From: Dave Screwtape

To: Subscribers

Subject: Thanksgiving Thoughts

As Democrats, we should be thankful for many things this year. I’m of course thankful we have a President-elect who subscribes to progressive principles and is aggressively bringing change to Washington with his appointment of former Clinton Administration officials. I have to be thankful for my son being hired to work in the Obama White House. While I was nearly completely absent for his childhood, I’m more than happy to share in his accomplishments.

Also, great work by the staff of both our House and Senate campaign committee will contribute to the most Democratic Senate since 1993, or since 1997, depending on how the Franken Recount and the James Martin-Saxby Chambliss runoff go.

However, as thankful as I am for the resurgent Democratic might across the country, it wouldn’t have been possible but for the hard work of our opponents. The ability to have more than half the Congressional Districts in the country gerrymandered to favor you, and still find yourself nearly 80 seats behind the other party is a feat of incompetence that deserves an admittance into a Hall of Fame.

I’m excited by much of the cross-talk I’ve observed from the right which indicates the right’s issues are just beginning:

• Secular conservatives blaming Republican defeat on the religious right. My Thanksgiving prayer to every deity, or to none at all if you prefer, is, “Please let them kick the religious right out.” If hot-button issues, such as abortion or gay marriage, are thrown out of the political sphere, it will be to our benefit. There is a word for many of these “Values Voters,” if social issues are thrown out of the political equation. “Democrats” or “Non-voters.”

There are simply not enough voters who agree with Republican economics, but have their vote swung by the Democrats’ stance in favor of abortion. If the Republicans can’t win with the religious right, they can’t win without them, either. The most secular conservatives will win is the ability to lose in an intellectually satisfying matter.

The best thing about this scapegoating is that it distracts from what caused the Republicans to fail (incompetence in government) and makes a constituency that is vital to any future electoral success feel persecuted. As I said, heck of a job.

• The urge for unity from figures such as Michael Reagan. This actually raises many more philosophical questions than it provides. What is there to unify around? What does it mean to be a Republican? Does anyone know anymore? From what I gather, being a Republican means that you support bailouts for everyone but the middle class. What do they expect people to rally to? A strong and abiding belief in the letter “R?” Or how about standing firm behind the clueless leadership that led them over the cliff?

Again, heck of a job.

• Finally, the attempt by some to scapegoat the GOP voters. It was “their fault” for not getting more energized. It was the fault of several million Republican voters who decided to “take their ball and go home.” Or the voters who were just so misinformed and confused they voted for Obama.

The arrogance of the argument is astounding (even for me.) It’s the fault of voters that they didn’t vote your way or weren’t inspired? We have to be thankful to think that it’s their voters jobs to inspire themselves to come out and vote. Or they believe it’s the job of volunteers to motivate themselves. Of course, neither volunteers nor voters are the professional in this matter of elections. It is the job of candidates and party officials to win the support of enough voters. It seems some are saying it is the job of these voters to materialize and vote Republican. It’s the fantasy land rules of politics that our Republican opponents believe in that allow them the luxury of such idiotic ignorance.

With such an inept opposition from the Republicans, we should accustom ourselves to the wine of victory, and those of you in Congress should get used to the calls of Mister Chairman, Madam Speaker, etc. Despite whatever flaws the years reveal in our party, we’ll always have one advantage: We’re not Republicans.

Best Personal Regards,
Dave Screwtape

The Screwtape Report is written by Adam Graham. The Screwtape Report is written from a Democratic perspective by a conservative in order to reveal Democratic strategy and thinking.

America elected a new Democratic President with more than 360 electoral votes. Liberals streamed to power, leaving the conservatives downcast. The Republican Party extended long knives for social conservatives, blaming them for the sorry state of affairs in the Republican Party. “Their issues need to be pushed to the back burner” was the hue and cry of the party leadership.

Sound like 2008? Actually, I’m talking about 1992.

In 2008, social conservatives find themselves once again the proverbial scapegoat for a failed George Bush Presidency. However, let’s not confuse people with the facts.

In 1992, the Religious Right did not make George H.W. Bush break his “Read my Lips” pledge. They didn’t cause the S&L scandal, or a recession.

Similarly in this term, the Religious Conservative movement didn’t cause an incompetent response to Katrina. While they did support the war in Iraq and back up national security conservatives in going into that country, and maintain solid support for our troops after the fact, they were not responsible for the bungled Pre-Surge strategy. Nor did they make Duke Cunningham take bribes or Mark Foley send creepy e-mails to minors.

Of course, the attacks in both 1992 and 2008 amount to little more than self-serving efforts by party leaders to deflect from their own miserable failures by blaming someone else. This is somewhat ironic, given the support nearly every Republican professes for personal responsibility.

Some argue that George H.W. Bush lost because Pat Buchanan made a controversial speech three months before the election. This is cited as an explanation for why Bush Sr. got a lower percentage of the vote than Herbert Hoover did in 1932. Let’s forget little things like the state of the economy, the broken promises, and the fact that he struggled with “the vision thing.”

Religious Conservatives didn’t cause McCain’s downfall. They didn’t cause him to take an unprecedented three month gap between closing the deal on the GOP nomination and Obama winning the Democratic nomination and spend it flailing around aimlessly rather than presenting a compelling message to America.

Those who argue for de-emphasizing social conservatism, or moving away from these issues entirely, as a solution are showing they don’t even really understand what the problem is. They also are ignoring history.

After the 1994 Republican Victory, which was brought to Republicans in large part by the good work of the NRA and the Christian Coalition, the idea of a need to move away from Social Conservatism was tossed around quite a bit. There was even a move to strip the Republican Party of its pro-life platform that was advocated by some establishment leaders as a way to build the party. That was a bridge too far even for the Christian Coalition leader and future Abramoff scandal figure Ralph Reed and the plank stayed in.

