand and hand and the media makes sure that they focus on it too even for folks like yourself who don't pay attention. It's not only along racial lines but gender lines as well. This is how politicians go about campaigning to get votes. You could call it sexist or racist, but that's how it works. When I was your age I didn't pay attention to this stuff either, but as you get older and understand your role in society, understand how politics affects you and your pockets, you'll pay more attention to these things.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Turbo19 2,509]

Are you kidding me? You should sit down and watch CNN do a breakdown on how voters vote... It's all along racial lines... You probably don't follow politics as much as I do and I don't know if you're old enough to vote yet, but believe me, race and politics go hand and hand and the media makes sure that they focus on it too even for folks like yourself who don't pay attention. It's not only along racial lines but gender lines as well. This is how politicians go about campaigning to get votes. You could call it sexist or racist, but that's how it works. When I was your age I didn't pay attention to this stuff either, but as you get older and understand your role in society, understand how politics affects you and your pockets, you'll pay more attention to these things.

 

Quite honestly I don't follow politics as much as I used to, somewhat due to the redundancy/debates, but also like many people, I hold a busy schedule so I just don't even bother looking into stuff anymore. I actually cared more about politics when I was a few years younger. I think I lost intersest because in essence, my opinion doesn't mean shit if I can't vote or participate in that sense.

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,598]

Quite honestly I don't follow politics as much as I used to, somewhat due to the redundancy/debates, but also like many people, I hold a busy schedule so I just don't even bother looking into stuff anymore. I actually cared more about politics when I was a few years younger. I think I lost intersest because in essence, my opinion doesn't mean shit if I can't vote or participate in that sense.

 

lol... This is a good point, but like I said before, once you start working to support yourself, these are things that you'll want to know and know how your vote will affect you.

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

B35 this thread (like so many others)was not into the uncle tom argument. It was news that a Black Man from a deep south state like south carolina from political party that does not have many minorities in elected office was selected for the US senate.

 

It's historic in that for 1st time in over 30 years, there a black man who a GOP US Senator. That was my point.

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

Are you kidding me? You should sit down and watch CNN do a breakdown on how voters vote... It's all along racial lines... You probably don't follow politics as much as I do and I don't know if you're old enough to vote yet, but believe me, race and politics go hand and hand and the media makes sure that they focus on it too even for folks like yourself who don't pay attention. It's not only along racial lines but gender lines as well. This is how politicians go about campaigning to get votes. You could call it sexist or racist, but that's how it works. When I was your age I didn't pay attention to this stuff either, but as you get older and understand your role in society, understand how politics affects you and your pockets, you'll pay more attention to these things.

 

 

VG8 you right to point. It should be about the best qualifed person for these political offices not someone ethnic background. It's all of society from Political Party Bosses to media and us the public that make it a bigger issue than it should be. Mr. Scott hertiage should not be a big deal but since the Republicans has not had a Black man as a US Senate member in nearly 35 years, that why it is news.

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,598]

VG8 you right to point. It should be about the best qualifed person for these political offices not someone ethnic background. It's all of society from Political Party Bosses to media and us the public that make it a bigger issue than it should be. Mr. Scott hertiage should not be a big deal but since the Republicans has not had a Black man as a US Senate member in nearly 35 years, that why it is news.

 

And it will continue to be as long as you have folks voting along racial lines... What amazes me is the voting population IMO does seem to care less as the younger generations start to be able to vote, but the media still focuses on race and gender. It's almost as if they have to maintain the status quo which in a way is rather irritating. It'll be interesting to see if any of this nonsense changes say 20 years from now.

 

 

B35 this thread (like so many others)was not into the uncle tom argument. It was news that a Black Man from a deep south state like south carolina from political party that does not have many minorities in elected office was selected for the US senate.

 

It's historic in that for 1st time in over 30 years, there a black man who a GOP US Senator. That was my point.

 

Yeah but it was certainly relative if you're going to relate him being chosen and the image of the Republican party in terms of gaining black votes or any more votes from folks of color.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Via Garibaldi 8

[B35 via Church 9,415]

Hahaha... Your last comment said it in a nutshell and that's what I was getting at. To clarify there were a lot of things going on with whether certain groups of people would vote for Obama when he ran the first time and was up against Hillary Clinton before he won the nomination. The groups in question included blacks too because since he's half white there was a question in the media going around as to whether or not he would be truly accepted as a so called black man in the black community, as if to say can he a person of mixed race truly relate to the struggles of the black community and blacks in general? To illustrate this point, for most of the campaign he had stayed away from the whole race issue and it wasn't until that whole speech he did in Philadelphia that that issue was put to rest and that Jessie Jackson comment certainly went along the lines of the "he's not really black" thing. Explain to me why else he (Jackson) would make such a low ball comment like that?

Simple.... Because Jesse Jackson himself is a racist, that's why.....

The man likes to think he is (and to keep it 100, a lot of non-black folks like to believe it too), but he is NOT a voice for black people....

