They Think You're Stupid (8 page)

The good news is that a lot of people
have
figured it out. Conservatives know that the real path to success lies in the combination of education, individual initiative, and a federal government that is in the business of removing barriers to success.

Abraham Lincoln said, "You don't help the poor by hurting the rich." I might add that you help the poor by helping everybody.

I believe that the three great divides--the
party divide
, the
racial divide
, and the
economic divide
--polarize our nation. The liberal political ideology seeks to enact policies that divide us and attempts to control all aspects of society and all facets of our lives. If you think that sounds a lot like the tried-and-failed government systems of socialism and communism, you are correct.

The liberal, socialist ideology cannot exist among a society educated on the detrimental facts of liberal policies and the dynamics of elementary economics. That is why liberal politicians seek to herd the public into groups and pit those groups against each other, as if as citizens of the United States we do not all share the dream of educational and economic success. Liberal politicians do not share your dreams of success because your success and the success of your children and grandchildren spell the end to their reign of power over your life.

Many citizens have come to believe that as Americans they do not have to shoulder the responsibilities of individual achievement and participation in the political arena. For too many years, liberals have usurped our individual responsibilities and made our most important decisions for us. By ceding responsibility, however, we have paid a price, and that price is the erosion of our freedoms.

As citizens of this great nation, we can no longer allow the federal government to treat Blacks and other minority groups as mere members of groups and to constantly erect barriers to individual achievement. God did not create each of us in His image so we could lead lives of constant leisure as a group, riddled with a "blame-everyone-else" attitude for our circumstances. Every individual citizen possesses within the potential for individual attainment of success. It is up to us to reclaim our government and the decision-making processes that affect nearly every aspect of our lives.

The party divide will be closed when the public ends its apathy toward the activities in the political arena, educates itself on the facts of our biggest economic and social issues, and works to elect political leaders who share these beliefs. Only then will our political leaders and political candidates stop talking down to the public with sound-bite rhetoric and start speaking in facts.

The racial divide will be closed when individual Blacks realize that their success and the future success of their children depend on individual achievement in the education and economic arenas. Only then will Blacks be able to throw off the shackles of groupthink imposed on them by their own so-called Black leaders.

The economic divide will be closed with education and when parents take a greater interest and role in the education of their children. We must create a culture that makes academic achievement and excellence possible for all of our children. Nearly every child has the ability to learn and turn his or her education into a successful career.

Wake up, America! For the sake of our country, our government, and our children's and grandchildren's future.

Labels and Empty Rhetoric

• The politically homeless are voters frustrated with their favorite political party or discouraged by what they see as "politics as usual." Some of the politically homeless choose to stay with their party out of a sense of principle or tradition, but they do not actively identify with the party.

• A key contributor to political homelessness is the confusion caused, often intentionally, by the seemingly never-ending barrage of labels, phrases, and made-for-television sound bites we hear every day from our elected officials.

The Great Divides

• The polarizing labels and phrases used by our political leaders and elected officials have created three profound divisions throughout our country. I call these the
party divide
, the
racial divide
, and the
economic divide
.

• The
party divide
is represented by the extreme partisanship that exists between Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. and throughout our country.

• The second great divide in our country is the
racial divide
.
Race is often abused by candidates and so-called Black leaders to keep voters neatly on their respective plantations.

• The third great divide in our country is the
economic divide
. Economics starts with education. The long struggle to achieve equal opportunities for success in nearly all facets of our society has resulted in great progress for all citizens.

It's Time to Wake Up!

• The
party divide
will be closed when the public ends its apathy toward the activities in the political arena, educates itself on the facts of our biggest economic and social issues, and works to elect political leaders who share these beliefs.

• The
racial divide
will be closed when individual Blacks are able to throw off the shackles of groupthink imposed on them by their so-called Black leaders.

Chapter Three

Many of the politically homeless found temporary shelter in the Republican Party on election day in 2004 when they cast their votes in support of the conservative policy agenda. Conservative Democrats, conservative Christians, members of other religious, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, and millions across the entire nation who have never before registered or voted cast their ballots for Republican candidates who promise to continue to prosecute the global war on terrorism, pursue aggressive policy solutions to our biggest economic issues, and escalate the battle to protect our nation's moral foundations. The Democratic Party, for many decades the political home for a majority of Americans, is now a party in search of a voice to define its message and direct its future.

Even though Democrats claim to be the party that champions civil rights, history and the facts are not on their side. The Democratic Party formed the Ku Klux Klan in the 1800s to terrorize and lynch Blacks who dared register to vote or vote for Republican candidates. Democrats have successfully co-opted credit for passing landmark civil rights legislation because President Lyndon Johnson signed two major acts into law. A closer look at the facts, however, reveals that historically members of the Democratic Party have served as a barrier to providing equal opportunities for all citizens.