However, the 1996 Republican ticket used the exact same strategy that some people are calling for today. The 1996 Republican Nominee, Bob Dole, had almost nothing to say about abortion, and effectively nothing after he crushed Pat Buchanan in the South Carolina primary. He left the door open to choosing a pro-Choice running mate until the day before the convention when he settled on Jack Kemp, who, while pro-life, was a fiscal conservative first and foremost.

Dole/Kemp, at their 1996 convention, avoided the “mistake” of the Bush ticket, which had staged a “Family Values night” with speeches from social conservative luminaries. I remember perusing the agenda of the 1996 convention and finding it was dominated almost entirely by moderates. Headliners included such moderates as Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Colin Powell, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, and George Pataki. The keynote address was delivered by pro-Choice New York Congresswoman Susan Molinari. If a move to the center and away from social issues was going to produce a win, this was the way to do it.

But, it didn’t work. Dole’s campaign was a disaster. The 73-year old lost by nine points. Exit polls showed a smaller than usual turnout among religious conservatives.

My parents didn’t back Senator Dole, but opted for a conservative third party. They hadn’t voted in decades previously, but in 1992 after the GOP’s Family Values night, they went and registered to vote and cast their votes for Bush/Quayle, and carried literature for National Right to Life in 1992 and the Christian Coalition in 1994. 1996 represents an object lesson that you can’t take peoples’ vote for granted.

In the aftermath of another Presidential defeat, the failed blame and scapegoating game played by the Republican establishment that launched Bob Dole to defeat is at work once again, declaring war on a vital part of the Republican base. Will we learn from history’s errors, or will we, like fools, repeat them?

Part two of Gamecock’s election post-mortem shows GOP the way back to the majority

Originally published by Mike DeVine, Legal Editor for The Minority Report

[Part one of our Election 2008 post-mortem, rejected the notion of a “secular American majority”. I agree with Dave Sage that culture drives politics; that America has been growing more secular; and that America desperately needs a new Great Awakening outside of politics. However, Republicans are not yet Daniel in a pagan Lions Den. Part two builds on that theme, as well as how we can win back republicans that bolted the party or sat out this election; as well as win over conservative democrats and many secular voters.]

I knew McCain was going to lose when I received an “Obama saves the GOP” e-mail on the Saturday before Election Day from my friend Don Scoggins, the leader of the Frederick Douglass (pictured below) Society, and one of my personal conservative heroes. Don, a conservative black Republican, helped shape my post-2000 conversion to the GOP and has been an inspiration to me, especially as regards my efforts to reach out to minorities with the conservative message.

In explaining his decision to vote for the Democrat, Don expressed an understandable pride in Obama’s skills and symbolic value in affirming a culmination of the Civil Rights Movement. But primarily, Scoggins was voting against a McCain and a GOP that had lost their way.

At first I was shocked, but a week after the election I started to understand how Obama could save us.

Ironically, the saving will not be had by following Frederick Douglass’s “leave us alone” admonition to President Lincoln. Rather, a conservative resurrection can be built upon, now “all in” on the America Project, minority communities more receptive to the conservative message given conclusive proof that they can rise to any height in America, just like whites, on merit. We must take this message into every congressional district as well as State and Local races. We must recruit Blacks and Hispanics in districts where none immediately come forward, just as we do in majority white districts, and we must choose candidates that can win.

Obama’s third world-like crowds are dispersing back to the real world.

All Americans, too many of whom are ignorant of what disaster liberal government wrought in the 70s and the Reagan conservative anecdote of the 80s, are about to get re-educated in the looming recession born of Fannie Mae government distortion of the free market and Obama and the Democrats’ anti-Free wealth creation Market in favor of spreading your hard earned wealth to others agenda.

Republicans have been held accountable for happenings on their watch over the past decade as they became Democrat-lite. Now, Democrats will be held accountable like they haven’t been since 1994 and 1980.

Americans will be repelled by toys and peanut butter sandwich sharing before Kindergarten sex-ed. They will not confuse compulsion by government with the message of Jesus, like Obama has. They will not share Obama’s aversion to digging into the ground and ocean floor for coal and oil, as well as refinery nuclear power plant foundations for good wages. They will not be amused by energy “price lessons” from the chauffer-driven President, no matter his pigmentation. No, Americans want wealth creating jobs and they want to decide to whom they will spread it. They will not be content with Obama’s minimalist view. They will want to return to American exceptionalism.

The re-education in the failures of liberal economic policies is underway. Minds will be concentrated, and it is vital that we have energetic new leadership in place to put it all in perspective and be the alternative.

We have leaders that fit the bill like Michael Steele, Mike Pence, Mark Sanford, Jim DeMint, Sarah Palin and many others that have for too long been drowned out by “compassionate conservative” condescension or losing Mavericks, mimicking failed Democrats.

As stated in part one, the faith and conservative social views give us a foot in the door with many minorities. We should listen to Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and return to first principles and reach out to those minorities.

But we can also reach out to more secular voters with one of the most basic of conservative principles: federalism. This concept can be the key to disabusing many of the Big Lie that social conservatives want to impose our views.

Social conservatives came into the political arena because federal judges were stifling their free speech and imposing a world view on their children anathema to their views. Co-author of The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton (pictured below), Thomas Jefferson and the most of the rest of the Founders’ vision for happiness pursuit maximization was for federalist dispersion of power to the like-minded in their communities and the power to vote with one’s feet. Moreover, most conservatives don’t want to proselytize in public schools. It’s the liberals that do that with their amorphous tolerance and diversity and their moral and cultural relativism.

All are better off and with a much better chance that their views won’t be categorized with obscenity in speech codes in their children’s schools under a federalist system rather than a one-size fits all whim of a federal judge.

What Gamecock dubs “Faith-based Conservative Federalism” is GOP’s ticket back to the majority.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson

The reason: No “secular American majority” exists. The vast majority of Americans still believe in God.