 

Did Obama really have a choice to actually delve into the whole race issue before the nomination; doubt many people (black or white) knew who he was to begin with.... I mean you said it yourself in the other part of your comment - being bi-racial actually helped him (which I kinda-sorta agree with)....

 

The black populace (or, the black community) weren't up in arms, or deeply concerned that the president wasn't wholly black or w/e..... Seems as if you are equating Jackson's typical race baiting BS to the concerns of black people as it involved Obama before his inception....

 

This is unrelated, but I get the sense that people just wanted Bush the hell outta there; that had quite a bit to do with it too.....

 

 

Quite honestly I don't follow politics as much as I used to, somewhat due to the redundancy/debates, but also like many people, I hold a busy schedule so I just don't even bother looking into stuff anymore. I actually cared more about politics when I was a few years younger. I think I lost intersest because in essence, my opinion doesn't mean shit if I can't vote or participate in that sense.

Don't blame you....

 

I pay a certain amt. of attention to it, but I don't follow it.....

 

B35 this thread (like so many others)was not into the uncle tom argument. It was news that a Black Man from a deep south state like south carolina from political party that does not have many minorities in elected office was selected for the US senate.

 

It's historic in that for 1st time in over 30 years, there a black man who a GOP US Senator. That was my point.

...and that he's a black republican.

Edited December 21, 2012 by B35 via Church

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,598]

Simple.... Because Jesse Jackson himself is a racist, that's why.....

The man likes to think he is (and to keep it 100, a lot of non-black folks like to believe it too), but he is NOT a voice for black people....

lol...

 

The black populace (or, the black community) weren't up in arms, or deeply concerned that the president wasn't wholly black or w/e..... Seems as if you are equating Jackson's typical race baiting BS to the concerns of black people as it involved Obama before his inception....

 

This is unrelated, but I get the sense that people just wanted Bush the hell outta there; that had quite a bit to do with it too.....

 

I don't know if I would completely agree with that notion though and certainly not because of Jessie Jackson either. It goes back to my comments on Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and the relationship they developed with the black and Latino communities. Both communities had an established relationship with the Clintons but then this biracial guy comes into the picture and both had a level of distrust if you will for different reasons. I wouldn't call it an up in arms or even a deeply concerned type of situation, but it's one of those things that were certainly in play under the surface and quietly playing out in the background. I still remember the reports they did in Puerto Rico regarding Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and the media trying to determine if Puerto Ricans in that country for example were really just so for Hillary because of them knowing her from Bill Clinton's days or was it also because she was white and Obama was half black (although he was not that well known either at the time). It sounds out there but I know that Puerto Ricans from the homeland are quite different culturally than many that live here in the mainland it terms of how they view things and some can be racist there, so it was an angle that needed to be explored or at least questioned. Same thing with the black community in terms of angles that needed to be analyzed. In their case there was an underlying level of distrust at first until they got to know Obama and some of that distrust was definitely race related. This should clarify my earlier points.

 

---

Getting back to this South Carolina Senator, I think it will be interesting to see how folks down there vote if he decides to run for re-election... Very interesting in fact.

Edited December 22, 2012 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

lol...

 

Getting back to this South Carolina governor, I think it will be interesting to see how folks down there vote if he decides to run for re-election... Very interesting in fact.

 

 

Correction. This Gentleman (Mr. Scott) is a now a US Senator from South Carolina not Governor.

[Trainmaster5 3,780]

It's the so called icing on the cake if you catch my drift. I've always heard comments made about Clarence Thomas over the years talking about he's an Uncle Tom and how he's got nerve especially seeing how dark skinned he is. Now take that biracial guy from the South who is a Democrat (Harold Ford, Jr). He's always having to justify being a Democrat and his being "black" because of how he looks. Behind the scenes he might as well be a conservative Republican to some just based on how he looks. It's funny but that's exactly how he comes off when he's interviewed when I watch him on Meet The Press or any of those other political shows that I watch. He always seems to emphasize how he's fighting for the people and talking about injustices and such.

 

Hahaha... Your last comment said it in a nutshell and that's what I was getting at. To clarify there were a lot of things going on with whether certain groups of people would vote for Obama when he ran the first time and was up against Hillary Clinton before he won the nomination. The groups in question included blacks too because since he's half white there was a question in the media going around as to whether or not he would be truly accepted as a so called black man in the black community, as if to say can he a person of mixed race truly relate to the struggles of the black community and blacks in general? To illustrate this point, for most of the campaign he had stayed away from the whole race issue and it wasn't until that whole speech he did in Philadelphia that that issue was put to rest and that Jessie Jackson comment certainly went along the lines of the "he's not really black" thing. Explain to me why else he (Jackson) would make such a low ball comment like that?

