First, you need a pretty face to sell the bull.
Angela McGlowan isn’t just a pretty face, but an actual beauty pageant winner. You work her up the system, getting her jobs as a staffer for a couple congressional Republicans (she worked for Sen. Bob Dole, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett - who voted against the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act - and Rep. John Ensign). After she’s seasoned, she’s hired by Fox News as a talking head - yet another black conservative on television, continuing the cable news strategy/habit of having the few blacks they have on air share the political persuasion of a considerable minority of actual black Americans. This serves a dual purpose: it tells blacks that there’s a line they’re better of toeing to get on television, and it makes white conservatives feel a little better about their movement’s racism - “see, we got blacks too”.
Then you hit the motherlode. McGlowan writes a book about how those liberals are hurting blacks, intriguingly her title “Bamboozled” is the same as the Spike Lee film discussing the minstrel show. Imagine that.
Now, of course there’s no actual truth or substance to the “intellectual” underpinnings of McGlowan’s screed, in fact it has been liberals - black liberals like Martin Luther King - who have done the most work in fighting towards racial equality in America. It is conservatives, who left the Democratic party in the ’60s in protest of LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act, who have overtly and covertly worked their asses off to keep the urban poor in their place, obstruct people from voting, support racially biased drug laws, and undermine any and all governmental initiatives to which minorities may benefit. All McGlowan’s posturing does is entice conservative publisher Thomas Nelson, who also publishes David Horowitz (“Echoing Lyndon LaRouche, Horowitz and Poe smear 14-year-old George Soros as Nazi “collaborator”; new book features doctored quotes, factual errors”) and Bill Bennett (“Bennett: “[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down”"), to give her a contract.
So already, you’ve got a pretty face fronting a provocative yet untrue premise to aid the right, and a book funded by the right to sell it. Next step.
Conservative columnist Don Surber writes a column indicating that McGlowan is raising interesting questions about the black vote. For an idea of how ridiculous this whole thing gets, Surber cites McGlowan’s argument that welfare reform ended up helping blacks. Of course, the person who signed this into law happened to be the man who has served as the liberal boogeyman for 16 years and counting - Bill Clinton.
So now we come to today, and in order to push Surber’s column and McGlowan’s book, right-wing blogger Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit links to both and asks “ARE THE DEMOCRATS IN DANGER OF LOSING THE BLACK VOTE?”. This is Reynold’s famous way (Glennuendo) of pushing something but giving himself deniability. It’s the blogosphere version of “questions swirl”. Now, the intriguing thing is that from 1996 to present, the black vote for Democrats has increased. It is the backbone f the party and in no danger of being lured away by shiny things or paid-for hucksters like McGlowan. White, mostly male, conservatives occasionally have pangs of guilt about conservativism’s relatively limited cultural composition and this is an attempt at self-help for them. I guarantee more than a couple will see Reynolds’ link, Surber’s column, and McGlowan’s book and come away with a world view that blacks are leaving the left to vote Republican when the reality is the opposite.
But it’s mission accomplished, again, for the con propaganda machine.
RELATED: Angela McGlowan believes Richard Nixon, who violated the law and disgraced the nation in a series of acts that led to his resignation, is “a great man”. That doesn’t represent the opinion of most sentient beings, let alone black Americans.
you’ve read the book right Ollie, I mean, you read it , right?
Of course lets try this on for size:
“Is the LAPD brutalizing people in this video?…..questions swirl….”
And of course this is the most perplexing statement in your little underinformed screed…
“For an idea of how ridiculous this whole thing gets, Surber cites McGlowan’s argument that welfare reform ended up helping blacks. Of course, the person who signed this into law happened to be the man who has served as the liberal boogeyman for 16 years and counting - Bill Clinton.”
So are you saying that welfare reform DID help blacks as McGlowan argues or are you saying you hero Clenis passed a law that was BAD for blacks?
Only because you have a “cheerleader” mentality to politics, does not mean everyone does.
Perhaps Mr. Reynolds was merely asking the question.
If you wanna make a mockery of McGlowan, you could just link to her “official website”. (I followed the Wikipedia link to it. She’s a really sad character.)