By Mike “gamecock” DeVine, Charlotte Law and Civil Rights Examiner for Examiner.com

In his brilliant A Republican Party for a Secular America, David Sage correctly cites the 2008 rejection of the GOP “in its current form” by the American people at the ballot box, but then attributes that rejection to Republican mimicking of Reagan’s social conservative agenda, while agreeing that “conservatism” sells.

David’s sagacity measures 67% on the Gamecock meter. Let me work backwards.

Given Americans’ aversion to granting three consecutive terms to the same party in the White House and their penchant for throwing out the party in said House during economic hard times, even unabashed and unapologetic marketing of conservatism might not have sold this year.

We will never know, because we didn’t even try to sell conservatism before Palin was chosen. And when McCain said me too to President Bush and Senator Obama to the very non-conservative Paulson panic prevention plan, conservative sales went down the drain.

But what of this supposed tipping point aversion to appeals to Judeo-Christian values and the current form of the Party of Lincoln?

The Democratic Party regained majority control of Congress mainly due to Rahm Emmanuel’s “blue dawg” democrat strategy that recruited pro-life and family values Democrats all over the county, not just in Dixie. Barack Obama campaigned as a Christian, opposed gay marriage, and even insisted that the party platform be changed for the first time since 1972 to acknowledge respect for pro-lifers. (I know: Rev. Wright, Minister Farrakhan and the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, but you see my point.)

Moreover, this year, California one of the most liberal states in the country, along with Florida and Arizona, joined 40+ other states in rejecting gay marriage. Polls show that Generations X, Y and the Millenials, are all more pro-life than Baby Boomers.

Now we get to the crux of the matter: Their may not be enough non-secular whites to win a majority, but why would we want to, especially when we don’t have to?

Yes, economic and national security conservatism sells, and it sells best to people of faith. They generally go hand in hand. The problem has been that Blacks have been held captive for 40 years by an exploitive Democratic Party whose Big Lie message has been that America is inherently racist.

Ironically, the election of a self-described African-American may be what finally un-clogs the ears and opens the eyes of many Blacks to the universal message of the GOP.

The Big Lie of the left is now exposed. Don’t listen to a Caucasian rooster. Listen to blacks on the left and the right:

Juan Williams:

There is no other nation in the world where a 75% majority electorate has elected as their supreme leader a man who identifies as one of that nation’s historically oppressed minorities.

Jason Whitlock (pictured above):

Barack Obama had just won the presidency, and the realization that America loved them back stampeded my parents’ emotions like a wedding proposal from the perfect lover you assumed would never settle down.

Donald E. Robinson:

Shortly after leaving the voting booth, [the] 70-year-old community activist…had a thought: “Why do I have to be listed as African-American? Why can’t I just be American?”

I especially like Whitlock’s “America loved them back”!

Fellow conservatives, we, like Whitlock and Williams, have long realized race was no longer a serious impediment to advancement in America and that it is the left’s fault that more haven’t realized same as Blacks have blindly voted 90+% for Democrats despite their failures to deliver on their promises.

That is now past, and maybe, human nature being what it is, it took the election of one of their own to bring home the “love back”. James Taranto echoes gamecock on the prospect that Blacks will now be freed of their Democratic past and cites the example of Catholics post-JFK and Deep South Southerners post-Carter.

It may be too optimistic to hope for major changes minority voting patterns in four years given that Obama will be running for re-election. But the work must begin in earnest now to recruit blacks and Hispanics to run as Republicans in 2010 to join these examples in elected office.

Blacks will now get to see one of their own as President as they live their lives with the realization that their lot in life is mainly determined by what they do, not who gets elected. They will also become more open to the fact that liberty, not government controls, is the best path to prosperity.

As Obama supporter, John McWhorterstates, they will be able to have “an honest discussion about the role racism does not play in black communities’ problems.”

Add to the above the fact that a disproportionate number of minorities serve in a US armed force that liberal democrats loathe, and the general aversion to weakness abroad that most Americans share, and you have the makings of a Reaganite-like coalition.

Why?

The overwhelming majority of Blacks and Hispanics are Bible-believing Christians and part of a faith-based American majority.

Despite all the odds against the GOP generally; inherent non-conservative flaws of John McCain; inept McCain campaign; lower GOP base turnout; and October financial crisis surprise, we only lost by 5% in a still mostly 50/50 nation.

We could win in four years just by getting back to 2004 levels of support, but with the “change” wrought by Obama, we may finally have the opening to build the conservative majority in government.

The market for conservative sales may just have gotten a lot larger.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” – The Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts

Putting McCain first

Originally published by Mike “gamecock” DeVine as Legal Editor for The Minority Report

The maverick martyr mouthed his own losing recriminations in 2000. Putting country first in 2008 requires anonymous men mangle a mother for a mute McCain.

Moderate republicans don’t win national elections. President Ford was never elected, there never was a President Dole, and there never will be a President McCain.

Republicans win when they run to the right. They began winning when Nixon discovered the Silent Majority and Reagan made the GOP the Party of Life. The winning coalition was solidified when President Reagan won the Cold War with peace through strength and when his Milton Friedman monetary policy and supply-side fiscal policies produced a recovery that lasted for 25 years.

Many of the same Washington voices on the right, albeit slightly on the right, that now attack the Governor of Alaska as a scape goat for republican defeat, also despised The Gipper. Then, as now, there are men without chests that whisper personal attacks.

Reagan was called an “amiable dunce” for calling evil by its name. A towel-clad Palin is said not to know the parties to NAFTA after negotiating a natural gas treaty with one of its signatories.

Some facts: The polls the cocktail party conservatives worship showed McCain behind most of the year. The only time he moved ahead was after he chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate. In fact, while the McCain-Palin ticket rose in the polls after the convention, it was only after the vicious media attacks, including those from the beltway conservative elites, when the republicans actually led. Then came McCain’s refusals to address Obama’s alliances with extremists and lack of bold leadership after the financial crisis.

