RAGGED THOTS

It's been a few years since I went down to DC to revel in the madness that is CPAC (or "Comic-Con for conservatives" as told one friend somewhat unfamiliar with the goings-on). The last time Newt was one of the speakers. He was greeted like the rock star he once was (he entered the hall to Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger.").

Anyway, I hadn't planned on attending this year, but my old Capitol Hill friend Ron Christie asked me to participate in a panel he was moderating called, "The Content of Your Character." Oh, my, what on earth might that be about? Yep, it's another "outreach" thing. Seriously? Haven't we done enough of those. Does anything really change in Republican/conservative environments on that topic? And, oh, yeah, they scheduled us for 3 PM on Saturday, near the end of the third full day. Many people would already be heading for the exits. Do I really need to put myself through this?

But, Ron asked me and, hey, the principles of improv urge you to say, "Yes." (Uh, Robert, remember that definition of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result!)  I chatted with Ron on Friday and told him, if I was going to do this, I'd do it on my terms and say what *I* wanted to say -- not just recite the same old pablum attendees at these gatherings always get.

Anyway, that's what I did. Besides Ron and myself, the panel included Mercedes ("Mercy") Schlapp, wife of CPAC's organizer Matt. Her parents fled Cuba when Castro took over; I met her mother. The memory and the anger is still there. Though I fall into that camp who believes U.S. policy toward Cuba must change, it's hardly a clear-cut case on either side.  Mercedes warned conservatives that, regardless of where they stood on the issue of immigration, the tone they adopted was as important as the policy itself. The fourth person was Patrice Lee, a smart attractive young woman from the organization Generation Opportunity -- a free-market Millenals-focused group. She looked at criminal justice issues as something that could open doors to some in the minority community. Patrice also revealed that she was from the Caribbean island of Monserat. Thankfully, she's Protestant, so I didn't have to lose my "Catholic West Indian black Republican" line!

While we each included biographical moments in our remarks, I tried to focus more on getting Republicans off of the old "Party of Lincoln" baloney candidates inevitably start presenting when they campaign in front of "communities of color." As I said, I'm glad that you support Lincoln's freeing of the slaves, but seriously, what do you have to say to black communities today?

This sentiment also extends to the even-more-prevalent "Party of Reagan" line. I asked how many attendees were born after 1989: About two-thirds of the audience hands went up. These young kids weren't even alive when Ronald Reagan was president. So, why is it "Reagan this, Reagan that" for GOP candidates. I didn't get a chance to make this point, but it's interesting to note that Democrats rarely refer to themselves as the "Party of Roosevelt" or "Kennedy" or "Carter" (uh, well, scratch that one). Next year, they may talk "Party of Clinton," but that's a special case. Democrats do celebrate their legislative legacies...Social Security, Medicare, Civil Rights Act, etc. But not the personalities.

Perhaps Republicans might consider doing the same, if they're looking to capture the next generation of voters?

Our CPAC panel can be seen here:

Labels: American Conserivative Union, black conservatives, CPAC, race

The Manhattan Institute's Heather Mac Donald articulates her difficulty with Gov. Palin's syntax -- and the right's happy tolerance:

I know, it’s elitist to expect a candidate for president or vice president to speak like an adult. Sure, there are parents out there battling the “like” epidemic who might not appreciate having someone in the White House validating their 15-year-olds’ speech habits. But, hey: “Total role reversal here.” (Palin, of course, can sound adolescent even when she uses the right verbs, as when she disingenuously denied her snarky put-down of Joe Biden’s age while lauding herself as “you know, . . . the new energy, the new face, the new ideas.”) It’s even more elitist to expect a vice president to put together sentences that cohere into a minimally logical progression of thought. There was a time, however, when conservatives upheld adult standards—such as clarity of speech and thought—without apology, even in the face of the relentless downward pull of adolescent culture. But now, when a vice-presidential candidate talks like a teenager, mugs like an American Idol contestant, and traffics in syntactical dead-ends and non sequiturs, we are supposed to find her charming and authentic.

Apparently, the multigenerational Bush family war on the English language has inured many on the right to proper speech.

Mac Donald also addresses the central point I raised in "The GOP's Palin Problem -- and Mine":

Conservatives will also have a hard time backpedaling from the hypocrisy they displayed regarding Palin’s family situation. Pundits and talk radio hosts rushed to explain why the pregnancy of Governor Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was a wonderful thing. Answer: because the baby would not be aborted. But every born baby of a teen parent has not been aborted, by definition. While from a pro-life perspective, the decision to carry any child to term is laudable, the celebration of Bristol's decision became difficult to distinguish from a celebration of teen motherhood itself. In the past, conservatives have not flinched from pointing out the social and economic costs of teen pregnancy; taking up that theme again, after the happy family-values face put on Bristol’s imminent motherhood, is going to be awkward, to say the least.

