One Is All You Need

Jack Kelly of Real Clear Politics takes a look at black Republicans running this year and declares it a "resurgence".  To me, it proves just how far African-Americans have to go in the Republican Party.

I bet you haven't heard of Tim Scott, Allen West or Ryan Frazier. If they were Democrats, I might lose that bet.

But they're not. Mr. Scott, Mr. West and Mr. Frazier are three of the 14 black candidates running for Congress as Republicans this November. Thirty-two black Republicans ran in the primaries.

Most of the 14 are running all-but-hopeless races against black Democratic incumbents in black majority districts. But Mr. Scott, running in South Carolina, is a virtual cinch to win. Mr. West (Florida) and Mr. Frazier (Colorado) are in races that are judged tossups.

If all three win, that would be a post-Reconstruction record. The largest number of black Republicans to serve together in the House in the last century is two, J.C. Watts (Oklahoma) and Gary Franks (Connecticut) between 1995 and 1997. There haven't been any since Mr. Watts retired in 2003.

One might think the resurgence of black Republicans, coming as it does at a time when a black Democrat is president, would rate more than a feature story or two in the national media. But that would conflict with the liberal meme that Republicans are racist.

Tim Scott is indeed in a strong position to win.  Kelly also goes on to talk about gains Latinos have made in the Republican Party, especially in Florida.  But the first black Republican in Congress in eight years doesn't bring the GOP absolution any more than it makes a junkie cured when quitting after eight years of drug abuse, and the rest of Kelly's story shows it.

Accusations of racism against Republicans are a staple of Democratic politics because Democrats need to keep blacks on the plantation to remain viable nationally. "Young people and minorities are all the president has left," the National Journal headlined its story on a poll released Wednesday.

Barack Obama got 96 percent of the black vote in 2008. If "only" 80 percent of blacks routinely voted Democratic, it's hard to see how Democrats could win in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, North Carolina or Florida.

Here's a hint, Jack.  When you assume that African-Americans are as a whole too stupid to do anything but vote for Democrats, and attribute their loyalty to the Democrats as enslavement and being kept "on a plantation", it doesn't make African-Americans want to vote for Republicans, dig?

In fact, it makes us think Republicans are racists.  I've voted for Republicans before, too.  There are times when they are the better candidate.  But that seems like a lifetime ago.  When you weigh the pros and cons of the party in 2010 and continue to come up with Democrats as your preferred candidate, it doesn't make me a plantation slave, it makes me exercising my right to vote as an American.

But hey, what would I know.  I'm just a po' house boy.