But before those machinations we heard from David Brooks of the New York Times, a McCain backer since 2000, that Palin was a “fatal cancer” on the GOP and that Obama was the “mountain” of strength that is always there. Former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan describes Palin as a “symptom and expression of a new vulgarism” in American politics. Former Bush 43 speech writer David Frum said that Palin’s appeal was to a “dwindling number of social conservative voters.”

Is Frum referring to the “dwindling numbers” in California, the most liberal state in the nation, that voter to ban gay marriage? Or Florida which also went for Obama but which also amended their Constitution to define marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman? Or the other 39 states that have done the same?

Brooks sees a mountain of vacuousness as Noonan hears vulgarity in g-dropping accents. Yet Brooks is blind to the tumors obscured by Mt. Barack and Noonan is deaf to the echos of The Gipper that conservatives hear oh so clearly from Sarah’s lips.

But when one adds pro-choicers Colin Powell and William Weld to the above, one begins to see what really animates the hate directed at the mother of five. One is reminded of the Rockefeller country clubbers that resented the need for those hick Evangelicals if they were to move past asking Speaker Tip O’Neil for washroom keys. The whispers from the husbands of those whose wives insist upon only pregnancies of convenience that produce flawless heirs.

It wasn’t good enough that Palin, like Reagan, didn’t wear religion on her sleeve. They just decided to go after the cost of her sleeves and the whole dress.

Let’s do the math on why the GOP clingers to Roe v. Wade are bitter at the Mother of Trig. The fact is that for these liberals, a woman that would knowingly bring a Down Syndrome baby to term just doesn’t add up.

These architects of republican defeat can count votes, but one wonders if they just aren’t down with winning unless its with their math, which divides and loses.

The facts refute any claim that Palin or conservatives are responsible for McCain’s latest defeat and their vitriol belies their claim that it is social conservatives that are angry and divisive.

Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com and Charlotte Observer columns.

“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson

Reagan was called an “amiable dunce” for calling evil by its name. A towel-clad Palin is said not to know the parties to NAFTA after negotiating a natural gas treaty with one of its signatories.

Some facts: The polls the cocktail party conservatives worship showed McCain behind most of the year. The only time he moved ahead was after he chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate. In fact, while the McCain-Palin ticket rose in the polls after the convention, it was only after the vicious media attacks, including those from the beltway conservative elites, when the republicans actually led. Then came McCain’s refusals to address Obama’s alliances with extremists and lack of bold leadership after the financial crisis.

But before those machinations we heard from David Brooks of the New York Times, a McCain backer since 2000, that Palin was a “fatal cancer” on the GOP and that Obama was the “mountain” of strength that is always there. Former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan describes Palin as a “symptom and expression of a new vulgarism” in American politics. Former Bush 43 speech writer David Frum said that Palin’s appeal was to a “dwindling number of social conservative voters.”

Is Frum referring to the “dwindling numbers” in California, the most liberal state in the nation, that voter to ban gay marriage? Or Florida which also went for Obama but which also amended their Constitution to define marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman? Or the other 39 states that have done the same?

Brooks sees a mountain of vacuousness as Noonan hears vulgarity in g-dropping accents. Yet Brooks is blind to the tumors obscured by Mt. Barack and Noonan is deaf to the echos of The Gipper that conservatives hear oh so clearly from Sarah’s lips.

But when one adds pro-choicers Colin Powell and William Weld to the above, one begins to see what really animates the hate directed at the mother of five. One is reminded of the Rockefeller country clubbers that resented the need for those hick Evangelicals if they were to move past asking Speaker Tip O’Neil for washroom keys. The whispers from the husbands of those whose wives insist upon only pregnancies of convenience that produce flawless heirs.

It wasn’t good enough that Palin, like Reagan, didn’t wear religion on her sleeve. They just decided to go after the cost of her sleeves and the whole dress.

Let’s do the math on why the GOP clingers to Roe v. Wade are bitter at the Mother of Trig. The fact is that for these liberals, a woman that would knowingly bring a Down Syndrome baby to term just doesn’t add up.

These architects of republican defeat can count votes, but one wonders if they just aren’t down with winning unless its with their math, which divides and loses.

The facts refute any claim that Palin or conservatives are responsible for McCain’s latest defeat and their vitriol belies their claim that it is social conservatives that are angry and divisive.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson

There appears to be a pleasant Republican shake-up going up on Capitol Hill. After last election, Republicans re-elected the team that lost everything, minus the NRCC making Tom Cole (R-Ok.) the chairman.

The Senate:

National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. According to Politico, current NRSC Chairman Senator John Ensign (R-NV) is moving to the Republican Policy Committee.

This opens the seat up to a race between John Cornyn and Norm Coleman (if Coleman survives a recount in the state of Minnesota.)  

I hope Senator Coleman wins the Senate election, but I feel much better about Senator Cornyn heading up the NRSC. It’s just a hunch here (that and the fact that he is the successor of Senator Phil Gramm who chaired the NRSC in the 1994 elections.)

There are other leadership positions, but I don’t know anyone outside of the 40 + (I hope +) Republicans in the Senate who cares.

House:

A very interesting shuffle is going on in the House. I’ve called for John Boehner to step down as Minority Leader. It was disastrous after 2006 when the GOP re-elected the same leadership team. Boehner’s not stepping down, but what we will have may be as good or even better.

In the 111th Congress, here’s what it looks like:

Minority Whip…Roy Blunt gone, writing a very gracious exit note.

Republican Conference Chairman…Adam Putman gone.

National Republican Congressional Campaign Committeee…Tom Cole is running for re-election but is being challenged by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) with Boehner supporting Sessions. This means that Cole is (fingers crossed.) gone.

Who are the replacements?

Along with Sessions, Blunt will be replaced by Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor, who will become the highest ranking Jewish leader in Congress. (Former Congressman Martin Frost had been Caucus chair for the Democrats.) And the new Caucus Chairman is one of my personal heroes, Mike Pence.

If this move goes through, the Republican leadership will be a lot more conservative, and a lot younger.  Boehner has carefully engineered his own re-election with everybody but the Captain walking the plank.

