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May 11, 2004
I believe in one War
The Father, the Almighty, destroyer of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. Eternally begotten of the Father, War from War, Bomb from Bomb, begotten, not made, of one being with the War. Through War all things were made for us and for our salvation War came down from heaven: by the power of the Human Spirit it became incarnate. . . and was made man.For War's sake humans are crucified, suffer death and are buried. On the third day no one will rise again and no one will ascend into heaven. War will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and its kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Human Spirit, the taker of life, who proceeds from the Father and the War. With the Father and the War it is worshipped and glorified. It has spoken through its profits. I acknowledge one War for the commission of sins. I look for no resurrection of the dead, and to the Wars of the world to come. Amen.
Praise the Father that Greg Carter transcribed that from get your voltr on; I was worried I've have to type the thing meself. . .
Any road up, in the words of the immoral Doctor Clayton Forrester, today's experiment stems from Yes, Democrats DO take black folks for granted:
Unfortunately, most folks who begin to recognize this fact are reluctant to even take a second (or for most a first) glance at the Republican or Libertarian parties, opting instead not to vote at all.
Left the <sarcasm> tags out again, didn't I?
All right, then. Fine. Today, I shall be taking a first glance at the Republican and Libertarian parties.
Which seems like the political equivalent of SUPER SIZE ME, really.
Our first stop, setting the stage and illustrating your tax dollars at work, US Dept of State - African Americans and the 2004 U.S. Elections:
Question: In 2002, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies asked black respondents in its national survey to identify themselves as either Democrats, Independents or Republicans. Although 63 percent claimed to be Democrats, the number was down from 74 percent in 2000. Is this trend continuing and is the Republican Party making special efforts to bring African Americans back to the party of Abraham Lincoln?Walters: The Republican Party in each election cycle has claimed that they are making such efforts, but it's very difficult to see them. African Americans will say, for example, that they have changed their party identification. Right now, however, the growth in party identification is for neither major party, but with Independents. Yet, when you look at how people actually vote, African Americans voted 90 percent Democrat in the last election in each age group. So, although some of the past Joint Center studies show that younger blacks below the age of 35 were more conservative on some issues, still, when it came to political behavior, they voted pretty much like their elders.
Here's that context thing all the kids are into these days:
In a recent interview, Dr. Ron Walters, director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland, spoke with Washington File staff writer Darlisa Crawford about the role of African Americans in the 2004 election. Dr. Walters is a recognized expert on African American involvement in electoral politics and a frequent political commentator on network television. Also see this issue's Campaign Highlight feature which includes a discussion of outreach to minority voters by the Republican Party.
Links added.
And I could'a sworn I read something recently about how outreach, by and large, never fucking works, and unless you've built your organization from the ground up with participation by whoever you're outreaching to, they're gonna feel like the estranged Other. But I'm pretty sure I read that about women of color in feminist groups, so that rather dismal conclusion couldn't possibly apply here.
So. Let's have a look at those "special efforts to bring African Americans back to the party of Abraham Lincoln."
From the founding of the Republican Party to today, African Americans have been central to the GOP. The leadership of President George W. Bush provides an opportunity for us to work together and better include everyone of all backgrounds in the Republican Party. Bringing African Americans back to the Party of Lincoln has been a central priority of President Bush, RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie, and is the mission of the RNC's African American Team Leader Outreach program. President Bush has been a champion of real policies that will make a difference to African Americans - from the No Child Left Behind Act that improves education through choice and accountability, to strengthening faith-based and community organizations, to welfare reform that helps people find work. Working together with African Americans in communities across the country, we can make the Party of Lincoln stronger and more diverse than ever before.
That's from either GOP.com or RNC.org, depending on if you look at the page title or the actual URI. Interestingly, the repeated use of the phrase "Party of Lincoln" ain't outreaching. Reminds me of some other, considerably more dramatic instances of similar rhetoric appearing on official Republican Party pages and on government sites, but that's probably not the desired effect. And do they use that phrase constantly, or just when they're outreaching? To sort of underline the outreachiness? Because I'm very close to deciding that's an immutable word rather than a phrase, and running it together like wimmenandminorities or gassedhisownpeople.
And they probably don't want me asking either the teachers or people with children that I know how that No Child Left Behind deal is working for them.
Faith based?
Two months ago, a black minister in Chicago told the New York Times, "If the KKK opposes gay marriage, I would ride with them."
Can we run some sort of tests on the faithful? Intelligence, empathy, pain tolerance, I'm quite flexible. . . the black minister (Baptist, of course) was Gregory Daniels, of United Voters for Truth and Change.
Which name, I suppose, is like how the old Soviet republics used to have the word "Democratic" randomly tossed into them.
And welfare reform? Which the Clenis shamelessly stole as an issue, if I remember a'right?
Another little suggestion. Remember just a very few short paragraphs ago when I said the whole PartyofLincoln thing, when only used in outreaching, kind'a turns me off?
If I have to explicitly complete that thought, I will kill you once I'm done.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go wash their stink off of me before proceeding to the Libertarian portion of our program.
Posted by Aaron at May 11, 2004 07:25 AM
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