The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    We Might Need (smart) Black Conservatives

    By Danny Cardwell on Sun, 03/01/2015 - 4:57pm |

    I firmly believe the two party system, as it currently exists, lacks the ability and will to structurally better the lives of everyday people. Much of my critique revolves around the grotesque amount of money in politics and the corporate media's failure to accurately report on economic, political, and social events. The democratic component of our republic has been circumvented, and we (as a nation) need an intellectual awakening (or reawakening) to recover it. Since it would be virtually impossible to remove money from politics or make the corporate media do it's job, I'm led to believe a few moderate changes could lead us down the road to a higher political discourse. One of these ideas is to embrace "authentic" black conservatives. The "authentic" is an appropriation of a thesis offered by Chidike Okeem (a writer and conservative commentator). Chidike calls for authentic black conservatives to push back against the "artificial" black conservatives who parrot talking points given to them by the conservative media noise machine.

    Here's a quote from Chidike:

      It is an analytical mistake to confuse blacks’ rejection of mainstream conservatism as a wholesale rejection of conservative thought. Rather, it is simply a rejection of artificial black conservatism. Manifestly, the most visible form of black conservatism in American society is the artificial strain. That is to say, many prominent black conservatives use their blackness as a convenient cosmetic feature, but blackness is truly foreign to their ideology. They use the problems in the black community as an opportunity to deride black people—as opposed to persuading blacks about the superiority of conservative solutions.

    While I don't agree that conservative solutions are superior, I do think they are vital for pushing forth politically realistic solutions to some of our economic and societal problems. Having black conservatives, who aren't beholden to any political or economic power structure, in more prominent roles could pressure Democrats in swing states to back up campaign promises. The negativity some blacks feel towards the Republican party can be traced to the use of  "artificial" black conservatives to legitimize the worst stereotypes about black life. Whether it's Trayvon Martin or Mike Brown "artificial" black conservatives are trotted out to diagnose the problem[s] with black people instead of offering any serious critique of the society that produces problems exclusive to black people.

    Sadly, black conservatives who exhibit proficiency in sociology, economic theory, and/ or politics are relegated to the back bench, while useful idiots like the Reverends Daniel Manning and Jesse Lee Peterson are trotted out. These conservatives are more useful to their conservative media masters because their brand of vitriol support the underlying bigotry of their outlets. The conservative media isn't tasked with winning elections or telling the truth (see Bill O'Reilly or any Fox news personality) all they have to do is win ratings. This strategy isolates blacks who may have conservative leanings.

    I'm not advocating a mass exodus of black people from the Democratic party, but I recognize the need to dialectically work through 21st century problems. America needs strong political parties. For libertarians and conservatives the idea of economic solutions coming from Washington or a state house is anathema. I warn the anti government crowd: living out an ideological fantasy based on what government "should be" doesn't deal with what government is. We're never going to shrink government down small enough to drown it in a bathtub or grow it big enough to solve all of societies ills, but we can make it work better by focusing on subtle fixes we may surprise ourselves and solve some big issues. 

     
     

    Comments

    The current GOP does not appear ready to make any concessions regarding race. thye are not funding DHS because they want to fight the President on actions takeon immigration rather than letting the court address thhe matter of Obama's initiatives.The GOP is actually fighting a Civil War. They reqiuried Democrats to get a brief extension of DHS funding.

    The GOP has gleefully been behind the snipe hunt for voter fraud to keep minority voters away from the voting booths. The Republicans have no interest in outreach to the Black community. Wattree had a recent post about Raynard Jackson, a Black Republican, upset that the GOP ignores issues raised by Blacks in the GOP. Another Black Republican, ConservativeBlackChick, decries the failure of the GOP to do anything about outreach except putting up a website with no information. This follows the GW Bush hoodwink of Black preachers. The Bush Faith Outreach Program targeted homophobic Black clergy with the fear of electing a person who was "open to Gay marriage", John Kerry.

    The GOP squashes any Black Republican who does not toe the party line. Reverend Patterson has free reign to call Blacks who vote for Democrats brain-damaged. Dr. Ben Carson can say essentially the same thing. Presidential candidate was another high-profle Black Republican who questioned the intelligence of the Black community because the community did not vote for Repblicans.

    Mia Love shows up at CPAC and suggests Reublicans need to explain the superiority of Conservative programs to the Black community. You know that the Republicans will not expend an effort to make contact with Blacks.