This, I can live with. Boehner has never been a strong force, and Putman and Blunt were essentially Dennis Hastert and Tom DeLay people. The rest of the team will be pushing Boehner forward with some boldness. The K-street Project cronyism that has plagued the conference looks like it’s heading for the exit.

There is one Republican leader, I think should be re-elected and that’s Thaddeus McCotter. He’s being challenged by Michael Burgess, but Boehner is backing McCotter. McCotter has been one of the more forceful Republican leaders. He’s a Conservative and his anti-bailout speeches were instant pieces of American patriotism. His hilarious “Speaking Democrat” speech as well as his Bob Dylan parody show some well-needed creativity on the Republican team that I just don’t think Congressman can match.

We have one president at a time

Originally published by our Legal Editor, Mike “gamecock” DeVine as Charlotte Law and Civil Rights Examiner for Examiner.com

The American people have chosen a new Chief Magistrate.

Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama.

All Americans of faith should pray for him and his family despite any political differences. He defeated a true American hero and worthy opponent in John McCain. My candidate lost, but We the People have spoken and it is the duty of us all to respect our Republic’s collective choice.

Those of us that love America must understand that we have only one Executive leader at a time and, especially only one Commander-in-Chief at a time. He will be the face of America to the world, friends and foes alike. His foreign policy will be America’s foreign policy. If his doesn’t succeed, none will, and especially in this area, I urge (just as I did from Reagan-Bush 43), that we try and present a unified front to the world, so long as the United States remains the beacon of Liberty.

He deserves the benefit of the doubt during the transition and after Inauguration Day. There were many good reasons to oppose his election based on his past record, but his Presidency must be judged on what he does from this day forward.

Despite my great disappointment in what I see as a mistaken choice on the part of the majority of Americans last night, I must admit one point of great pride in my country.

As I discussed before the election, one of the driving forces of my life has been the civil rights struggle, especially in my beloved South. In the early 70s I endured taunts from racists due to my family’s integration efforts and my close black friends. My dream was always that of Martin Luther King’s, (even if it hasn’t always been Obama’s) which was that people of all races could achieve the American Dream through character and hard work. I watched America and the South slowly but surely achieve that dream many years ago despite the refusal of many to surrender the race victim label under a false definition of civil rights.

So, it is with great pride for me that my chosen Party of Lincoln elevated Clarence Thomas, and Condoleezza Rice. And though I left the Democrat Party after 18 years of activism in 2000, I was overjoyed when my former Democrat friends in the Palmetto State proved their color-blindness and gave Obama victory in their primary earlier this year.

The scene and picture (see above) last night prove what I have known for at least 20 years. America has lived up to its creed. In America, it is self-evident:

All men are created equal, and his policies on civil rights and executions of the law in the years ahead will be equally examined with those of his predecessors as Chief Magistrate, here at the Examiner.

All Presidents are also created equal.

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” – The Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts

Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com and Charlotte Observer columns.

“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson

Originally published by Mike “gamecock” DeVine as Legal Editor for The Minority Report

Admit it now, what good were all the pre-election polls, poll obsessing and/or personal predictions for the past 23 months?

None, unless your goal was to suppress GOP turnout, elect Farrakhan’s Messiah or keep alive a nerdy desire to give one’s life five seconds of meaning by being “right” in a guess based on other people’s guesses, after which you can base the next 25 months of your life on the polls on the races for 2010 and 2012 that begin after MLK Day 2009.

Was anyone elected based on talk to pollsters? Or did I miss the inauguration?

Even the liberal media is now in the “turnout” phase, seemingly shocked every 2-4 years that people must actually move more than their lips in order to actually cast a ballot to elect a mere dog catcher, much less the Leader of the Free World.

And speaking of the free world, you could make worse closing arguments than to remind legal by lazy registered Hillarycrats and disgruntled republicans of words of the Joe “No Interview for you” Biden (think and watch Seinfeld Soup Nazi) who whispered to fellow leftists that the election of his fellow cloistered from the press for weeks running mate would “generate” a test from evildoers abroad in order to test him.

The test? Make sure Obama is as weak as his own party-toasts for terrorist apologists on stag films at the LATimes; moral equivalence between Russia and Georgia, not to mention Israel and Hamas/Hezbos and meet with out preconditions, Iran’s Mullahs and their unshaven MembersOnlyJacket-ijad-clad front man; and like the rest of his party since 1972 (save for Zell, Joe L. and sometimes Bill).

Skanderbeg report’s that even Pravda equivalents pray for McCain’s election.

Don’t waste your time trying to change what passes for minds of followers of The One. No. There are only two categories you can, and should try, to persuade:

a) Obama haters of the Hillary supporter variety, and

b) Disgruntled with mavericks republicans who seek the cowardly shelter of the mocker and the temptation of pride that throw up their hands and declare no difference between the choices and themselves above it all (to hide their laziness as they face long lines).

One disadvantage republicans always face is the default donkey default position of so many raised in a nation dominated during so much of its history by the World’s Oldest Party.

Remind of the late 70s and of Reagan’s remedy.

You might want to remind, as Ryan Mauro of World Threats recently did, of Palin-McCain attentiveness to arresting the 30-year Democrat Party and Obama affirmed energy self suicide and who would be more likely to launch a Huckabee-Manhattan-like, “Lexington Project.”

Remind them of 911, what the economy was like after 911. Ask them what another 911 during the present crisis would do to 401Ks and then spring Biden’s words and three more facts on them:

We have had no more 911s since 911, no thanks to Obama and the Democrats, with much thanks to Bush and McCain.

Elections are always ALL ABOUT TURNOUT.

As if?

But you wouldn’t know it from the time consumed by so many of the pajama clad and couch potatoes.

So, quit reading guesses by non-nostradami and start calling that good looking second cousin that you know that loves to keep her paycheck and see terrorists blown to smithereens.