 

LOL... In this country it is, especially speaking from a historical point of view. Blacks historically have always voted for Democrats because they were the "safe" party and the Republican party has always been seen as the White, conservative party, even if you have people of "color" in it. lol Even that's a joke because most of those so called folks of color could be classified as white based on looks (as in they're Latino but maybe Cuban or from some other Latin American country and fair skinned so they can pass as white even though they're still considered a minority officially).

 

I think you oversimplified your Black voting history somewhat. Black people, when they were finally allowed to vote, voted overwhemingly for the Republican Party, "the party of Lincoln". It was the Democratic party that passed the Jim Crow laws and the other anti-Black laws which typified the southern, Klan thinking back then, I was told by my parents and grandparents that most Blacks and poor whites switched to the Democratic Party because of the Great Depression and President Hoover and the GOP's stance to let Big Business and Wall St bring us out of the economic downturn of the '30's. If you were a poor person, Black or White, and had to provide for your family the choice was easy, IMO, stick with the "party of Lincoln" and hope something would "trickle down" to those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, or go with FDR and the Democrats who provided jobs through the WPA, CCC, and the other alphabetland of agencies he created. If all else failed he at least provided limited Home Relief (welfare) for the truly poor, a program which the Republicans have demonized since day one. It always amuses me when people think Black,(or poor) = Liberal, when in my experience most Blacks and poor Latinos come from very conservative lineages historically. Mr. West and Mr. Thomas come across negatively to today's Black mainstream for entirely different reasons however. Mr West came across as a bombastic Tea Partier with his unproven pronouncements about Communist members of the Democratic Party. I believe he meant the Black and Latino caucuses in particular. Mr Thomas' problems in the Black community started when President GHW Bush nominated him for the Supreme Court. IIRC President Bush said words to the effect that Mr. Thomas was the most qualified person to be elevated to the court at the time. Many people, especially Blacks, thought that was BS, even before the Anita Hill controversy broke out. Add the fact that he was replacing Thurgood Marshall, a revered figure in Black history( Brown vs Board of Education 1954) and his strict, doctrinaire philosophy to the law and that has caused many in the Black community to lose faith in him and the Supreme Court as a whole. Mr. Marshall challenged many of those "so-called" conservative principles in cases he argued before he was elevated to the court yet Justice Thomas seems to believe in the status quo, hence the animosity toward him in the Black community at large. Just my opinion though. Carry on.

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,598]

I think you oversimplified your Black voting history somewhat. Black people, when they were finally allowed to vote, voted overwhemingly for the Republican Party, "the party of Lincoln". It was the Democratic party that passed the Jim Crow laws and the other anti-Black laws which typified the southern, Klan thinking back then, I was told by my parents and grandparents that most Blacks and poor whites switched to the Democratic Party because of the Great Depression and President Hoover and the GOP's stance to let Big Business and Wall St bring us out of the economic downturn of the '30's. If you were a poor person, Black or White, and had to provide for your family the choice was easy, IMO, stick with the "party of Lincoln" and hope something would "trickle down" to those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, or go with FDR and the Democrats who provided jobs through the WPA, CCC, and the other alphabetland of agencies he created. If all else failed he at least provided limited Home Relief (welfare) for the truly poor, a program which the Republicans have demonized since day one. It always amuses me when people think Black,(or poor) = Liberal, when in my experience most Blacks and poor Latinos come from very conservative lineages historically. Mr. West and Mr. Thomas come across negatively to today's Black mainstream for entirely different reasons however. Mr West came across as a bombastic Tea Partier with his unproven pronouncements about Communist members of the Democratic Party. I believe he meant the Black and Latino caucuses in particular. Mr Thomas' problems in the Black community started when President GHW Bush nominated him for the Supreme Court. IIRC President Bush said words to the effect that Mr. Thomas was the most qualified person to be elevated to the court at the time. Many people, especially Blacks, thought that was BS, even before the Anita Hill controversy broke out. Add the fact that he was replacing Thurgood Marshall, a revered figure in Black history( Brown vs Board of Education 1954) and his strict, doctrinaire philosophy to the law and that has caused many in the Black community to lose faith in him and the Supreme Court as a whole. Mr. Marshall challenged many of those "so-called" conservative principles in cases he argued before he was elevated to the court yet Justice Thomas seems to believe in the status quo, hence the animosity toward him in the Black community at large. Just my opinion though. Carry on.

 

Yeah when I said historically I certainly wasn't going back that far... lol Also voting Democrat doesn't necessarily equal liberal either. Obama is not a real liberal but conservative on some social issues.

 

Correction. This Gentleman (Mr. Scott) is a now a US Senator from South Carolina not Governor.

 

Yeah Senator is what I meant to say.... You can thank the beginning of thread title for my error....

[R68 Subway Car 254]

Trainmaster5 made some solid points in his post about the issue of race and the political parties. On the issue of blacks in the GOP, the reason why Allan West faced criticism is because he made these inane and absolutely despicable remarks when he accused congressional Democrats of being communists. He deserved to lose his election. We do not need people like him in congress.