They've been called Oreos, traitors and Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values. Now black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement — and for having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation's first black president.I've known, and still know, several African-American conservatives. I've had long discussions with them in college during the Clinton years about how only by voting for Republicans can we get the real attention of the Democrats and stop being taken for granted as de facto support for the Donks. One heated conversation about NAFTA's passage led to a good friend of mine (he's now an engineer in Texas) saying that we were basically enslaved by neglect. I pointed out to him that if conservatism was so great for civil rights, how come it was the Democrats who kept passing legislation towards equality, while Republicans stood against it?
"I've been told I hate myself. I've been called an Uncle Tom. I've been told I'm a spook at the door," said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a group of black conservatives who support free market principles and limited government.
"Black Republicans find themselves always having to prove who they are. Because the assumption is the Republican Party is for whites and the Democratic Party is for blacks," he said.
Johnson and other black conservatives say they were drawn to the tea party movement because of what they consider its commonsense fiscal values of controlled spending, less taxes and smaller government. The fact that they're black — or that most tea partyers are white — should have nothing to do with it, they say.
"You have to be honest and true to yourself. What am I supposed to do, vote Democratic just to be popular? Just to fit in?" asked Clifton Bazar, a 45-year-old New Jersey freelance photographer and conservative blogger.
Opponents have branded the tea party as a group of racists hiding behind economic concerns — and reports that some tea partyers were lobbing racist slurs at black congressmen during last month's heated health care vote give them ammunition.
But these black conservatives don't consider racism representative of the movement as a whole — or race a reason to support it.
Angela McGlowan, a black congressional candidate from Mississippi, said her tea party involvement is "not about a black or white issue."
"It's not even about Republican or Democrat, from my standpoint," she told The Associated Press. "All of us are taxed too much."
There's a difference between fiscal conservatism, which I can respect, and social conservatism, which I do not. Dubya-era Republicans weren't conservatives any more than Bill Clinton was and still aren't. I look at the national GOP right now, without a single elected black face, and then Michael Steele. And I see some of these tea party folks and I shake my head. No, not all of them are racists. Some of them certainly are. That's actually not the point: look at Angela McGlowan there. "All of us are taxed too much."
Obama lowered taxes for 95% of us as a result. Does MgGlowan give Obama credit for that? No. She uses the same mendacious half-truths that white tea party folk use to cover up the fact they hate Democrats, they hate being out of political power, and they hate Barack Obama. Buying into that ignorance...that's what enslaves one's mind and spirit. As I've said time and time again, the logical, principled arguments that the tea party folks keep bringing up are easily defeated, or they're just plain out lies.
They've convinced themselves they are right anyway. Self-delusion doesn't need a skin color. This article continues that delusion and now the Wingers will scream "SEE?!?! Democrats hate black people!!!" when we, you know, elected one President while the GOP has...nobody.
That's evidence that is hard to ignore.
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