By Larry Elder
Thursday, December 12, 2013
At an out-of-town memorial service for my dear friend and
mentor, Alan Schonberg -- a business titan known for his warmth, grace and
generosity -- I saw "Paul," a man I've known some 30 years. It had
been a long, long time. Paul, like me, is a black attorney. Unlike me, he is a
Democrat, active in local politics.
While introducing me to someone, Paul made some casual
crack about my "conservative" politics, something like, "Of
course, we don't always agree ... " Usually, I have neither the time nor
the energy to unravel the decades of slop in the heads of most
liberals/leftists/collectivists/progressives. But sometimes, I can't help
myself.
I decided to conduct an "intervention," as one
would a friend or relative in need of assistance to confront and overcome a
severe drug problem. We talked. I then sent him following letter:
Dear Paul,
To repeat, the only credible reason for a thoughtful black
to stay a Democrat is "social justice," the premise that Republicans
care less than Democrats do about the underprivileged. And even there, the case
is weak. Your nonchalant allegiance to Democrats damages the country in general
and the black community in particular.
From 1890 to 1940, depending upon the area of the
country, a black kid was slightly more likely than a white kid to be raised in
a home headed by two married parents. Today, nearly 75 percent of blacks are
raised in homes headed by a single parent, triple the rate from that of 1965.
Over the same period, the rate for whites and Hispanics have also soared. Blame
LBJ's so-called "war on poverty," which incentivized women to
"marry" the government, allowing the fathers to abandon their financial
and moral responsibility.
FDR's New Deal also inflicted a great deal of damage to
blacks. Land was taken for government projects, sharecroppers lost jobs and New
Deal money was often spent for political gain, rather than actual need. UCLA
economist Lee Ohanian, who has probably done more research on this issue than
anyone else, says the New Deal deepened and lengthened the Great Depression.
The federal minimum wage, initially enacted in 1933, also
devastated black unemployment. According to the libertarian Cato Institute:
"Early empirical evidence attests to the unemployment effects of the
minimum wage. ... By reason of the minimum wage provisions of the codes, about
500,000 Negro workers were on relief in 1934." Economist Milton Friedman said:
"We regard the minimum wage law as one of the most, if not the most, anti-black laws on the statute books."
The failure to privatize Social Security holds blacks
back. The Cato Institute writes: "A study by the nonpartisan RAND
Corporation found that the rate-of-return for African-Americans was
approximately one percent lower than that for whites. The result was a net
lifetime transfer of wealth from blacks to whites averaging nearly $10,000 per
person."
California Rep. Maxine Waters called the black
unemployment rate, then at 15.9 percent, "unconscionable." What do
liberals propose to do about it? Spend more of taxpayers' money on -- fill in
the blank -- health care, education, job training, preschool. Raise the minimum
wage. Increase taxes on "the rich" -- precisely the approach that is
giving us the worst economic recovery in 80 years.
Social issues are important, but should be fought out at
the state and local level. Even on many non-economic issues, the Democratic
Party is out of step and out of touch with the feelings of non-elites. Attorney
General Eric Holder, for example, remains on the warpath about voter I.D. laws,
calling them racist. But polls show blacks nearly as likely as whites to
support voter I.D.
On immigration, Coretta Scott King once wrote to Sen.
Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in support of strong laws to punish those who hire illegal
aliens. She said that employment of illegal aliens is unfair to America's
"un- and semi-skilled workers," a disproportionately large number of
whom are black.
On the issue of gay marriage and abortion, non-elite
blacks part from the "leadership." Though the Democratic Party
passionately supports Roe v. Wade, many polls find blacks more
"pro-life" than whites. While the Democrat leadership demands "marriage
equality," a 2011 poll found that 58 percent of blacks oppose gay
marriage, a higher rate than the rest of the country.
"Dems good, Republicans bad." "Dems care
about you, Republicans care about money." Heard it all -- and it's bull.
Can you answer this question correctly? As between
liberals and conservatives, who donates more to charity? The answer is it isn't
even close. According to the book "Who Really Cares" by Arthur
Brooks, conservative-headed households are more generous with their money by
some 30 percent and also give far more of their time.
We talked about vouchers. Obama opposes them, thus
blocking many black and brown families from the same opportunities his mother
afforded him --Punahou prep school in Hawaii -- and that the Obamas afford
their own children, who've never attended public school. Isn't education the
key to success? Or, as you "progressives" put it, education is
"the civil rights issue of the 21st century."
Didn't mean to overwhelm you. I expect this to give you
an industrial-sized case of "cognitive dissonance." I tried. Alan
would have.
-- Larry
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