Wednesday, September 07, 2016

Dems Fume at Trump’s Outreach to Blacks

The Wall Street Journal
Opinion
Commentary

Unable to defend their own dismal record at bettering black lives, liberals lash out at the GOP candidate.

By Jason L. Riley

Donald Trump visited a black neighborhood in Philadelphia on Friday and a black church in Detroit on Saturday. And liberals went berserk.
If he’d known Democrats were so fearful of GOP black outreach, perhaps Mr. Trump wouldn’t have waited until two months before Election Day to start campaigning in inner cities.
During a roundtable discussion with businessmen, elected officials and clergy in North Philadelphia, Mr. Trump listened to stories about violent crime and bad schools.
Speaking before a congregation at the Great Faith Ministries church in Detroit, he referenced “all those closed stores” he saw while riding through the neighborhood “and people sitting down on the sidewalk, and no jobs, and no activity. We’ll get it turned around.”
Mr. Trump said “nothing is more sad than when we sideline young black men with unfulfilled potential, tremendous potential,” and he added that safe communities and good schools would be a priority of his administration. He called for a new civil rights agenda that includes school choice.
For weeks, Mr. Trump has been criticized by Team Clinton and the political left for courting black voters while standing in front of white audiences. Now we know such criticism was disingenuous at best.
A Clinton campaign official called Mr. Trump’s Philadelphia visit “an offensive gimmick.” At a weekend press conference organized by the Clinton campaign, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan referred to the Republican presidential candidate as “the most phony major party nominee that I have seen in my lifetime” and wondered aloud what Mr. Trump was even doing in his city. “Are you here just to use Detroiters as props in a re-imaging campaign?”
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, who heads the Congressional Black Caucus political-action committee, was asked whether Mr. Trump deserved “any credit at all” for campaigning in the inner city. “It’s not real,” said Mr. Meeks, adding that the GOP nominee has “racist tendencies” and is trying to “con African-Americans.” The congressman called for “the types of policies that are being talked about by Hillary Clinton” and cited “raising the minimum wage” and “investing in historically black colleges.” Alas, it’s Mr. Meeks and his fellow Democrats who should get real.
Unions support minimum-wage hikes because they help limit competition from workers who might accept lower wages and threaten union jobs. And Congressional Black Caucus members support them in return for handsome campaign contributions from Big Labor. However, economists generally agree that minimum-wage mandates disproportionately harm the employment prospects of younger and less-skilled workers, many of whom are black. A 2011 study for the Employment Policies Institute by William Even and David Macpherson found that minimum wage hikes implemented between 2007 and 2010 cost young black men more jobs than the Great Recession did.
If Mr. Meeks is serious about addressing the immediate education needs of black families, calling for additional funding for historically black colleges is an odd place to start. Some of these colleges do a fine job of educating blacks, particularly in the fields of math and science, but the reality is that some 90% of black students don’t attend them. And given that the typical black 12th-grader is several grade levels behind his white counterpart in reading and math, is the bigger problem the underfinancing of black colleges or a K-12 public education system that is producing so few college-ready blacks?
Hillary Clinton and her campaign surrogates can brag about giving black communities far more face-time than the GOP, but they can’t brag about the results of liberal policies. Democrats are calling Mr. Trump names because they can’t defend their track record. Homicides in Philadelphia rose last year and are up 6% this year. In 2015, Detroit students scored the lowest among big-city school districts on national math and reading tests.
Minority children with access to school vouchers and charter schools are narrowing the achievement gap, while Democrats and teachers unions are working hand in glove to limit school choice. Mrs. Clinton has adopted the provably false union line that charters get better academic outcomes by accepting only the most motivated students. And the new Democratic platform drafted in July proclaims support for “high-quality public charter schools,” so long as they don’t “replace or destabilize” traditional public schools. In other words, the party supports charter schools so long as no one attends them.
Mr. Trump has been polling in the low single digits among blacks, and his current black outreach is probably too little, too late if the goal is to win significant black support. But Democrats aren’t very concerned about the percentage of blacks who support the Republican. Their bigger worry is the level of overall black turnout. The political left is furious at Mr. Trump for campaigning on their turf because he could soften support for Mrs. Clinton. They are terrified that too many of the black voters who turned out for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 may decide to stay home.

