Time to Abandon the Government Plantation

By Terry Paulson

Monday, July 15, 2013

President Obama benefited from over ninety percent support from black Americans in the last two elections, but more and more blacks are questioning whether Democrats, with their divisive special interest politics, are really benefiting them.

Black conservative Larry Elder's column “Obama Will Make Blacks Vote Republican” acknowledged that if a white president had presided over America for the last five years, blacks would have been marching on Washington. When Obama came into office black unemployment was 12.7 percent; black unemployment remains at 13.7 percent.

Elder summed up the results for blacks under the first black president: "The median income of black households declined more than twice as much as the income of white households under Obama's tenure. Blacks have lost their homes to foreclosure at a higher rate than whites. ... Obama's policies have produced the worst recovery on record."

When Sean Hannity focused his popular Fox News show on listening to a distinguished group of African-American conservatives, their comments were strident. Instead of calling them names, it's time for minorities to face their contentions.

Benjamin Carson, author and former pediatric neurosurgeon, talked about the need to reclaim core American values: "We need to...(bring) back...the kinds of Judeo-Christian values that helped establish this country and that made families strong. We have lost a lot of that. As a result, there is less respect for each other. Young men are not respecting the young ladies. They are going around impregnating them. Young ladies are allowing that to happen by disrespecting themselves. Babies are being born with no solid family or financial structure. They have four to nine times the instance of poverty. People are not learning how to turn over dollars in their own community a couple of times before they send them out. That's how you build wealth. And as you build wealth reaching back and pulling others up."

David Webb, Sirius XM Patriot host, talked about breaking the control liberals have in the black community, "You are a victim, and it's about power and control. ...I talk about political education, understanding how your country works, how your community works.... You are now controlled through lack of education, you're controlled because you have needs. And they control your needs. They give you literally whether it's the government cheese, to the tax return, to whatever benefit, whatever entitlement, whatever program. ... It's power and control, and when you break that, you threaten their existence."

But it was the explanation of Louisiana State Senator Elbert L. Guillory on why he changed his registration from Democrat to Frederick Douglass Republican that took the prize for unsettling truth telling:

"In recent history, the Democrat Party has created the illusion that their agenda and their policies are what’s best for black people. ... At the heart of liberalism is the idea that only a great and powerful big government can be the benefactor of social justice for all Americans. But the left is only concerned with one thing -- control. And they disguise this control as charity. Programs such as welfare, food stamps, these programs aren’t designed to lift black Americans out of poverty, they were always intended as a mechanism for politicians to control the black community. The idea that blacks, or anyone for that matter, need the government to get ahead in life is despicable. And even more important, this idea is a failure. Our communities are just as poor as they’ve always been. Our schools continue to fail children. Our prisons are filled with young black men who should be at home being fathers. Our self-initiative and our self-reliance have been sacrificed in exchange for allegiance to our overseers who control us by making us dependent on them."

Senator Guillory continued, "The individual must be free to pursue his or her own happiness free from government dependence and free from government control. Because to be truly free is to be reliant on no one other than the author of our destiny. These are the ideas at the core of the Republican Party, and it is why I am a Republican. ...Please join with me today in abandoning the government plantation and the Party of disappointment. So that we may all echo the words of one Republican leader who famously said, ‘free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’"

Special interest politics divide Americans and don't truly benefit those whom progressives promise to help. As Reagan loved to say, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Blacks, Hispanics, and women take note. Campaign promises are used to get your vote, but government dependence won't improve your future.