Blacks, Conservative Republicans, and Traditional American Values by Jan Ireland

Blacks, Conservative Republicans, and Traditional American Values

By Jan Ireland

July 26, 2004

Many Democrats say the Republican Party has nothing to offer blacks in America. They are either misinformed or deliberately lying.

Black Republican Vernon Robinson just won the North Carolina Congressional primary, and is likely to become the first black Republican since Reconstruction to represent a former confederate state in the United States Congress. He won the primary by running on the Republican Party platform of traditional American values.

Robinson ably expressed the conservative philosophy in a recent internet campaign speech to donors.

"We beat the pundits, who said that our message was 'too conservative' and too 'old-fashioned' for the voters, and that it was 'a political mistake' to run a pro-life radio ad. We beat the local NAACP and the racial agitators who called us 'racists' because we demanded an end to government-sponsored racial quotas and minority set-asides. We beat the radical homosexuals who called us 'homophobes' and 'gay bashers' just because we supported the right of the Boy Scouts to decide for themselves whether they want pedophiles in their pup tents and atheists as scoutmasters. We beat the illegal alien lobby who left threats taped to the door of our headquarters and called us 'mean-spirited gringos' just because we think it's insane for our national borders to be open to every terrorist and migrant alien in the world. We beat the editorial staffs of the district's liberal newspapers, all of whom advised their readers to vote against me (and one of whom told his readers to vote for ANYBODY but me) because I think English should be our national language. They called me 'the black Jesse Helms' when I called for no new taxes, and an 'Uncle Tom' when I said Bill Cosby was right to tell young blacks to quit making welfare babies, stop talking street talk jive, and get an education and a job. And as one reporter put it, we beat nine millionaires - the four who dropped out, and the five who didn't!"

Total spending by candidates reached 6 million dollars in this primary, making it the most expensive in the nation.

At least one of Robinson's five millionaire opponents wrote himself a million-plus check to fund his campaign. Robinson was a City Councilman in Winston-Salem who raised his money in small individual donations.

Still, Robinson emerged as the largest fundraiser in the field.

33,000 donors sent him more than 2 million dollars, with a quarter-million dollars raised on the internet. Democrats call Republicans the party of the rich, but that's an average of about $60 each - compared to Democrat billionaires who publicly bankroll any and every Republican-bashing group that emerges.

The Republican dollars going to Robinson seem not to have noticed color. They apparently only looked for values - and found them.

Vernon Robinson seems poised to win in the runoff with his liberal opponent. Despite every negative thing Democrats threw at him, Robinson's conservative message prevailed.

Traditional American values bond conservatives every time. That's the real value of the Republican Party platform for blacks in America.