You’re going to keep harping on the LAPD thing which is fine, but note that my question was predicated on video showing cops hitting a guy with a nightstick. Furthermore its LAPD, who have a pretty hardcore history with this stuff when it comes to blacks. What I said has actual historical evidence. Which leads me to McGlowan’s bbok. No I haven’t read it but frankly I don’t need to stick my nose in excrement to know it smells either. McGlowans publisher did not send me a review copy as others do from time to time, and I have no desire to add my money to the other sums coming from the rich white conservative men who back McGlowan. What I did do was give it a flip through in the bookstore and within the first 20 pages she makes the inaccurate and well worn conservative argument that it is the Republican party with a consistent pro-black record. The historical fact is that the racist dixiecrats in the Democratic party fled to the gop once that party abandoned its Lincolesque posture in favor of civil rights with the ascension of conservative heroes Goldwater and later Reagan. That McGlowan commits this lie to paper so early in her book is indicative of excrement I have no interest in reading.
As far as welfare reform goes, it was an initiative supported by me and more importantly Bill Clinton that helped blacks. But according to the central premise of McGlowan’s book such a thing is impossible because blacks are hated by Democrats. Again, excrement I would rather not spend my valuable time reading but which has to be answered, refuted and exposed because of conservative propaganda.
I think people know when they’re being sold to.
The fact of the matter is that if any single minority were to vote in the maximum numbers allowed then the Democratic party would be unbeatable. A real move for voter initiative has the potential to disenfranchise the Republican party for decades.
Pedo sure is stupid. I guess he would have been happier if Oliver had proclaimed that video as proof positive of Police brutality instead of questioning the lack of context, such as when this occured, why this occured, where this occured, and other vital information that might help us actually know what was going on, and alowing us to find newspaper articles or other information . It was compelling video otherwise.
Of course, what Oliver should do is link to crazy conspiracy articles calling our atttention to them and then putting a question mark at the end, effectively trying to spread the crazy while trying not to attach it to himself. George Bush sold his soul to Satan? Dick Cheney and Karl Rove homosexual partners? Laura Bush has a bathtub made from the skulls of dead Iraqi children?
It’s wingnut welfare, with an uncomfortable overtone to it.
If you’re a young, attractive, intelligent ambitious black woman, and you’re a liberal/progressive, you have to compete with a legion of other young, attractive, intelligent, ambitious black women.
BUT
if you go over to the conservatives, you’ll have no competition. They’ll fall all over themselves to put you in prestigious (and highly visible) positions! You’ll get trotted out at all sorts of functions! And you’ll get a ton of money!
All you have to do is lie and smear and insult the intelligence and morality of the people who share your heritage.
But that’s OK: they’re just jealous…
This is perhaps one of the most intellectually lazy and least substantive thing I have ever seen written.
650 words of empty drivel, and I’ll explain why in an entry of my own.
Well there is no question that Clenis jumped right up on the well triangulated fact that americans wanted welfare reform. Also a fact that it was primarily a republican idea that clenis latched onto. Of course if people are doing the right thing, I couldn’t care less if there is an R or D or for that matter an I after their name. But you destroy your own argument by agreeing with her…
As far as you going back in history to determine that republicans don’t support black america, that is just plain malarkey. It is ridiculous to claim that forty some years after MLK was killed that he would still be a supporter of a party that promotes racial set asides and judging people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character….
Yes, because MLK would much rather be a supporter of the party who still embraces a pro-segregationist.
One thing I can’t let go of, because I found you the evidence before.
“…[C]conservatives… left the Democratic party in the ’60s in protest of LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act… ”
That’s not even an opinion or an interpretation. That is a lie!
I’m sorry the truth doesn’t satisfy you, but it was the Democratic Party’s alliance with the anti-war Left that doomed its chances in 1968, 1972 and 2004, I might add.
You’ll just have to look for evidence that the Republican Party is racist elsewhere. You can keep on making stuff up, then when it’s proved wrong, you can make up more stuff.
The Left - Lyin’ to sell their goods since 1848!
Yes, because racist southerners didn’t move to the Republican party from 1968-present and Lee Atwater never embraced a “southern strategy” to mobilize racist white conservatives in the south to vote for the Republican party.