And penultimately, as the rooster awaits the dawn of The Day, my recent pep talk to Redstate’s beloved Fearless Leader,, now in D.C., E.E., in response to his Battle with the Washington Beltway Post sirens:

Erick, if the Washington Post asked you to publish a prediction on your son’s sport’s team would you publish it if you predicted a loss knowing he would see it? Of course not. And you have a TEAM in this fight, some of whose members facing long lines and losing income tomorrow while in line, could use as an excuse to not vote. Moreover, does your self worth depend on overtures from WashPo? I hope not.You are more than a married 30something, but not because people think you writing matters and can influence. You are more (not that being married is chump change) because you stand for truth: Conservative, Judeo-Christian values patriotic truth and one final truth,

You don’t SEE anything re the outcome. No one can. People can read polls and watch tv and have anecdotes, but any fool can get elections right half the time flipping a coin.

What we know is that TURNOUT is ALL that matters. Focus on getting your team to turn out.

luv ya

And one more thing.

If you see acorns on the floor at your precinct, report the Obamasquirrels to the authorities.

Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com and Charlotte Observer columns.

“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson

Part Three: The Huckabee Example

 Above, Mike Huckabee listens to Ron Paul speak during last September’s All-American Presidential Forum at historically black Morgan State University. The empty podium between the two men belonged to one of the four leading Republican candidates who decided to not show up for the debate. This year, the Republican Party could receive its lowest ever share of the African American vote.But if the Party of Lincoln ever wants to get more than 12% of the sixteen million likely black voters - the highest percentage that any GOP candidate has gotten since 1980 - again, they should take some notes from former Presidential Candidate and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. 

We’ve all talked a lot this year about issues involving race in politics. And a lot of talk has been made about the possibility that the GOP may this year get a historically low share of the African American vote. But what if I told you that I thought that it was possible, if the Republican Party really tried, that in little more than a decade, the party could begin to compete for the black vote?

If this happened, it would not only expand the reach of the party’s base but would make it more likely for the Republican Party to continue to win elections in the 21st century as it would help it gain many voters who have traditionally voted Democratic by default. It would also change the public image of the party, which has been widely criticized for being comparatively ethnically monolithic. I believe I can offer the Republican Party a game plan to accomplish this goal. To do this, I would direct their attention to the picture above, which was taken during the Republican Presidential Forum held at the historically black Morgan State University and in which the top four leading candidates at the time all declined to participate.

My advice to the Republican Party: do what the guy on the left does.

If the Republican Party at large takes the advice and follows the example of Mike Huckabee, it will probably begin to see an increased level of support from blacks and other ethnic minority groups within the next three or four election cycles. And to turn this into a more actionable plan, I’ve extracted a few tips, all based on things that Huckabee has said or done.  Since everybody and their mother is talking about change this year, here’s how the GOP can initiate some change of its own in order to change the way black voters view the party.

Principle #1: Show Up

Tavis Smiley: “… Let me commence tonight by thanking Morgan State University and Dr. Richardson for hosting us and my network home, PBS, for broadcasting this “All-American Presidential Forum.” … Fortunately, there are those in the Republican Party who do understand the importance of reaching out to people of color. I am grateful to former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Congressman Jack Kemp and former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, all of whom have lent their support over the last year to this event. Indeed, last week, President Bush was asked about those GOP candidates not attending tonight, and responded by underscoring the importance of reaching out to communities of color. We believe that when we make communities of color better, we make our country better. And so enough said about the no-shows … Please tell me and this audience, in your own words, why you chose to be here tonight”

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee: “Well, Tavis, I want to be president of the United States, not just president of the Republican Party.”

One month after Mike Huckabee gave the answer quoted above, a voter asked all the Republican candidates a question at the CNN YouTube debate. The question was why it was that even though many blacks have fairly conservative views, “why don’t we vote for you?” When Mike’s turn came to answer the question, he responded with his theory of why he was able to win 48% of the black vote in Arkansas. “Here’s the reason why: because I asked for their vote, and I didn’t wait until October of the election year to do it.”

Ever since Nixon political strategist Kevin Phillips, an architect of the “southern strategy,” encouraged his party to generally ignore black voters as part of a strategy for turning out more southern white voters, only a few nationally known Republican politicians have actively sought to make their case to black voters. Former New Jersey Republican Governor Tom Kean, who won the support of a majority of black voters when he was re-elected in 1985, complained two decades ago that the GOP “reached out to the Hispanic community, to almost every ethnic community in America except the black community.” He also said ”You’re talking about losing a major vote by 9-to-1 …Is there any other group in America that a party is willing to lose by that much?”

The majority of two generations of African Americans have grown to resent the Republican Party, in significant part because the party has simply ignored black voters. Some Republicans have theorized that one way to reach black voters is to get some African American supporters to go out on behalf of party candidates in order to “bring in the vote.” However, there is a problem with this theory. Black voters don’t respond significantly better to black Republicans than they do to white Republicans, as evidenced by the defeat in 2006 of Ohio Gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, Maryland Senatorial candidate Michael Steele and Pennsylvania Gubernatorial candidate and former NFL superstar Lynn Swann. All were high profile black Republican candidates who sought historic positions but who faced overwhelming opposition from black voters, even though most of these same voters identify themselves as conservative or moderate. The reason many black voters have refused to support Republican political candidates doesn’t seem to have much to do with the candidate’s skin color rather but their party affiliation. And the same sentiment probably exists to some degree toward many black intermediaries who serve as proxies between black voters and candidates that belong to the party that many of them resent.

Instead, Republicans should do what Mike Huckabee does. Show up. And I mean personally show up - not just recruiting intermediaries to talk with black voters on behalf of the candidate. The candidates need to make personal appearances and slowly and gradually make personal connections, instead of solely relying on “urban” ads or through black supporters. They need to understand that there is a well of resentment in the black community against the Republican party, and, like Mike Huckabee, they need to be brave enough to show up anyway.

