BLACK REPUBLICAN BLOG - The Republican Party is the party of civil rights and the four F’s: faith, family, freedom and fairness. The Democratic Party is the party of the four S’s: slavery, secession, segregation and socialism (Quote By Author Michael Scheuer).
Wednesday, March 06, 2019
Tuesday, March 05, 2019
Virginia first lady criticized for handing cotton to black students on mansion tour
By Gregory S. Schneider and Laura Vozzella | Washington Post
A Virginia state employee has complained that her
eighth-grade daughter was upset during a tour of the historic governor's
residence when first lady Pam Northam handed a ball of cotton to her and
another black child and asked them to imagine being enslaved and having to pick
cotton.
"The Governor and Mrs. Northam have asked the
residents of the Commonwealth to forgive them for their racially insensitive
past actions," Leah Dozier Walker, who oversees the Office of Equity and
Community Engagement at the state Department of Education, wrote Feb. 25 to
lawmakers and to the office of Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat.
"But the actions of Mrs. Northam, just last week, do
not lead me to believe that this Governor's office has taken seriously the harm
and hurt they have caused African Americans in Virginia or that they are
deserving of our forgiveness," she wrote.
The incident highlights the scrutiny and doubt that
envelope the governor as he tries to push past racist incidents from his past
and ignore continued calls for his resignation. His first attempt at a promised
"reconciliation tour" had a hiccup last week, when the student
government at Virginia Union University asked him not to attend a black history
celebration there.
And though Northam has vowed to dedicate the remaining
three years of his term to racial equity, members of the Virginia Legislative
Black Caucus say he is not doing enough to help disadvantaged minorities in the
state budget.
Northam has been under intense scrutiny since Feb. 1,
when a photo came to light from his 1984 medical school yearbook page that
depicted one person in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan robes. Northam
initially took responsibility for the picture; a day later, he said it wasn't
him in the photo, but he admitted that he darkened his face to imitate Michael
Jackson in a dance contest later that same year.
All of the state's top Democrats — including the Virginia
Legislative Black Caucus — have called on Northam to step down. Pressure to
leave has eased a bit because Virginia's other two top leaders became embroiled
in controversies of their own shortly after Northam's scandal broke. Lt. Gov.
Justin Fairfax has denied allegations of sexual assault from two women, and
Attorney General Mark Herring admitted to wearing blackface for a college party
in 1980.
The complaint about the tour is the first time the
scandal's stain has spread to Pam Northam, who insiders say has been a strong
advocate behind the scenes for her husband to stay in office and work to clear
his name.
"I regret that I have upset anyone," Pam
Northam said Wednesday in a statement emailed by the governor's spokeswoman,
Ofirah Yheskel.
The tour took place Feb. 21, when the Northams hosted a
traditional gathering of about 100 young people who had served as pages during
the state Senate session, which would end that weekend.
Trained docents often lead tours of the Executive
Mansion, which was built with slave labor in 1813 and is the oldest active
governor's residence in the country. In this case, Pam Northam — a former
middle school teacher — took groups of pages to an adjacent cottage that had
long ago served as a kitchen.
In front of a huge fireplace with iron cooking
implements, Pam Northam held up samples of cotton and tobacco to a group of
about 20 children and described the enslaved workers who picked it.
"Mrs. Northam then asked these three pages (the only
African American pages in the program) if they could imagine what it must have
been like to pick cotton all day," Walker wrote. "I can not for the
life of me understand why the First Lady would single out the African American
pages for this — or — why she would ask them such an insensitive
question."
The governor's office, which did not make Pam Northam
available for an interview, said she simply handed the cotton to whoever was
nearby and wanted everyone to note the sharpness of the cotton boll, to imagine
how uncomfortable it would've been to handle all day.
Walker could not immediately be reached for comment. In a
letter written by Walker's daughter to Pam Northam, which was included as an
attachment to the email to lawmakers, the young girl said she did not take the
cotton, but her friend did. "It made her very uncomfortable," the
girl wrote.
"I will give you the benefit of the doubt, because
you gave it to some other pages," the girl wrote to Pam Northam. "But
you followed this up by asking: 'Can you imagine being an enslaved person, and
having to pick this all day?' which didn't help the damage you had done."
Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar said "we received
no complaints" after the mansion visit. She said the only thing the pages
were buzzing about afterward was the fact that one of the pages was dehydrated
and fainted during the tour of the kitchen.
