Bill Bennett was on CNN demanding that Bush and
McCain order South Carolina to take down the Confederate
flag. In case you have forgotten him, Bill Bennett
is yesterday's media-beloved respectable conservative.
He and his partner, Jack Kemp, fought hard for the
position of Liberal's Most Beloved Conservative.
It seems like a long time now, but there was a time
when Kemp was a darling of conservatives. He declared
himself a "bleeding heart conservative,"
and the press ate it up. He was the John McCain
of the mid-nineties. And he acted a lot like McCain
is acting. The media would say something about how
great he was, and he would giggle and say more things
about how great minorities were and how unfeeling
other conservatives were.
In 1996, Dole named Kemp as his vice presidential
candidate. Then came the vice presidential debate
with Gore. Kemp agreed with every nasty thing Gore
said about how bad other Republicans were and how
uniquely loving Kemp was. It got so bad even Dole's
operatives were sickened by it.
Like Kemp, McCain always says something to put down
conservatives and gladden the press. His trimmed-down
tax cuts with all the right words about the poor
was just what the media wanted. He denounced the
Confederate flag as a symbol of bigotry and slavery.
But then he said it was up to South Carolinians
to decide what to do about it. I am sure he wanted
to do what Bennett tells him to do, but he is desperate
to win the primary here.
McCain hasn't gone over the edge yet, but four years
ago, Kemp hadn't gone over the edge yet, either.
But the media addiction is working on him.
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A few years ago, a single national black leader,
Louis Farrakhan, called for a million black men
to come to Washington, DC, in a show of solidarity.
There are no more than twelve million adult black
males in the United States. This black population
was spread out across the country, with large concentrations
of blacks three thousands miles away on the West
Coast.
After the Million Man March, the disagreement over
how many black men actually heeded Farrakhan's call
was intense. In the end, Farrakhan's group sued
the National Park Service, which had estimated the
crowd at 600,000. The Nation of Islam accused the
National Park Service of deliberately underestimating
the numbers, and insisted that one and a half million
black men had come to Washington.
Lost in all this was the sheer volume of turnout
which was the subject of debate. The NPS had said
that only five percent of the TOTAL black male population
of the United States had dropped everything and
congregated in the District of Columbia, while the
Nation of Islam said one out of eight of the black
male population of this country had done so.
Both estimates are staggering.
The fact that the entirety of the mainline black
"leadership" of the United States made
a major effort and got what they called almost fifty
thousand marchers into Columbia, when put into this
context, is not exactly overwhelming.
Now let us turn to the question that I have special
qualifications to answer: What do those thousands
of marchers mean to a cold-eyed politician? How
many meaningful votes do they represent?
How many of the marchers represent a swing vote?
The swing vote consists of people who might go from
one party to the other on the basis of the issue
they are marching about. How many potential Republican
voters were in that crowd? How many people's vote
might swing from one party to the other on the basis
of the stand that party takes on the issue about
which they are marching?
Liberals give two answers to this question. One
is where they put their mouth, the other is where
they put their money. If you don't want to be anaziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews,
you have to say that just because a person is black
doesn't mean that he is a Democrat. In the real
world of politics, liberals devote their money and
effort to getting out the black vote, because it
means getting out the Democratic vote.
A few years ago, former Reagan advisor Ed Rollins
was running a statewide New Jersey campaign for
the Republicans, and he made some disparaging remarks
about "walking around money." "Walking
around money" is the money Democrats give black
people to get them to vote. In the ensuing media
fury against Rollins, I discovered that walking
around money is not to be criticized. It is a bulwark
of democracy.
Liberals insist that it is evil, racist, and unfair
to say that, just because someone is black, they
are presumed to be a Democrat. All Democratic strategists
devote enormous resources to that exact proposition.
So if I were running a campaign, and a reporter
asked me, on the record, how many swing voters were
in that anti-flag march in Columbia, I would say,
"Probably a very small number." But what
if a political reporter asked me that question off
the record? Well, first of all, no reporter would
make a fool of himself that way. If one did, my
answer would be, "You're kidding, right?"
But there is not just a swing vote. There is also
a "march in" vote.
Once again, the same political commentators who
insist that "black" is not almost synonymous
with "Democrat" say that the Confederate
flag issue could threaten the Republicans by increasing
the black vote. It might be a rallying-point to
get more of those who marched into Columbia to march
into the voting booth.
This may be a valid concern, because the Confederate
flag issue is the ONLY issue the black leadership
has. Let us return to one of the major themes of
Whitaker Online: no liberal program ever WORKS.
Black Americans have an ever-increasing load of
real, desperately serious problems, drugs, illegitimacy,
families collapsing, and all the rest. But no one
takes liberal solutions to these problems seriously
any more.
After all, no part of our society has been the focus
of more concentrated liberal programs than the black
community over the past decades. And over those
decades, all these problems have gotten steadily
worse.
For black leaders, the Confederate flag issue is
a godsend. Already in North Carolina, a black man
got a professional license from the state that has
a Confederate flag on it, and complained to CNN.
If anybody thinks this issue ends with the moving
of the flag from the capitol dome, they are dreaming.
Practically every street in Columbia is named for
a slaveholder. If black "leaders" are
going to keep their substitute for earning a serious
living, this issue has got to be permanent.
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