During his Arkansas campaigns, Huckabee instructed his campaign staffers who handed out flyers to not skip certain neighborhoods but to reach out to everybody. Tavis Smiley, one of the moderators of the Morgan debate, raved about Huckabee a few months later on his radio show, saying that he had met Huckabee in Arkansas and lauded him for not being “afraid” to campaign among and interact with black people; he called him the best Republican candidate in his lifetime. If GOP candidates follow Huckabee’s example, they may soon discover that like him, they’re getting a lot of support from people who don’t normally vote Republican.

Huckabee finished his answer to the question at the YouTube debate with a warning to his own party. “And I just want to express that our party had better reach out not just to African-Americans, but to Hispanics and to all people of this country. I don’t want to be a part of a Republican party that is a tiny, minute and ever decreasing party, but one that touches every American from top to bottom, regardless of race.”

Principle #2: Be Honest

Smiley: “…[please tell us] what you say to those who chose not to be here tonight.”

Huckabee: “Frankly, I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed for our party and I’m embarrassed for those who did not come, because there’s long been a divide in this country, and it doesn’t get better when we don’t show up.”

When some Republicans talk about the fact that most blacks vote for Democrats, they offer a variety of interesting explanations, all of which spare the Republican Party from any fault whatsoever and, often, from any sense of responsibility to work to close the gap. Some of them, both white Republicans and a few black Republicans alike, speak, imply that the reason that blacks generally vote Democratic is because we’ve as a group been duped by Democratic trickery. Or that we’re collectively looking for some type of handout. Or that the majority of the thirty nine million blacks in this country are racist. And the implication from these arguments are that black voters as a group are easily fooled, in search of freebies and overwhelmingly racist while the Republican party is a flawless entity with a continuous legacy as the Party of Lincoln. And to those folks, I offer a bonus tip: insulting a large group of voters - or their intelligence - is not a recommended strategy for convincing them to join you. It has been long documented that many Republicans have long avoided reaching out to black voters and even that there was a calculated strategy to do just that in order to improve the party’s standing in the once-Democratic south. For some party members to pretend that this hasn’t been the case isn’t an example of showing party loyalty. It’s being dishonest.

But Mike Huckabee is honest. And when he was asked about his reaction to the fact that his four leading fellow Republican candidates did not show up, he did not repeat one of the party talking points or try to defend their actions. He probably understood that their decision to shun the opportunity to present a Republican option to black voters was seen by many as yet another slap in the face to black voters, a very visible slight that hurt not only those candidates but further damaged the image many had of the Republican Party. And Mike was able to be honest about his party’s failings while at the same time talking about the party’s many current and historical strengths - he later cited the example of how Republican President Eisenhower sent federal troops to desegregate Little Rock Central High over intense resistance from Democratic Governor Faubus. Some people believe that being honest about their party’s shortcomings is an act of disloyalty. But Mike’s honesty, in addition to him showing up, probably caused more people to strongly consider voting Republican than would have otherwise been the case.

Principle #3: Understand The Issues

In the time that Mike Huckabee was given to speak during the debate, he rattled off a laundry list of issues of great concern to many black voters, demonstrating his familiarity with both black voters and the many of the problems that are on these voters’ minds. Here are a few quotes from some of his answers that night:

Huckabee: “… that we made some real strides in the criminal justice system so that you don’t have a different sentence for a 17-year-old kid caught with a lid of marijuana than you do some upper-middle-class white kid who gets caught with cocaine. He goes to rehab, and the black kid goes to prison for 10 years” (in response to a question about what he hoped his legacy would be in the eyes of black Americans if he were elected)

 

Huckabee: “… there is a disproportionate level of people in the African American community with hypertension, with stroke, with diabetes …” (another part to his answer to the legacy question above)

 

Huckabee: “… in some cases, it’s because those who try to lift themselves up find that they get most importantly the heel of someone’s boot on top of their head every time they try to raise their head …” (in response to a question about the candidate’s opinion of why the unemployment rate for black high school graduates is 33 percent higher than the unemployment rate of white high school drop-outs)

 

Huckabee: “… Eighty percent of the people who are in our prisons and jails are there for a drug or alcohol crime. They either were high or drunk when they committed the crime, or they committed the crime to get high or drunk …” (in answer to a question about what policies the candidates would recommend to ensure that everybody is treated equally in the criminal justice system)

 

Huckabee: “… There are a lot of people in America that don’t think the only poverty is in Darfur — understand there’s poverty in the Delta. There are people who don’t have running water, people that don’t have access to medical care and don’t have a decent school to go to and you don’t have to go halfway around the world to find it. We’ve got it right here in this country.” (in response to a question about the U.S. playing a role in ending the genocide in Darfur).

Successful politicians are often people who take the time to study and get to know the concerns and feelings of their potential constituents. Many successful politicians are also personally familiar with their constituents - either because they are “one of them,” as is the case of many people who run on the claim of being “born and bred” in the community they want to represent or because they’ve taken the time to really get connected to those constituents, have relationships with them, and have become familiar with their issues of concern. And Republicans who want black voters to vote for them need to treat black constituents like any other group of voters who they want support from. They need to take the time to understand the things that are on their minds.

Principle #4: Build A Reputation

Huckabee: “Quite frankly, for a lot of people there’s a perception that Black Americans don’t vote for Republicans. I proved that wrong in Arkansas, with 48 percent of African Americans voting for me.”