Please, crack open a history book, you just sound dumb and daft.
Oliver WTF are you talking about?
The democrats want people segregated by color, albeit to give them extra bennies cause the democrats don’t think they can handle the world on a level playing field.
The democrats senior senator is the former Grand Kleagle of the KKK.
The democrats want to keep minorities down by constantly lowering expectations.
MLK would support a party that believes in EQUALITY…….
Oliver, don’t talk down to me.
Your tone doesn’t prove squat.
Lee Atwater was a kid in 1968. You’ve got your eras mixed up, along with a lot of other things.
What you’re pretending is in history books was on television and in the newspapers, when I was in college, and later on.
I’m just wondering…
It ain’t just the republican party’s stance on “Affirmative Action” anymore. Or “Hate Crimes”.
Blacks don’t vote republican ’cause of issues the Republican party doesn’t even think about: “Three Strikes,” “Mandatory Sentences” for drug crimes, “Voting Rights.
Yes, pedro us blacks iz so dumb we keeps voting for da party what keeps us down.
Frank, I’m not talking down to you I’m talking historical fact.
Republicans once had all the black vote because they were the party of emancipation. LBJ signed the civil rights act, alienating the dixiecrats - pro segregation Democrats - who eventually found a home in the Republican party who made a decision to go against civil rights politics and woo the white conservative south. Thus began the southern strategy that Lee Atwater used to help Ronald Reagan get over the top (unless you’re saying all those speeches from Reagan talking welfare moms were digitally manipulated, or the Bush campaign talking about McCain’s “black baby” was a trick of the light!).
This is all backed up in the historical record, and as I said, just open any history book and you’ll see it all. If it’s condescending to quote historical fact, then call me condescending, otherwise quit trying to rewrite history.
Based on your Stalinist rewrite of history, there was no reason for Ken Mehlman, then the RNC Chairman to say this:
It is because of people like you and pedro, who want to pretend away this history and prop up people like Angela McGlowan why the Republican party loses so badly among black voters and why the only major party candidate with a legitimate shot at the presidency who happens to be black is a Democrat.
I don’t suffer for it, either personally or politically. I encourage conservatives to embrace the racist roots of their movement because it just makes more liberals. But you are being intellectually dishonest.
I can honestly say that the only black conservatives I know of are the ones on TV or the newspaper OpEd pages. I know none personally.
What that tells me is this is about socioeconomic class, not race. I know plenty of “privileged” people who still think Nixon was a great man.
Pedro/Frank: Look up Kevin Phillips, a political fixer in the Nixon era. The Southern Stratgy was as real as Reagan’s announcing his candidacy in Philadelphia, MS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia,_Mississippi
Pedro, you’re incredibly politically tone-deaf, but even you can hear dog-whistle politics being spoken.
I get a HUGE laugh when COnservatives trot out the “We can’t figure out WHY it is that Blacks and Hispanics and minorities vote Democrat. It is just astounding! The answer must be dem darkies is just too stupid to see reason, right?
ROTFLMAO.
Take a look at the map of the Election in 2004: BUSH-GOP Country is every state in the Confederate States of America, plus a couple.
I am pleased Ken Mehlman was drummed out as GOP chair last year. He was one of the few GOP leadeers who got it: Without Blacks and Hispanics in it, more than just the couple hundred thousand Cuban-Americans, the GOP will be relegated to history as the permanent-minority “angry white male” party it has become.
I read more than a few wingnut posts kicking Mehlman for stooping down to beg for Black votes. More power to ‘em.
Embrace the hate, babies. Embrace it. It’s who you are.
Riiight Oliver, that southern strategy put Reagan over the top. It seems Reagan had a strategy for every section of the country. In 1980 Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49 for President Jimmy Carter. Thats the historical record.
And for the record, This southern republican is flat out tired of this southern strategy BS that is constantly being pushed. Most of the R’s I know are not racist and many of them have black members of the family. But you keep holding on to the dream.
And in ‘84, every electoral vote except for Minnesota (with a Minnesota Democrat running against him.)
Putting him over the top. More comedy from OW.