All of the landmark legislation detailed in the following table was accomplished under Republican presidents with Republican congressional leadership, except for the two acts actually signed by President Lyndon Johnson. Even then, it was the Republicans in Congress that pushed for passage and voted for the legislation at a higher percentage than the congressional Democrats. In every case, Democrats fought the hardest to deny the civil rights of the voters they now take for granted.

After signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon Johnson congratulated congressional Republicans for their overwhelming support. It was Illinois Republican senator Everett Dirksen who gathered support in the U.S. Senate to block the Democrats' months-long filibuster against the act. In response to a question regarding the reasons for his dedication to civil rights legislation, Senator Dirksen stated, "I am involved in mankind, and whatever the skin, we are all included in mankind."

Following passage of the 1964 act, NAACP chairman Roy Wilkins awarded Senator Dirksen the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights Award for the senator's "remarkable civil rights leadership."

The previous timeline illustrates that history is clearly on the side of the Republicans. Republican presidents, senators, and representatives are responsible for enacting the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in our nation's history.

President George W. Bush made history in the 2004 presidential race by receiving the most votes ever cast for a presidential candidate. Bush also increased his electoral vote count from the 2000 election, from 271 to 286 electoral votes. Not since President Reagan's 1984 victory, which set the record for most electoral votes won in a presidential election, has a candidate won such a clear majority of the states in the South and the West.

The 2004 elections were significant for a number of reasons. First, the majority of voters stated that they based their presidential vote on moral issues, which include opposition to same-sex marriage initiatives and partial-birth abortion and support for confirmation of conservative federal judges. The issue most political pundits assumed would be paramount in people's minds when they cast their vote, the global war on terrorism, was cited by voters as the third most important factor.

Second, President Bush received a majority of the vote among Catholic and Protestant voters and increased his percentage of support among a number of other demographic groups, including members of racial minorities and voters who live in urban areas (see following table).

Third, the U.S. electorate sent to Congress a "working majority" of Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate. Republicans increased their U.S. Senate majority to fifty-five with a new class that will advocate common sense, conservative solutions to our big economic and social issues, and they picked up new seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans will now hold a record eighteen of the twenty-two U.S. Senate seats located in the eleven states of the "Old Confederacy." The margin of President Bush's victory, coupled with larger Republican congressional majorities, gives Republicans a clear opportunity to advocate and enact conservative, common sense solutions to our biggest issues.

Most political commentators predicted that the 2004 presidential election results would be as close as or closer than the results in 2000, and that again we would not have a decided president for months. Instead, voters turned out in record numbers across the nation to signal their intention that President Bush and the Republicans most represent their political values and ideologies. Why were Democratic candidates for federal office rebuked by the voters to such a degree, especially in an election that was supposed to be a referendum on the war on terror and a supposed weak economy?

Two phenomena describe the modern Democratic Party and explain why it has lost touch with the mainstream U.S. electorate, why its candidates have lost the last two presidential elections, and why Republicans since the 1994 elections have kept control and gained seats in the U.S. House and Senate.

First, the Democratic Party is essentially a coalition of people who view themselves as members of a victimized or discriminated-against group, or as advocates for single liberal causes. This coalition includes pro-abortion, anti-war, and environmental activists, the majority of labor and teachers' union leaders, the majority of gays and lesbians, and many members of racial minorities. The coalition also includes liberal college professors, many members of the print, television, and radio media, and employees of various liberal think tank and policy research institutions. The coalition is held together by a shared belief in a more powerful, centralized federal government and an activist federal court system. As the results from the 2004 elections show, the issue positions and ideologies advocated by these radical groups and individuals do not represent the majority of political opinions in the U.S. Radical liberals try to position themselves as representative of the majority of the public, but their rhetoric does not match reality.

The second phenomenon that describes today's Democratic Party is that its support is based primarily on the West Coast, in the Northeast states, and in the urban areas of the nation's largest cities, including Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, and Chicago. The party that just a few years ago twice elected Bill Clinton as president, with 370 and 379 electoral votes respectively, has lost the ability to appeal to voters throughout the entire nation.

The results of the recent presidential, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House elections, shown in the following table, illustrate the regionalism phenomenon. The majority of U.S. Senate Democrats represent the nineteen states won by Senator Kerry, and the majority of U.S. House Democrats represent congressional districts in those states. Republicans clearly enjoy a broader range of support than Democrats. The majority of U.S. Senate Republicans represent the thirty-one states won by President Bush, and the majority of U.S. House Republicans represent congressional districts in the so-called red states (Republican).