Mr. Riley, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow and Journal contributor, is the author of “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed” (Encounter Books, 2014).

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Blacks Better Off Voting for Trump




By Clarence V. McKee

I have written often about blacks’ blind loyalty to a Democratic Party plantation system that has given them little leverage in presidential politics and has been harmful to black America — especially the poor. 
 
That’s why I was so glad to see Donald Trump venture where no Republican presidential candidate has dared to venture to “tell it like it is” regarding the condition of urban black America; expose the “dirty little secrets” that no black or white Democrat will talk about; and that most black journalists and civil rights groups refuse to hold elected officials accountable for!
So what did Trump say that is inflaming the black and white liberal Democrat establishment and their friends in the media?
He just told the truth:
Black parents have a right to walk outside without being shot and to a good education for their children.
Almost 4,000 have been killed in President Obama’s hometown area since his presidency began.
Our job is not to make life more comfortable for the rioter and looter.
Our job is to make life more comfortable for the black parents who want their kids to be able to walk home safely from school and the senior citizen who wants to be safe waiting for a bus.
There is no compassion in allowing drug dealers, gang members, and felons to prey on innocent people.
The Democratic Party has betrayed the African-American community and its crime, education, and economic policies have produced only more crime, more broken homes, and more poverty.
And they really got upset when Trump said: “You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?”
Every one of these statements is true! Trump’s comments mirror what many black conservatives have been saying for decades.

Those criticizing Trump most likely don’t live in neighborhoods within earshot of gunshots day and night and don’t send their children to the inferior schools that many inner city children are forced to attend.
So, when white Republican Donald Trump exposes the subtle classism and racism of the liberal Democrat establishment, they can huff, puff, and call him and his supporters racists all they want, but they can’t deny the truth!
When was the last time we heard members of the Congressional Black Caucus who represent most of these urban terror zones, the NAACP, the National Association of Black Journalists or any black elected official in these cities raise important issues. How many black and white Democratic officials (until there are riots) have we heard calling for an end to the violence and slaughter of so many, including innocent children, in gang infested neighborhoods in Chicago, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Miami and other urban areas?
When it takes a white Republican to step up to the plate and tell the truth about the problems facing blacks in our cities, they are and should be embarrassed — all of them — black and white alike!
It’s a no-win issue for Trump.
Since they can’t attack him for telling the truth, they criticize him because he spoke to white audiences. If he had gone to a black audience, they would have criticized him for not daring to say it in front of a white audience because of fear of losing their votes.
It’s about time a white politician went before a white audience and spoke about the issues of inner city America! White Democrats and Republicans have historically not done that.
Trump did and for that he should be commended!
The only thing I would have added to Trump’s speeches would have been to commend the great success of America’s black athletes at the Olympics including Simone Biles in gymnastics; Simone Manuel, in swimming; Daryl Homer, in men’s fencing; Michelle Carter in the shot put; and so many others.
This election may be black America’s last chance for relevance in presidential elections for decades.
They are the only voter group that does not ask their elected officials: “What have you done for me lately.” And for that, they have paid dearly!
If after Donald Trump’s unprecedented direct appeal for support by a Republican Presidential candidate, 90 to 98 percent of blacks vote for Hillary Clinton, they will get what they deserve—total, yet quiet, disrespect from both Parties.
They could go down in history as being perfect political examples of the “will you respect me in the morning” syndrome and be irrelevant in Presidential politics for the next 20 years.
But, if on the other hand, 15-20 percent of a black silent majority say “we have had enough” and vote for Trump, history will be made and the Democrats’ chains on black America could be cut.
 
Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations consulting firm in Florida. He held several positions in the Reagan administration as well as in the Reagan presidential campaigns. He is a former co-owner of WTVT-TV in Tampa and former president of the Florida Association of Broadcasters. Read more of his reports — Go Here Now.
http://www.newsmax.com/ClarenceVMcKee/trump-blacks-obama/2016/08/26/id/745393/#ixzz4JJzCiKMw