So you guys are both denying that Lee Atwater used racism to help the Reagan campaign and that the southern strategy ever existed (and does this to this day)? My, what a fancy world it must be to live in the GOP dream world where you can imagine away the party’s racism.
Oh- and how typical of you to take Bill Bennett out of context. I just happened to be listening to him the morning he said that, and know exactly what he said before and after, and what he was talking about- in the context in which he said it.
I’m pretty confident you know too.
If you want to truly judge Republican attitudes towards blacks….look no further than the current Attorney purge scandal where two of the USA were fired for basically not prosecuting “voter fraud” cases. These “cases” were used by the Republican party at large to purge Blacks and other minorities (which tend to vote Democratic) from voter rolls.
To get a further grip on the love Republicans supposedly have for blacks and other minorites please read the following article which documents a wide scale and instituionalized pattern of voter disenfranchisment that is the essence of Republican electoral strategy: also called CHEATING:
Republicans love blacks so much they prevent them from voting in elections
Here’s a little excerpt:
The administration, however, has repeatedly invoked allegations of widespread voter fraud to justify tougher voter ID measures and other steps to restrict access to the ballot, even though research suggests that voter fraud is rare.
Since President Bush’s first attorney general, John Ashcroft, a former Republican senator from Missouri, launched a “Ballot Access and Voter Integrity Initiative” in 2001, Justice Department political appointees have exhorted U.S. attorneys to prosecute voter fraud cases, and the department’s Civil Rights Division has sought to roll back policies to protect minority voting rights.
On virtually every significant decision affecting election balloting since 2001, the division’s Voting Rights Section has come down on the side of Republicans, notably in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Washington and other states where recent elections have been decided by narrow margins.
Joseph Rich, who left his job as chief of the section in 2005, said these events formed an unmistakable pattern.
“As more information becomes available about the administration’s priority on combating alleged, but not well substantiated, voter fraud, the more apparent it is that its actions concerning voter ID laws are part of a partisan strategy to suppress the votes of poor and minority citizens,” he said.
I thought I’d take this opportunity to re-visit the African American Republican Leadership Council’s website and learn all about what the Republican party has to offer black voters.
You’ll be happy to know that you can go back in time and still vote for the big African American republican quadumverate of Steele, Swann, Blackwell and, of course, Bob Corker.
And oh! That visionary plan for changing America is still there: “learn to speak English dumbasses!”, which will boldly lead to that wonderful Republican vision of the future for Black America: NOT FOUND.
So DONATE money Black voters so the Republicans can lose your future while teaching you to speak English.
If you want the votes of a specific group of people, don’t you have to support at least some policies which tend to specifically benefit that group, and oppose at least some policies which tend to specifically hurt the interests of that group?
Which specific policies do conservative politicians support which tend to benefit people of color, and which specific policies which hurt the interests of people of color do conservative politicians tend to oppose?
A pretty basic question.
Most of the R’s I know are not racist and many of them have black members of the family.
I bet some of their best friends are black too!
Gawd, wotta putz.
Most of the R’s I know are not racist and many of them have black members of the family.
I bet some of their best friends are black too!
Gawd, wotta putz.
Most of the R’s I know are not racist and many of them have black members of the family.
I don’t even wanna start with the pickaninny jokes
Read here.
“Angela McGlowan believes Richard Nixon, who violated the law and disgraced the nation in a series of acts that led to his resignation, is “a great man”. That doesn’t represent the opinion of most sentient beings, let alone black Americans.”
CLASSIC!
Replace richard nixon with Bill Clinton and remove “resignation”…
How ironic…
Nice post Jay….
Except that Bill Clinton is liked by the vast majority of people while only a deranged few (the same people who believe Bush is Jesus and that there are WMDs in Iraq) believe otherwise.
I would like to get back to the main gist of the entry. Oliver, your breakdown of how the process works to get minority ‘Republicans’ public/media stature is quite good.
But your analysis of why they do it seems a bit generous. To me their motivation is purely cynical. They do this simply to try and attract black voters with the image of black conservatives, not by actually pushing policy that helps lower income communities.
I do not buy the white guilt angle. It is simply visual propaganda.
http://www.progressivemovement.net
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