Press "Enter" to skip to content

Month: October 2016

Paradigm Shift

This election has been different in a lot of ways, but one way that has been pretty much ignored by the media (main stream or not) is the large numbers of African-Americans who loudly and proudly say they are voting for Donald Trump. This has not happened before with any other Republican candidate since at least the 1950s.

It should be pointed out that the Republican party is the natural home of African Americans, since it was born out of the Abolitionist movement of the nineteenth century and since the Democrat legislatures in the South voted to secede from the union just because the first Republican president was elected. The Republican party came into being to free African American slaves. The Republican party gave freed African Americans the right to vote and restored that right when Democrat politicians in the South disenfranchised them through Jim Crow laws.

However, in the 1960s, John Kennedy was attractive to many African Americans and he started the ball rolling on what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was filibustered and voted against by members of his own party, including Al Gore, Sr. and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan Robert Byrd. Republicans voted for it en masse.


After JFK was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson vowed to “have those N*****s voting Democrat for 100 years” by introducing the “War on Poverty”, which greatly increased Federal welfare programs. And he was successful in getting African Americans to vote for Democrats by more than 90% ever since.

Until now.

If you surf the net and social media you will find quite a bit of video of rank-and-file African Americans who are voting for the Republican nominee this time (as in my previous post). Johnson’s vow survived for 50 years, not 100.

So what’s different this time? I think there are three reasons African Americans are breaking with the past and voting Republican in 2016:

1. Barack Obama. The current president has been a real eye-opener for the African American community. They voted for him in huge numbers and many still support him, but many, many others are disillusioned. They thought voting for the first African American president would solve the nation’s racial and discrimination problems, but instead, the ecomony has worsened. Unemployment in the African-American community is nearly 50% in some age groups. Also, race relations, instead of improving have worsened, with the Obama Administration often stoking the fires by standing with violent agitators against the police that keep the peace in their communities. The movement that became “Black Lives Matter” has destroyed economic infrastructure in African American communities over narratives that often proved to be false.

The upshot is many have realized that voting skin color is meaningless.

2. Hillary Clinton. Secondly, the Democrat candidate is terrible. She is obviously a liar and a crook. Anybody who objectively looks at her activities as Secretary of State and the relationship to the Clinton Foundation realizes that she is corrupt and likely guilty of criminal wrongdoing (James Comey aside). Donald Trump called the foundation a “criminal enterprise” and he is exactly right. The “pay-to-play” money trail is definitely an impeachable offense. Destroying 33,000 emails AFTER receiving a subpeona is obstruction of justice.

Many in the African American community are CONSERVATIVE Christians, so the evidence of lies and corruption is just too great this time and, while they have overlooked the Democrat platform on abortion before, Hillary’s defence of partial-birth abortion is too much for many of them to bear.

3. Donald Trump. The first two reasons might not have been enough to allow African Americans to vote for the Republican nominee if that nominee had been Jeb Bush, but because it is Donald Trump, they feel they can. Why? Because Donald Trump is not like all the previous Republican nominees. He is so unlike them in fact that many of those previous nominees are not supporting him. The establishment (donors, consultants, moderate politicians and pundits) opposes him, so, although he is the Republican nominee, he’s not the Republican PARTY’S first choice. In fact, many in the GOP establishment have said they will vote for Clinton!

For African Americans, even though Trump is white, he doesn’t seem like the milquetoast, white-bread, silk-stocking GOP nominees of the past. Even though he’s a billionaire, African Americans (as well as the hundreds of thousands of all races who have attended Trumps’ rallies) see him as someone they can relate to; someone who understands their plight.

Trump’s promise to create jobs and turn the economy around rings true because he has a lot of experience creating jobs and building economic prosperity, and that’s what’s needed by African Americans and all Americans.

Leave a Comment

The Bottom Line

shutterstock_239614381I haven’t had much to say during this excruciating political season. One reason it has been excruciating is that I have friends on almost every side of the four-sided presidential battle. I don’t know that anybody is totally enthusiastic about the options this time around, but as I said in an earlier post, I haven’t been totally enthusiastic about any Republican nominee since 1984 (What about the Democrats, you ask? Not a chance! They have moved so far left that JFK wouldn’t recognize his party).

But I will vote, as I always do. As usual, it comes down to the lesser of evils (or incompetents!). You can rage against the injustice and cry, “Is this the best we can do?” all you want, but on election day we all have to decide among the choices on the ballot, unless we just stay home and let everyone else decide for us. Then we have no right to complain for the next four years.

So, what’s the bottom line?

For me, it’s about playing the odds. Who is more likely to do the things I think need to be done? I’m only going to consider Trump and Clinton. Sorry my third-party friends, but Johnson (Libertarian) and Stein (Green) will only play a spoiler role; there’s no chance either of them will be elected.

There are a few things that are important to me. Which of the two major-party candidates will be more likely to do what I think needs to be done? Below is the way I score it. It’s not the least bit scientific. I’m just giving you my gut feeling.

  1. Defeat the Islamic State savages and end the Christian genocide around the world: Trump 48%; Clinton 22%. I put Trump below 50% because fighting Islamic extremism is pretty much a game of Whack-a-Mole, but I believe he will try. Clinton may try also, but I believe she would be less effective because her political correctness hamstrings her.
  2. Stop the bleeding and reduce the national debt: Trump 25%; Clinton: minus 10%. I only gave Trump 25% because reducing the national debt will be very difficult even if you want to, since there are so many programs like Social Security and Medicare that are huge revenue hogs. Clinton will not only NOT reduce the debt but will certainly increase it.
  3. Simplify the tax code and reduce taxes on small business to reboot the economy and create jobs: Trump 65%; Clinton: 0%. Another big job, but I think Trump will try. Clinton doesn’t have a clue how the economy works or how jobs are created.
  4. Turn back the tide of onerous regulations from the un-elected, unaccountable, byzantine Federal bureaucracy: Trump 30%; Clinton: 0%. I’ve been gratified to hear Trump mention cutting the bureaucracy; it would make me very happy, but I know that the interests are deeply entrenched and powerful, so it will be very difficult. Clinton, are you kidding?
  5. Repeal and replace ObamaCare: Trump 45%; Clinton minus 30%. Again, it won’t be easy, but I believe Trump will try. Clinton, who tried to put us on the road to socialist health care when she was first lady, will definitely make things worse.
  6. Actually enforce existing immigration laws and once again honor immigrants who enter the country legally: Trump 75%; Clinton:0%. Trump has made getting control of our porous borders and following existing immigration laws a centerpiece of his campaign. As for Hillary Clinton, in spite of Trump’s position on immigration being identical to her husband’s when he was president, she is totally committed to a borderless, lawless society.
  7. Once again make America’s friends trust us, our enemies fear us and our citizens proud: Trump 45%; Clinton 10%. Why did I score Trump so low, when his campaign slogan is “Make America Great Again”, you ask? Simply because Trump means well, but he does say embarrassing things, so at times he will make us very proud; other times not so much. Clinton will continue Obama’s legacy of apologetic timidity. The only reason I gave her 10% is because she is at least culturally an American, unlike Obama.
  8. Appoint federal judges to the circuits and the Supreme Court that will follow the Constitution and uphold our founding principles: Trump 70%; Clinton 5%. This won’t be hard for Trump to try to do, but even when you try, sometimes you get David Souter. Clinton might accidentally appoint a good judge.

I could go on, but you get the idea. As I see it, the choice is clear. Not ideal, but clear.

Leave a Comment