    Former RNC chair Michael Steele only felt enpowered to speeak out about problems of race in the GOP when he no longer relied on the GOP for a paycheck. There will be no outreach until the demographics change to the point where the GOP realizes that they need minority voters. When they do finally realize that they need minority voters, they will go after Latinos first. Blacks will be the last group that receives attention from the GOP.

    It may be that many Black Republicans feel the same frustrations as Raynard Jackson and ConservativeBlackChick, but they have not found the courage to make demands. I have noted multiple times before that Fannie Lou Hamer spoke out in much more difficult circumstances. It is likely that the Black community would give moral support to Black Republicans who addressed racism within the GOP, but we shall never know because protest is not in the nature of current Black Republicans.

    Excellent post.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 03/01/2015 - 8:33pm

    Regarding "smart" Black Republicans, Dr. Ben Carson thinks that evolution is "propaganda". Carson is also a climate change denier.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/01/ben-carson-2016_n_6779138.html?...

    On the issue of minority outreach, Governor Scott Walker has become more hardline regarding immigration to become more palatable to the GOP base.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/01/scott-walker-immigration_n_6779...


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 03/01/2015 - 8:45pm

    Dr. Ben Carson is living proof that someone can be brilliant in one area of life and an imbecile in another area. I thought he was just playing the conservative media in order to sell books, but I don't think that anymore. He has a knack for saying the craziest things and trying to make them seem normal.

    by Danny Cardwell on Mon, 03/02/2015 - 6:56pm

    Thanks for engaging this post. Your comments were very thoughtful. Respect!

    by Danny Cardwell on Mon, 03/02/2015 - 6:51pm

    Smart conservatives are important to have around in general.  Yes, they're reactionaries by definition but sometimes having them slow down the pace of social change allows us time to get things right when they actually do change.  Though I find it problematic to say even that. Some things that have to do with voting rights, marriage rights and the like really do have to change quickly because innocent people are victimized during every moment of their persistence.

    Conservatives, smart ones anyway, do have a lot of good to tell us, though, about individual freedom, rights and obligations. It's just that because of the reactionary nature of their beliefs, they have a very hard time being productive.


    by Michael Maiello on Mon, 03/02/2015 - 2:37pm

    The problem that the smart Conservatives have is that the message of individual freedom, rights, and obligations are not seen as Conservative values in the Black community. Conservatives are seen as the people who want to take away personal freedom. Stop and Frisk is a Conservative program that allows the state to infringe on the rights of the innocent. Voter suppression infringes on the freedom to select your representation in government. Conservatives in Michigan were behind appointing a special "master" to usurpt the rights of elected government. Freedom is not associated with current Conservatives.

    Similar to freedom, rights are not associated with Conservatives. When we see Conservative reactions to Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, and Eric Garner, we see that Conservatives believe gun rights are White rights. They were silent on. I he'llbe Alexander defending herself.

    From a standpoint of responsibility, we see Guiliani, an adulterer who had his mistress moved into the Mayor's mansion give moral advice to others. We see a Black neurosurgeon who grew up on welfare and got off, wanting to deny the same chance to others. 

    Who provides examples of individual freedom? Democrat John Lewis. Who provides examples of rights? Democratic AG Eric Holder. Who has committed to obligations? President Barack Obama.

    Note: I admit I am biased in that when John Boehner mouthed kisses to the DC press corps when asked about how he was going to deal with the pending DHS shutdown, I really wanted to break that sucker's jaw (in my imagination). 

    Can you name any current smart Republicans that reflect freedom, rights, and obligations?


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 03/02/2015 - 2:59pm

    Can you name any current smart Republicans that reflect freedom, rights, and obligations?

    Yeah, no.

     

      by Michael Maiello on Mon, 03/02/2015 - 4:10pm

      For some reason I cannot comment from my iPad

      Thanks, I couldn't find any rational Republicans either  laugh


      by rmrd0000 on Mon, 03/02/2015 - 8:36pm

      I will say this... when I was younger, I did find The Closing of the American Mind to be provocative and interesting.  That might have been the last of the intellectual heft from the right.


      by Michael Maiello on Tue, 03/03/2015 - 12:12am


      by rmrd0000 on Mon, 03/02/2015 - 8:32pm


      by rmrd0000 on Mon, 03/02/2015 - 8:32pm

      "While I don't agree that conservative solutions are superior, I do think they are vital for pushing forth politically realistic solutions to some of our economic and societal problems."