And to further underscore Heather's point, Bristol's baby daddy Levi gave an interview this week where he revealed that, yes, he still plans to marry Bristol, but, well, he's dropping out of high school to take a job as an apprentice electrician. Now, if that doesn't perfectly summarize the "problem" with teen pregnancy -- along with the baby comes along things such as interruptions in education.

Forgive me for being old school, but you'd think that somebody could explain to this young man that it might be smarter to at least stick around to get the high school diploma before getting the apprenticeship.

But, hey, like Heather Mac Donald, I'm just one of those Northeast elitists.

Labels: black conservatives, Presidential politics, sarah palin

...for several black conservatives:

Just as Obama has touched black Democratic voters, he has engendered conflicting emotions among black Republicans. They revel over the possibility of a black president but wrestle with the thought that the Illinois senator doesn't sit beside them ideologically.
"Among black conservatives," Williams said, "they tell me privately, it would be very hard to vote against him in November."

....

J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma congressman who once was part of the GOP House leadership, said he's thinking of voting for Obama. Watts said he's still a Republican, but he criticizes his party for neglecting the black community.
Black Republicans, he said, have to concede that while they might not agree with
Democrats on issues, at least that party reaches out to them.
"And Obama highlights that even more," Watts said, adding that he expects Obama to take on issues such as poverty and urban policy. "Republicans often seem indifferent to those things."
Likewise, retired Gen. Colin Powell, who became the country's first black secretary of state under President George W. Bush, said both candidates are qualified and that he will not necessarily vote for the Republican.

"I will vote for the individual I think that brings the best set of tools to the problems of 21st-century America and the 21st-century world regardless of party, regardless of anything else other than the most qualified candidate," Powell said Thursday in Vancouver in comments reported by The Globe and Mail in Toronto.

All of this suggests, rightly, that political choices come down to more than ideology or policy. There is often a "gut" feeling that comes into play. It's easy to say that this comes down to just "race." But RT contributor David Bernstein shared some of the deeper complexities a couple months ago (after -- ahem! -- a bar conversation on the topic with a certain founder of RT, but that's another story):

And yet ... I, like many folks, find him strangely compelling. And it's not just because we're fellow "mixed-race Americans", although that is certainly part of it -- I mean, I never expected to see a presidential candidate who shared both my skin tone and my haircut -- but the touch of Obamamania I feel at times goes beyond mere ethnic association.

So what is it? I think it comes from the dreams I have had that, sometime in my lifetime, we would actually live in a post-racial society -- that skin color would matter no more (and hopefully less) than other attributes when measuring the status and character of individuals. I used to write about this regularly in the early 90s; I even published a magazine called Diversity & Division based on the premise of post-racialism way back then.

And here's the kicker. I always assumed that the first successful post-racial politician would be a conservative. Liberals, and partisan Democrats in particular, are so caught up in race that it just didn't seem possible for them to get behind a candidate of color who wasn't a Sharpton-esque loudmouth or some slick machine pol deftly practiced at playing on white guilt.

Obama, whatever else you say about him, doesn't ask for white guilt. I love him for that, and so do many other conservatives of a certain age. And I, like all the cute young college girls at an Obama rally, got caught up in the possibilities, in symbolism that his candidacy represents -- of a new America where a mulatto guy named Barack could get elected president based on his ideas
and personality, not on some fouled up racial dynamic.

Karol Sheinin, by the way, thinks that J.C. Watts isn't being completely straightforward on his reasons for possibly voting for Obama:

That's funny, because when I interviewed him in 2004, during an African-Americans for Bush event at the Waldorf Astoria in NY, (video here) and asked him what the Republican party could do to attract more black voters, he said they should just keep doing what they're doing. He didn't indicate there was any room for improvement and he disputed my assertion that doing what we've been doing hasn't worked.

Karol may have a point. However, it's never really a good idea to take what a politician says at a political convention at face value: They are usually "on," at that point, i.e. sticking to the party line on just about every topic that comes up. At this point, four years later, and not working to re-elect an incumbent president, Watts may feel to free to share what he really thinks.

Labels: Barack Obama, black conservatives