Did he do a perfect job? No. He made some mistakes, but overall he did a good job. Now, I wouldn't have gone into the history of civil rights and the republican party, nobody really cares today that once upon a time that people such as Marting Luther King was a republican. I also don't buy into the meme that most blacks don't understand that history. They feel that the republican party is now racist. Granted, that is something that they are conditioned to believe from childhood, but they have access to the same history books that we do.
He also missed some opportunities. The most important coming in the Q&A section. One young man asked about government staying out of your life. He didn't do enough to explain the difference between limited government and no government. Precious few believe in "no government".
For those who call this pandering, grow up. He promised them nothing, except the promise of what a limited government can do improve their lives. School vouchers is a big issue within the black community and it is something that we need to hit hard in order to get them to see that we are indeed on their side.
This was a small, but important step.
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Well-stated words, as usual.
"I wouldn't have gone into the history of civil rights and the republican party..."
Thank you. Oddly, this is a tactic that a lot of GOP-ers/conservatives use consistently (esp. white GOP-ers/conservatives). Apparently it's their way of saying, "See? We're really on your side." But what it really says is "I thought you were too stupid to know this, even though this is a predominantly African-American college campus."
More importantly, as you stated, what WAS isn't nearly as important as what IS. Yes, blacks used to vote GOP 50 years ago. So what? Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority was mostly Democrats 30-plus years ago. What does any of that have to do with 2013?
The party of the Old White South segrationists is obviously not the same party that elected the country's first African-American president. Sure, technically it is. But technically, a lot of things are no longer what they used to be (like AMERICA 50 years ago!)
So why pretend otherwise? Imagine a Democrat approaching Ralph Reed and saying, "You should join us. Jerry Falwell did long time ago."
Maybe the GOP should ask different questions. Like WHY do blacks vote 90% Democrat? Or WHY do Asians, Jews and Latinos vote 70% Democrat?
But if the leaders of the GOP think it's all a simple case of naivete or stupidity, or that these people just want stuff, etc., then they might as well save us all a bunch of time and hang it up now.
In 2008 and 2012, we all heard right-leaning talk show hosts, and others, suggest rather casually and confidently that blacks would likely riot if Obama lost those elections. Their evidence? Who knows?
As a black man, and ex-GOP-er, I personally don't think your rank-and-file white GOP-er/conservative is a bigot -- I really don't. But to suggest that it's virtually unfathomable for an intelligent person to harbor suspicions of that sort is kind of bizarre.
Yet this is exactly what leading voices in the GOP and the conservative movement SEEM to believe. If not, they need to explain themselves, but honestly.
But having said all that, I agree with you. You gotta start somewhere. And for that, Rand Paul deserves encouragement.
Well stated. I wish Paul would take a few months of intense education, though. He sounds illiterate and unintelligent the way he can't even pronounce "social security", to give just one example. When I read him, he seems like the best and brightest on the political scene. But when I listen to him, his "Goober barely graduated 8th grade" poor grasp of a lot of words make him seem as dumb as Joe "Y'all in Chains" Biden. Well.. no, this last bit goes too far.
Net: One major reason blacks vote Democrat is the corrupting influence of blatant racism. Democrats favor hiring quotas and similar policies specifically designed to tilt the playing field and give blacks special advantage. This "buys" a lot of black votes. The GOP takes the high road and insists on equal rights for all. It's the only honorable path, but it doesn't buy votes like the Dems' deliberately racist and divisive politics do.
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