Political Party Poop

Democrat Party plantation

This is a 2005 article by Alicia Colon originally published in the The New York Sun contrasting Rep. Charles Rangel with Herman Cain, two influential African American leaders, one still lives on the “Democratic plantation,” and works every day to keep others enslaved there, while the other has risen to become a star in the conservative movement and tirelessly works to free people from the chains of the Democratic plantation.

Why do I post this old article, because it’s tis still relevant, and remember Charles Rangel if the Democrats take control would be Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
You people have short memories so I’ll remind you:

Has opposed major income-tax cuts ever since he was elected in 1970. Voted against the historic Reagan tax cut of 1981. Voted against each of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts. Meanwhile, he voted for President Clinton’s record-setting tax increase in 1993. If Rangel becomes chairman, he is certain to preside over new tax increases — at a minimum allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire without being renewed.

Rangel is a one of the oldest Democrat Party plantation poverty pimps in the House.

Graduating From ‘Stupid Anonymous’

ALICIA COLON

Two years ago, I attended an AARP women’s luncheon at the famed 21 Club restaurant. The wife of Rep. Charles Rangel, Alma Rangel, also attended, and one of the organizers offered me the opportunity of an introduction. I declined as politely as possible, fearing I might inadvertently blurt out to her, “Oh, you poor dear. You have my deepest sympathy.”

At the time, Mr. Rangel had been making comments that defied comprehension and I had been so shocked at his injudicious remarks about our military that I wrote a column about it. In a television interview, he more or less accused our soldiers of deliberately killing innocent Iraqi women and children. In another interview, with radio host Steve Malzberg, he called the Iraq war “the biggest fraud ever committed on the people of this country. … This is just as bad as the 6 million Jews being killed.”

Apparently emboldened by the fact that his outrageous remarks outraged only conservatives, Mr. Rangel has now demonstrated that when it comes to smearing the president, he has carte blanche with members of his party. At a town hall meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus, Mr. Rangel said to the cheering crowd, “George Bush is our Bull Connor.” Local black community leaders (I use that term very loosely) like the Reverend Al Sharpton, Rep. Major Owens, and Council Member Charles Barron not only supported Mr. Rangel, they went even further. Mr. Owens said President Bush was even more diabolical than Connor. Mr. Barron added, “To be a racist in the richest, most powerful country in the world is lethal. Look what he’s doing to communities of color all over the world. He’s a lethal racist.”

Mr. Rangel was referring, of course, to the infamous Alabama police official who turned hoses and police attack dogs against innocent, unarmed, nonviolent civil rights protesters. What Mr. Rangel and his fellow Democrats have not pointed out, of course, is that Connor was a Democrat, as were George Wallace and Lester Maddox. In fact, the 1964 Civil Rights Act needed the support of Republicans to get through the legislature because the Southern Democrats were vehemently opposed to it.

Mr. Rangel and many in his party are part of the black leadership that has long taken the black community for granted, and that’s probably what inspired the title of Herman Cain’s book, “They Think You’re Stupid.”

Mr. Cain is a Southern man, born in Georgia, who probably has a better understanding of the Bull Connors of the world than the Harlem native Mr. Rangel. Mr. Cain was in New York recently on a book tour promoting what has to be the definitive book on where the black community stands in the eyes of both parties. Mr. Cain refers to many in that community as the politically homeless.

He charges that the Democratic Party is losing voters because its usual rhetoric has been exposed as empty. Republicans can’t get these voters because its rhetoric doesn’t resonate with many of them. Voters, Mr. Cain says, are hungry for common sense, a sense of urgency, and real leadership.

He is a rarity in politics, a black Republican, but that description does not connote any allegiance to a political party.

I contacted Mr. Cain to get his reaction to Mr. Rangel’s remarks. He said, “Rangel’s comment is another perfect example of how prominent Democrats think their constituency is stupid, in an attempt to keep them on the Democratic plantation. The comparison is ridiculous and an insult to anyone who thinks for themselves.”

In the introduction to his book, Mr. Cain writes, “My name is Herman Cain and I used to be stupid. This is because I did not know the history of the Democratic Party, nor did I know the history of the Republican Party. Like millions of voters, I used to make my voting decisions based on news, sound bites, political labels, distortions, misinformation, and sometimes no information at all. … I am now a graduate of ‘Stupid Anonymous’ and want to share my awakening with others.”

How I wish that Mr. Cain were a New Yorker. Perhaps he could awaken the black voters who continually vote for representatives like Messrs. Rangel, Owens, and Barron. These are politicians who always resort to interjecting race into issues rather than offering real solutions. Because the most powerful black man and woman in American history are not Democrats, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice are regularly denigrated as race sellouts. That the black community in New York hasn’t recognized the absurdity of that calumny means that some are just plain “stuck on stupid.”