l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 Oct 04, 2011
If there was ever any doubt that the Democrats take the black vote for
granted, that doubt should have been put to rest when Barack Obama told the
Congressional Black Caucus, "Stop whining!"
Have you ever before heard either a Democratic or a Republican leader tell
his party's strongest supporters, "Stop whining"?
Blacks have a lot to complain about, not just about this Democratic
administration but about many other Democratic administrations, national and
local, over the years.
Unfortunately, black voters, like many other voters, often judge by rhetoric
, rather than realities. When it comes to racial rhetoric, the Democrats
outdo the Republicans by miles.
Even Ronald Reagan, the great communicator, had problems communicating with
black voters, as I pointed out years ago in my book "A Personal Odyssey" (
pages 274-278).
All this came back to me during a recent cleanup of my office, which turned
up an old yellowed copy of the New York Times with the following front-page
headline: "White-Black Disparity in Income Narrowed in 80's, Census Shows" (
July 24, 1992).
How many people in the media have pointed out that the black-white income
gap narrowed during the Reagan administration, just as it has widened during
the Obama administration? For that matter, how many Republicans have
pointed it out?
The Reagan administration did not have any special program to narrow the
racial gap in incomes. The point is that the kinds of policies followed in
the 1980s had that effect, just as the kinds of policies followed by the
Obama administration had opposite effects. But just listening to rhetoric
won't tell you that.
Over the years, some of the most devastating policies, in terms of their
actual effects on black people, have come from liberal Democrats, from the
local to the national level.
As far back as the Roosevelt administration during the Great Depression of
the 1930s, liberal Democrats imposed policies that had counterproductive
effects on blacks. None cost blacks more jobs than minimum wage laws.
In countries around the world, minimum wage laws have a track record of
increasing unemployment, especially among the young, the less skilled and
minorities. It has done the same in America.
One of the first acts of the Roosevelt administration was to pass the
National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, which included establishing
minimum wages nationwide. It has been estimated that blacks lost 500,000
jobs as a result. |
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