Bill Clinton earns his African-American “green card” back - temporarily
August 28th, 2008 | Published in politics | 2 Comments
I guess Bill Clinton earned his African-American “green card” back Wednesday after his speech at the Democratic National Convention at the Pepsi Center.
The card had been revoked during the Democratic primary when he made what many in the black community perceived as racially-tinged comments when Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary, dismissing it by saying Jesse Jackson won South Carolina when he ran for president.
The former president came out in full force for Obama Wednesday while vice president candidate Joe Biden put presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain on blast for everything from the economy to the so-called War on Terror.
Clinton has had a strong following among African-Americans during his presidency, so much so that he has been called America’s first black president. He proclaimed not only that he would support Obama, but also that the Illinois senator was ready to be commander-in-chief. The latter was something the Republicans hammered his wife on not saying during her speech.
But Bill Clinton covered nearly all the bases in his support for Obama and how he believes the last eight years under George W. Bush has hurt America economically along with its image around the world. Now comes the big test. Both Clintons will be able to ride the headlines and the convention for all of a couple of days before the Republican convention, where the other party will remind Americans of everything they said against Obama in the primaries. The Clinton’s green cards are issued only temporary with the expiration date set for Nov. 4.
It will be up to them to maintain the enthusiastic endorsement for Obama and make the connection between McCain and President Bush until the November election. The Republicans will unleash withering attacks against Obama over the next few months that will make their initial use of Rev. Jeremiah Wright look like a monk prayer service. They will use the words of both Clintons in the primary against Obama.
If the Clintons fade into the woodwork and leave it only to Obama to answer back, McCain will win the election. The Republicans upcoming “love affair” with the Clintons is nothing more than a booty call. It’s the ugly boyfriend or girlfriend you take to the private park but never ever around your friends.
The Clintons must strike back hard in September and October at these attempts like they struck back at the convention. Then, and only then, will they get their African-American green card back permanently.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:09 pm (#)
hill bill need to get on Palin if she true
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:50 pm (#)
An Open Letter to Senator John McCain and the Republican National Committee:
September 2, 2008
Dear Senator McCain and Mike Duncan, Chairman, Republican National Committee:
“Dear” is all you will get from me. By now you all should be in Minneapolis for your shindig that you call a “convention.”
I am an African-American, and I cannot hold back my anger any longer. It is a documented fact that the Republican Party before and during the Civil War supported and benefited from slavery. As a matter of fact, the Republican Party was started for the express purpose of defending slavery and holding down black people.
It is also a matter of record that the Ku Klux Klan was started by Republicans after the Civil War to terrorize and murder black and white Democrats in the South. Republicans hated the fact that many ex-slaves were serving in state and federal government. They also hated the fact that everyone of the ex-slaves were all members of the Democratic Party. All the white Democrats, before and after the Civil War, were sympathetic to the cause of abolition of slavery and of civil rights for blacks, therefore racist Republicans had no use for them.
The Republicans historically have been bitter opponents of the following Democratic initiatives:
• The 13th Amendment that abolished slavery in 1865
• The 1866 Civil Rights Act
• The First Reconstruction Act of 1867
• The 14th Amendment in 1868 that made all persons born in the U.S., including former slaves, U.S. citizens.
• The 15th Amendment in 1870 that give every citizen the right to vote
• The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 which was to stop Republican Klansmen to terrorized white and black Democrats
• The 1875 Civil Rights Act
• The 1957 Civil Rights Act
• The 1964 Civil Rights Act
• The 1965 Voters Rights Act
In every case, the white Republicans in the Senate, especially Senator Everett Dirksen, and in the House of Representatives fought passage of these laws in every turn as well as being compelled to give up their slaves after the Civil War. The Democratic leadership, especially Senator Robert Byrd who has always despised the Ku Klux Klan and who discouraged white Americans from joining that gang, fought very hard to have those laws passed. Democratic Senator Al Gore Sr., not only voted for the Civil Rights Act in 1964, but he, along side of Senator Byrd, fought a 74-day filibuster by Republicans to defeat the legislation. The Congressional Quarterly of June 26, 1964 recorded that, in the Senate, only 69% of Republicans (46 for, 21 against) voted for the Civil Rights Act as compared to 82% of Democrats (27 for, 6 against) the Civil Rights Act. In the House of Representatives, 61% of Republicans (152 for, 96 against) voted for the Civil Rights Act and. 80% of Democrats, (138 for, 34 against) voted for it.
The Republicans have also opposed every Democratic anti-lynching bill to their shame. The Democrats have always been opposed to lynchings for decades.
For these reason, we black people deserve an apology from the Republican Party for the following:
• support of slavery, on record in their platforms
• support of the Dred Scott decision
• support of segregation and Jim Crow prejudice
• opposition to anti-lynching laws
• attempts to destroy black schools and colleges, and the burning of black churches
• efforts to defeat the Reparation Bill of 1866
• efforts to defeat every piece of Civil Rights legislation from 1863 to 1964
• efforts to have the 1875 Civil Rights Act declared unconstitutional
• support of the Ku Klux Klan, composed of entirely Republicans, and its vile and violent racist agenda:
• Republican participation in the lynchings of thousands of blacks.
History will also show the following:
• Eugene “Bull” Conner (the poster boy of American racism) was a Republican.
• The poll tax was a Republican institution.
• Black codes and Jim Crow laws were instituted by Republicans.
Africans Americans are even due reparations from the Republican Party since it supported and benefited from slavery as well as supporting KKK terror, racism, etc. The Civil Rights movement started because of the majority white racist Republican power structure in the South.
My conclusion is that if this nation was left to the devices of the Republican Party, African Americans would not be anywhere near where we are today. As a matter of fact I would argue that we African Americans would not have any constitutional rights, be U.S. citizens or otherwise because we would still be slaves!
The Democratic Party, of course, has had its problems racially here and there, unfortunately, but it does not have the consistent racist legacy for decades and decades, stretching back to the early 1800’s as the Republican Party has had. The Democratic Party, in general, has always been supportive of and open and honest with African Americans throughout its history.
It is time for the Republican Party to come clean, tell the truth, and settle the debt.
Sincerely,
Brother X