Sen. William Stanley (R., Franklin), whose daughter served
as a page this session, was among the group that the first lady took to the
kitchen. Stanley declined to make his daughter available for an interview, but
he said she told him that Pam Northam offered the cotton to all of the
students.
"The first lady's intent was to show the horrors of
slavery and to make sure everyone felt the pain they felt in some small
measure," he said. Two days later, Stanley's wife got the same tour from
Pam Northam and found it "poignant," he said.
Del. Marcia Price (D., Newport News), a member of the
black caucus, praised the student “for her courage in speaking out when a lot
of times African Americans have not always had the opportunity to confront
offenses in this way.”
She said Pam Northam used poor judgment in her presentation
to the children.
"The cotton itself is a symbol of murder, rape,
displacement and the radiating effects of the trans-Atlantic slave trade that
black Virginians are still experiencing today," Price said. "I don't
know that you have to have actual cotton handed to the children to understand
slavery was bad."
Former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe and his wife,
Dorothy, had begun restoring the kitchen building as a way to highlight the
service of generations of enslaved workers whose names were mostly lost to
history. The McAuliffes had passages from letters written by some of those
enslaved workers engraved on tablets and mounted on the garden wall outside.
Northam’s office said the first lady has met with experts
at Monticello to learn about how to present the history of enslaved workers. At
a luncheon for state legislators’ spouses a week ago, Pam Northam invited a
speaker from Monticello to deliver a program titled “How Oral History Gave
Voice to Monticello’s Enslaved Community.”
In her statement, Pam Northam said she would continue
working to “thoughtfully and honestly” tell the story of the mansion’s enslaved
workers. “I am still committed to chronicling the important history of the
Historic Kitchen, and will continue to engage historians and experts on the
best way to do so in the future,” she said.
Monday, March 04, 2019
Book: Never Trumpers have 'failed'
They have fought him for three years, establishment conservatives dubbed Never
Trumpers who view President Trump with disdain and disgust.
One of their leaders, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP
presidential nominee, once spoke more harshly of Trump than the president’s former
lawyer Michael Cohen did at the explosive congressional hearing.
But in a new book that pulls no punches on Trump, the wilting Never Trump movement is declared dead, marginalized by GOP supporters who see the president as needed medicine “to deal with lethal tumors of the status quo.”
What’s more, in " The Case for Trump," out March 5, author Victor
Davis Hanson concluded that Trump has united the Republican Party like
few before him and is in better shape going into the 2020 re-election
campaign than were recent presidents including Barack Obama.
“In counter intuitive fashion, the provocative and often
off-putting Trump proved to be a far more effective uniter of his party than
had any prior elected populist maverick,” wrote Hanson, a senior fellow at
Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
" The Case for Trump," published by Basic Books, is one of the first attempts to shoot between
the Trump-hate and Trump-love books. Hanson wrote that he hasn’t even met
Trump.
Maybe for that reason Trump has already tweeted
encouragement for it, making the 391-page book an Amazon presale best-seller.
A key feature is an analysis of the Never Trump movement.
Hanson calls it an equal to the liberal “Resistance,” and said both have fallen
flat as Trump has kept his GOP support at 80 percent by boosting the economy,
making good on trade and foreign policy promises, and attacking the “swamp.”
He wrote, “Like the Resistance, the Never
Trumpers failed in all their political aims at removing or delegitimizing
Donald Trump.”
Hanson described the Never Trumpers as “orphaned from the
Republican Party, wrong about the Trump nomination and election, mistaken that
Trump’s record would be insubstantial or liberal, and convinced that the more
invective would bolster their predictions.”
The book heralded many of Trump’s actions, like the
“economic miracle” that has created millions of jobs and a tough America-first
foreign policy, as reasons the president has kept his coalition strong despite
his sometimes offensive traits.
“True, most of the country continues to see Trump as
near-toxic chemotherapy, but half the nation also felt that such strong
medicine was still necessary to deal with the lethal tumors of the status quo,”
he wrote.
And he concluded that it’s working for Trump, putting him
a good position for reelection despite a “90 percent” anti-Trump media.
Hanson cited the 2018 election results, where the GOP
lost control of the House but added to the Senate majority, for perspective on
the reelection campaign.
“By historical standards, Trump’s wins and losses meant
that he had performed better in his first midterm election than had Bill
Clinton and Barack Obama. Both former presidents had gone on to win handily
their reelections,” he wrote.