      I am all for a dialectic. But it is hard to know what the word means when "conservatives" sometimes mean Milton Friedman clones espousing the virtues of unfettered markets or the word means preserving the cultural values of self selected localities in resistance to such forces. Or maybe it means someone who wants all the words to mean what they meant to their parents no matter how other people use them. I could go on but won't out of sense of politeness.

      My brain hurts. I guess I am not sure "conservative" is a word anymore.


      by moat on Mon, 03/02/2015 - 9:32pm

      While I don't agree that conservative solutions are superior, I do think they are vital for pushing forth politically realistic solutions to some of our economic and societal problems.

      After viewing the video, provided below,  I fully agree with your assessment.

      I do think they are vital

      “There is a clear and present danger for civilization”  

      @ 2:00

      We have to work with them, It is the only way we are going to prevent a worse scenario.  

      The left is losing the battle and anyone with enough insight can see the realities only benefit a worldwide financial system,  that really doesn’t give a crap about the social order. 

      "Yanis Varoufakis: Confessions of an Erratic Marxist /// 14th May 2013"


      by Resistance on Tue, 03/03/2015 - 6:40am

      Working with them assumes negotiations. Negotiations assumes both sides are willing to compromise. Compromise assume both parties are willing to move from a rigid position on some issues. Once one side decides that they will not move from a given position, the only way the other side can work with them is to agree to the rigid position of the opposite side. If we are repeatedly faced with the challenge to either agree with a rigid position or a Goverment shutdown, how can we ever "work" with the other side It is similar to the situation of the scorpion and the frog. The frog is willing to make a compromise. The scorpion is willing for both to die. If one side views government as an evil and is willing to have repeated government shutdown, there is only capitulation, not compromise.

      by rmrd0000 on Tue, 03/03/2015 - 9:37am

      It is clear you didn't watch the complete video or you wouldn't make your comment.

      All citizens of the world are are running out of time, in fact  WE in fact, may already be too late.  

      WE have no alternative........ we are in NO position to make demands.

      While we fight amongst ourselves, they are solidifying their position and strangle hold, we may never be able to escape.

      Only misery awaits us.    

      The Tea Party supporters, conservatives and the left MUST be made to see, every ones future depends upon working together, 

      The Squid has its tentacles on our faces and we are all going to suffer;  Republicans and Democrats; everyone;  but the blood suckers   

      A 2009 Rolling Stone article [15] by Matt Taibbi likened investment bank Goldman Sachs to

      "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity,

      relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."[15] Although the metaphor was faulty, since vampire squids do not suck blood or have a "blood funnel", it was later used by other critics of Goldman Sachs, such as the Occupy Wall Street movement.[16]

      [15] Matt Taibbi (2009-07-09). " "The Great American Bubble Machine  | Politics News". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2013-05-19.


      by Resistance on Tue, 03/03/2015 - 12:18pm

      I don't diagree that action is needed. The problem is that if one side is willing to let things collapse rather than compromise, there can be no solution. Republicans remain fixed. Obama and Democrats are the ones accused of caving in to opponent's demands. How do we break the Republican reluctance to compromise?


      by rmrd0000 on Tue, 03/03/2015 - 2:33pm

      They have got to be convinced that Americas sovereignty is at stake.

      A hot button issue, members of the Rights Tea Party coalition (the activists) get all fired up about. 

      For the good of the country we must come together, or were all screwed..... FOREVER .

      Americas military might is not for the defense of financial overlords who view the world differently

      They are not one with US.  They want US to serve them. 

      My original link did not work

       Confessions of an Erratic Marxist - YouTube

      Go back to the video and  beginning approximately 1:18:00  Agreements ....