When Huckabee won his first elected office in Arkansas, he became only the second Republican Lieutenant Governor since Reconstruction, only a year after Democrat Bill Clinton left the State House for D.C., where some people called him the “first black President.” He withdrew from a speaking invitation from a conservative organization when he learned of some of their attitudes regarding race, publicly condemning them and declaring “I will not participate in any program that has racist overtones. I’ve spent a lifetime fighting racism and anti-Semitism.” He was re-elected by a significant margins and then became Governor when Jim Guy Tucker was forced to resign in 1996. In the following year, the fortieth anniversary of the integration of Little Rock Central High School in which children were threatened with violence for trying to attend school, Huckabee gave a speech that reportedly moved many at the anniversary service to tears. He declared 1997 to be a year of racial reconciliation and urged people to let go of racial resentment. The next year, when he ran for his first elected term as Governor, the exit polls showed that about half of the black voters voted for Huckabee over his Democratic opponent. By the time that he was at the peak of his Presidential run earlier this year, he had amassed endorsements from an unusual number of African Americans compared to the average Republican. Some Democrats were worried enough that someone circulated an email urging black voters not to be “tricked” into voting for Mike Huckabee. He built up more goodwill during and after his campaign by firmly opposing Barack Obama but doing so with civility and respect. He even came to Obama’s defense to a degree when the Reverend Wright scandal dominated the news in March. And when Huckabee made the news himself in May with an unfortunate joke about Obama that went horribly wrong, it was essentially a one-day story; black leaders did not condemn him or try to make it into a bigger issue.

More Republican candidates should follow Huckabee’s example by persevering in trying to reach all voters despite the fact that many will hold their party affiliation against them. But if they actively reach out, reject racially divisive people, and strive for racial harmony, and keep doing it, both they and the Republican Party at large will reap a substantial benefit over time.

Principle #5: Be Yourself

Mike Huckabee also seems to understand an important concept when trying to connect with a group that may have a different set of experiences than you do: you don’t have to always agree with them about everything. That nobody respects somebody who tries to say one thing in front of one group of people and another thing in front of another. And that people tend to respect people who are bold enough to respectfully defend opinions that not everybody agrees with.

Some people think that in order to connect with a black audience, you need to channel a Baptist preacher’s cadence while telling the audience everything you think they want to hear. But Huckabee actually, being himself, discussed his support for policies that are unpopular with many black Americans. And he did it without even doing the Al Gore-style Baptist Preacher imitation (even though he actually is a Baptist Preacher). Some examples:

On the Death Penalty (which is unpopular among many blacks): “I probably dislike the death penalty more than anybody on this stage, but for a very different reason. I’ve actually had to carry it out, more than any governor in my state’s history. I had to carry out the death penalty because that was my job. I did it because I believed, after reading every page of every transcript and everything in that file, it was the only conclusion we could come to. But I didn’t enjoy it. And God help the American who somehow has this cavalier attitude about the death penalty and says they support it and they can do it. Let me tell you something from the person whose name had to be put on the document that started the process: It’s a necessary part of our criminal justice system for those crimes for which there is no other alternative. But God help the person who ever does it without a conscience and feels the pain of it.”

On “choice” (meaning abortion, which is defended by many Democrats): “I think we have some role to play in it [preventing genocide in Darfur], but I guess what disturbs me even more, we have not even addressed the genocide that’s going on and the infanticide in our own country with the slaughter of millions of unborn children.”

On Affirmative Action (from Huckabee’s 2002 Gubernatorial National Political Awareness Test): Question: Should race, ethnicity, or gender be taken into account in state agencies’ decisions on college and university admissions? Huckabee’s answer: “No.” Question: Public employment? Huckabee’s answer: “No.” Question: State contracting? Huckabee’s answer: “No.”

 

So what happened after the conservative southerner showed up, expressed disappointment that some of his fellow candidates chose to avoid the debate, demonstrated his understanding of the audience’s concerns, shared his growing record of connecting with black voters - and then - openly disagreed with a good portion of the audience about some of the most sensitive issues? He was declared to be the clear winner of the debate and won himself a lot of new African American fans. Dr. Cornel West, an Princeton Professor, civil rights activist and Obama supporter who disagrees with many of Huckabee’s policies, told the former Governor after the Morgan debate “you are for real.”

Principle #6: Get Comfortable Building Bridges

Huckabee: “But I want to make sure that the people of this country recognize that we’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go. And we don’t get there if we don’t sit down and work through issues that are still very deep in this country, when it comes to racial divide.”

Fear is the enemy of all relationships, because love and fear aren’t generally at the same place at the same time. And one reason that there is still too much racial tension bubbling just under the surface within too many people is because we spend too much time being afraid of each other. People are afraid either of being accused of racism or afraid of being judged according to stereotypes. And when we try to pretend that tensions don’t exist, the division doesn’t go away but only grows deeper.

The fear of addressing the difficult issues of race is probably one of several factors that has prevented the GOP in large part from attempting to fix the rift with its onetime faithful constituents. Mike Huckabee, on the other hand, while having a very good understanding of a lot of the background of many of our nation’s racial tensions and showing empathy for the historical struggles of black Americans, isn’t afraid to talk about issues that involve race. Because he is willing to engage black voters, is honest, has a decent understanding of many of the issues and frustrations of different groups of people, has a good reputation for showing sensitivity toward everybody, and is comfortable in his own skin, all of this enables him to have credibility and be well received when he chimes in on issues that might make others uncomfortable to discuss. And the more leaders we have in government who have these characteristics, the more effective they will be in helping America heal from the more painful parts of her history.

Principle #7: Don’t Shrink Back In Fear

To a Republican politician who cares about fixing the divide, it may seem like the challenge of helping heal four decades of a strained relationship is a very difficult challenge. And because of the difficulty, some may be tempted to not even bother - a sentiment that in itself is partially responsible for how things are now. But I want to remind Republican leaders of some of their own words of encouragement that were spoken regarding a different challenge.

It has been mainly Republican politicians that have encouraged us to not give in to fear. To not look at a struggle or a challenge as unwinnable but rather to concentrate on a plan for victory. To understand the criticality of taking the challenge head on and not accepting anything short of victory. If the Republican leadership understands the importance of reaching out to everyone and applies these same principles to this task, the party will in a decade or so become both stronger and better able to continue to win national elections. But, truly, in an increasingly diverse 21st century America, failure - the refusal to change from the status quo on racial diversity - is simply not an option for the Republican Party.

“The Values Voter”