Sunday, March 03, 2019
Harvard/Harris Poll: 3-in-4 Voters Favor ‘America First’ Immigration, Trade, War Platform from Candidates
By John Binder
Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
About 3-in-4 American voters favor a
populist-nationalist “America First” legal immigration, trade, and foreign
policy platform from candidates running for office that prioritizes protecting
the way of life and economic security of United States citizens above all else.
The latest Harvard/Harris Poll finds near unanimous support for populist-nationalist
candidates among Republicans, conservatives, and President Trump supporters, as
well as a majority of support from all voters.
On Immigration
Voters were asked if they would be more or less likely to
support a candidate who said, “We have a moral duty to create an immigration
system that protects the lives and jobs of our citizens,” the kind of populist
sentiment often deployed by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
In total, about 75 percent of all voters said they would
be more likely to support a candidate who made the statement, while about 88
percent of Republicans, 89 percent of conservatives, 75 percent of swing
voters, and 91 percent of Trump supporters said they too would be more likely
to support the candidate.
Across racial lines, the vast majority of white
Americans, 79 percent, and black Americans, 75 percent, said they would support
a candidate who said they wanted an immigration system that benefited
American citizens, rather than foreign nationals.
Similarly, more than 6-in-10 voters said they would be
more likely to support a candidate in an election that spoke of the national
“emergency with the savage MS-13 gang” that has been largely due to the
country’s mass illegal and legal immigration system that has been supported by
Republicans, Democrats, the open borders lobby, Wall Street executives, and
corporate interests.
On Trade
A total of 65 percent of voters said they would be more
likely to support candidates who touted imposing $250 billion worth of tariffs
on China, as Trump has done. This economic nationalist policy platform on trade
garners support from 87 percent of Republicans, 61 percent of swing
voters, and 89 percent of Trump supporters.
Likewise, when voters are asked if they would be more or
less likely to support a political candidate who wants to replace NAFTA with a
bilateral trade deal that protects American jobs and industry while bringing
lost U.S. jobs and industry back to the country, about 7-in-10 voters said they
would be more likely to support such a candidate.
The economic nationalist rhetoric has the highest support
among conservatives, 90 percent, and Trump supporters, about 93 percent.
On Foreign Policy
Even when it comes to foreign policy and international
affairs, Americans are vastly more likely to support candidates who oppose
delegating more U.S. sovereignty to global organizations and foreign
interventionism that results in countless lost lives.
For instance, when asked if they would be more or less
likely to support a candidate who said, “Great nations do not fight endless
wars,” nearly 3-in-4 voters said they would be more likely to support such a
candidate.
Across party lines, voters tend to support candidates
with Trump’s “America First” foreign policy rather than the neoconservative worldview.
Roughly 84 percent of Republicans, more than 60 percent
of Democrats, and 76 percent of Independents said they would be more likely to
support a candidate that opposes endless foreign wars.
This anti-war platform
is the most popular among conservative voters, 84 percent of whom said they
would be more likely to support a candidate that talks like Trump on foreign
policy.
Close to 70 percent of all voters are more likely to
support a candidate that wants to pull American troops out of Syria and
Afghanistan, as Trump has demanded.
This anti-interventionist platform is most
supported by Republicans, 82 percent, and Trump voters, 84 percent.
About 7-in-10 swing voters are more likely to support a
candidate who wants to bring American troops home after years of U.S.
intervention in Syria and Afghanistan, as well as 64 percent of Hispanic and
black Americans.
Every year, the U.S. admits more than 1.5 million illegal
and legal immigrants at the expense of America’s working and middle class who
are forced to subsidize the policy through their depleted
wages and job
prospects.
At the same time, free trade deals like NAFTA have cost at least
five
million American manufacturing jobs to be eliminated from the U.S. economy.
Overseas, U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan have left up to 507,000 people dead and more than 60,000 American soldiers
killed or wounded.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart
News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Saturday, March 02, 2019
The Dems' 'Mask Is Coming Off': RNC Honorees Speak Out at Black History Month Event
Source: AP Photo/Richard Drew
Washington, D.C. - The
Republican National Committee closed out Black History Month this week by
recognizing some of the most influential black conservative leaders of the year
at their annual Trailblazers Awards ceremony in the nation's capital.
Photo: RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel - Source: AP Photo/Richard Drew
RNC Chair
Ronna McDaniel kicked off the event, before handing the mic over to this year's
Trailblazers, South Carolina National Committeeman Glenn McCall and President
and CEO of the Douglass Leadership Institute Dean Nelson.