      1:19:00  IMF

      1:22:00  "Not accepting compromise: 

      1:24:00  The Undemocratically elected....... are going to control everything. 


      by Resistance on Tue, 03/03/2015 - 3:20pm

      Well at least they voted to fund the DHS

      by rmrd0000 on Tue, 03/03/2015 - 3:25pm

      Danny,

      I sincerely believe that "smart Black conservative" is an oxymoron. A conservative is one who embraces, supports, and promotes traditional American values, and any Black person who promotes "conserving" traditional American values is, by definition, an idiot. A "smart Black conservative" is the perfect equivalent of saying a "smart Jewish Nazi."  There's no such thing. Conservatism, by definition, is anti-Black. Conservatives are dedicated to maintaining the status quo, which means, White supremacy - period.
      .

      conservative

      adjective con·ser·va·tive \kən-ˈsər-və-tiv\

      Believing in the value of established and traditional practices in politics and society 

       http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conservative


      by Wattree on Tue, 03/03/2015 - 12:21pm

      I think there's enough distance between social conservatism and fiscal conservatism to make a distinction. I have no use for social conservatism. It's like they run from libertarianism when it comes to the choices people exercise in their personal lives. However, In the realm of economic theory, I feel that having the constant threat of austerity in the form of Austrian economic policy is something that can be useful in certain areas of financing the government. I would rather live in America with defense spending cut 20% than raised 2%. The problem is that too many conservatives view defense spending as utterly vital- to the detriment of domestic issues. I know brothers who are big on Hayek and Von Mises they studied the theory so far down the rabbit hole that their theoretical approach to the economy has no viable counter balance. It's the same way with some of our Keynesian friends.

      by Danny Cardwell on Thu, 03/05/2015 - 4:58am

      Well drawn distinctions. They remind me of this essay by Keith W. Diener where Hayek is quoted in an interview saying:

      civilization rests on the fact that people are very different...and unless we allow these differences to exist...we shall stop the whole process of evolution...if you try to make the opportunities of all people equal you eliminate the main stimulus to evolution....What you explained to me about the meaning of affirmative action is the same dilemma which egalitarianism achieves: in order to make people equal you have to treat them differently. If you treat people, so far as government is concerned, alike, the result is necessarily inequality; you can have either freedom and inequality, or unfreedom and equality.

      Hayek's point of view doesn't seem to recognize there other ways to rig the game than through the law alone. One of the many virtues of Diener's argument for the need of the anti-discrimination laws is that he makes them within the context of Hayek's own arguments, showing where they come to an impasse, rather than appealing to an opposing theory (such as Keynes) to do the thinking for him.


      by moat on Thu, 03/05/2015 - 8:16am

      Danny,

      There's nothing wrong with our economy. Corporations are making more profits than they've ever made in history. The GOP/corporate alliance is purposely strangling the American people in order to make the American middle class more accepting of a lower standard of living that's more in line with the global economy. That's why they're sending our jobs overseas.

      Conservatives - both fiscal, and their little clueless army of social conservatives - are dangerous, because they don't have a sense of limits. And their economic theories haven't worked since before the great depression.

      Their still trying to feed us Reaganomics, and that's what has destroyed the middle class. Ronald Reagan is in competition with George W. Bush as one of our very worst Presidents. He tripled the national debt (created more debt than ALL of the presidents from George Washington to himself COMBINED); He was treasonous - He made a deal with Iran to continue to hold American citizens hostage until AFTER his election against Jimmy Carter, and then repaid them in arms; he flooded our inner cities with crack to fund his illegal war in Nicaragua; and he destroyed our industrial base with Trickle-Down economics. So let me revise my initial statement - he was worse than Bush. He should have been impeached and imprisoned - in fact, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney should all be cell mates. Now, I'm not dumb. I know that Nixon and Reagan are gone, but they should put a plaque with their names on it in the cell.

      Conservatives who claim Obama has ruined America and destroyed the economy are...
      IFYOUONLYNEWS.COM|BY CHARLES TOPHER
       

      by Wattree on Thu, 03/05/2015 - 1:30pm

      There is an amazing story that a White Rublican state auditor in Missouri committed suicide because there was awhispher campaign that the auditor was Jewish. The head of the state's Republican party says that he may have told others that the auditor was Jewish. The auditor feared that being labeled Jewish would ruin chances for election to higher office in the party.

      Former Senator John Danforth brought up the anti-Sematism at the eulogy. This is 2015. If the party treats Jewish people this way, Blacks and Latinos can forget it.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/03/03/jack-danforths...


      by rmrd0000 on Tue, 03/03/2015 - 10:08pm

      Tell me about it, RM.

      But what I don't understand is, why would he want to be in a party like that in the first place!!!?  I would join the Republican Party of they told me they'd give me Mitch McConnell's job tomorrow - with a raise.


      by Wattree on Thu, 03/05/2015 - 2:01pm