Some of the attendees included the RNC’s 20 “Rising
Stars," who are all under the age of 30 and all come from minority
communities.
The RNC doesn't plan to stop recognizing African-American
achievements at the end of February. For instance, she told Townhall after her
remarks, the party has held economic opportunity events throughout the country,
like small business events that teach business owners how to best secure
funding. It was so successful, she said, that the NAACP reached out to them to
hold a similar event with their organization.
When they are in minority communities, party
representatives like to talk about the record low 5.9 unemployment rate among
African-Americans. African-American small business ownership has increased 400
percent.
"What does that mean?" McDaniel asked. "It
means lives are better. They are making more money. Families are doing
well."
Chatting about The First Step Act, which was passed on a
bipartisan basis, is also key.
"We knew these mandatory sentencing guidelines for
nonviolent crimes were disproportionately affecting minority communities,"
McDaniel said.
The RNC chair believes the GOP's message on school choice
will also resonate with minority communities because parents know their
children's education "should not be determined by their zip
codes."
Meanwhile, Democrats are still trying to do damage
control over the shocking blackface controversy(ies) in Virginia. Both Gov.
Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring admitted to doing blackface
when they were students, yet have dismissed calls to resign. Another Democratic
lawmaker in Maryland uttered the
n-word this week.
Townhall asked McDaniel to offer a few thoughts on the
contrasting narratives unfolding between the two parties.
"What's happened in Virginia, it has been bipartisan
in his calls to resign," she noted. "I think he's (Northam) lost
credibility with this photo, with his inability to remember if he was in it or
not. And some of his past actions too. It wasn't just this one; it was a
history. So, it's unfortunate. We have a divide in our country right now. So I
would say, are you looking at leaders who are going to try and heal that or who
are going to try and push that for their political gain or benefit?"
The Democrats are giving Republicans "great
opportunities" to make their case, Dean Nelson said in his remarks. The
Democrats' "mask is coming off" and "the real history of the
Democratic Party is being exposed."
Just recently, Nelson revealed, he and his team were down
in Richmond, VA to speak out against Gov. Northam, who Nelson said seems
"more concerned about blackface than really saving black babies."
The Republican Party's history, McDaniel reminded guests
at Wednesday's ceremony, is worth celebrating. It was founded in 1854 by
abolitionists. The first Republican National Convention, convened in Michigan,
was centered on an anti-slavery platform. She added for good measure that it
was the Republican Party that passed the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery.
"It was the party of Lincoln that fought for the
rights of African-Americans and civil and voting rights legislation over the
years," she said. "This is a legacy each of us cherishes."
Friday, March 01, 2019
FLASHBACK: Michael Cohen Gives A Massive Speech In Support Of Donald Trump In Cleveland Heights
Michael
Cohen Gives A Massive Speech In Support Of Donald Trump In Cleveland Heights
Diamond and Silk Tell Kamala Harris: 'You Keep Your Reparations'
Lynnette Hardaway, left, and Rochelle
Richardson, a.k.a. Diamond and Silk, arrive at the LA Premiere of "Death
of a Nation" at the Regal Cinemas at L.A. Live on Tuesday, July 31, 2018,
in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)
OXON HILL, Md. — Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle
Richardson, known popularly as "Diamond and Silk," gave an
impassioned pro-America, pro-capitalism, and pro-life speech at the
Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday.
Most notably, they
attacked the idea of racial reparations for slavery, telling 2020 Democrat Sen.
Kamala Harris (D-Calif.):
"We have a message for Kamala Harris: You can keep
your reparations. You don't get to buy my silence," Hardaway declared.
"We will never let the Democratic Party forget that they are the party of
Jim Crow. They are the party of slavery."
Hardaway and Richardson emphasized their independence
from identity politics, emphatically saying that they can think for themselves.
Turning to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.),
Hardaway denounced socialism as a source of poverty.
"What makes America
great is through capitalism, how we can pull ourselves up by our
bootstraps" she declared. "So we can live the American dream and not
have to live through an American nightmare."
Hardaway addressed the issues of immigration and abortion
in one powerful phrase.
"When an illegal
immigrant comes through the border illegally, the Left wants to help them. But
when a baby comes through the birth canal legally, they want to kill
them."
The pair praised America as "the greatest country on
earth," and firmly defended the Constitution against Democrat efforts to
change it.
"We don't need to rewrite the Constitution. They need to reread
the Constitution," Hardaway said to loud applause.
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