Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Sunday, September 14. 2008

If you were a black conservative American

If you are a black conservative, would you consider voting for Obama anyway?

Or if you are a white guy or gal, try imagining being an American black guy or gal and ask yourself whether you would vote for Obama, even if you disagreed with many of his basic assumptions, and even if you had some doubts about his preparation for the job.

I would be interested in our readers' comments.

Posted by The Barrister in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 11:27 | Comments (25) | Trackback (1)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

The big "What if"
I posed the question yesterday here, If you were a black Conservative. Today, a thoughtful black Lefty, Randall Kennedy, discusses the hopes of black Americans.
Weblog: Maggie's Farm
Tracked: Sep 15, 10:26

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

I hope that I am wise enough to judge by the content of someone's character rather than the color of his skin.
#1 Max on 2008-09-14 11:38 (Reply)
I regularly do not vote for white men and women I disagree with, and vote for PEOPLE I agree with and feel would be good leaders on a local, state and national level. And the people I vote for cover many races and both genders.
#2 JC Loophole on 2008-09-14 11:54 (Reply)
I would probably vote for O'bama based on the color of his skin, rather than his ideology. What most people of color have experienced in their life, I feel, will have them commiserating rather than contemplating.

There is no prejudice intended w/the above, just empathetic ruminations.

I will definitely vote for John McCain, although I wish it were the 2000 elections. A sort of retroactive abortion of Bush.
#3 Will B. Donne (Link) on 2008-09-14 11:55 (Reply)
Odds are better than 9 to 1 I would vote Obama, because of his recently acquired blackiness, me being taught to hate whitey from the crib, nurtured in a thug environment where lawlessness is celebrity, inculcated with a deeply embittered entitlement belief. Got t' represent, yo'. Vote Obama or die, cracker!
#4 twolaneflash on 2008-09-14 12:10 (Reply)
I might. Not saying I would, but I imagine that I might be tempted.

After all, voting isn't all rational. Politics is like sales. No, politics IS sales.
#5 BD on 2008-09-14 12:32 (Reply)
Slightly different answer, but I would vote for Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powel. They have a better tan than me, but I agree with their politics. I regularly read Thomas Sowell and didn't even know he was black for a long time.
#6 _Jon (Link) on 2008-09-14 12:35 (Reply)
I would like to think that I vote for someone's character, values and policies, regardless of color or gender.

I will not vote for Obama and it is not because he is black. I will not vote for him because of his utter lack of substance on policy (pick any topic), his view that government is the solution to all problems (i.e. socialism), his highly questionable ability to judge character (Rezko, Ayers, Wright, his willingness to negotiate without preconditions with our enemies, etc.), his lack of core principles (constantly changing positions on a daily basis) and his complete lack of executive experience.

McCain has his deficiencies too. But he, especially with Palin, is so much better.

All I really want from McCain is to shrink the size of government, lower taxes and keep America safe. That will give all of us the most political and economic freedom to do what we want.

At heart, I have a libertarian view (and not the Libertarian Party view) of the role of government. Obama is the antithesis of that.
#7 Barrett on 2008-09-14 12:46 (Reply)
Other things being roughly equal, I think we root for our own, whether that is by region, faith, ethnicity, or whatever. I did not consider blacks voting for Obama racist, because his positions were not sharply different from Hillary's. In that instance, why not give the nod to a brother?

But I think that falls away rapidly in the face of disagreement, character, or qualification issues. Or should.
#8 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2008-09-14 13:04 (Reply)
'...a vote for our own.' In what way is Obama like 95% of black people? As a black person, I see Obama as a smooth operator who has no clue about what being truly black means. He's not truly black; and with his elitist attitude, far from one of 'us'. I would not vote for him.
#8.1 Meta on 2008-09-14 13:15 (Reply)
Just the other day I was listening to the Stern show. A black Afghanistan vet was on talking about various stuff. He was injured badly in an IED attack, leaving him disabled and with a hard time talking (which above all else makes him interesting to Stern).

So, near the end of the conversation, Stern asked him who he was supporting for president. I quote, to the best of my memory,

As a black man, I'd like to support Obama but.... I just don't trust him.

I thought it was a poignent comment. I think a larger percentage, than most would believe, of the black population in this country feels the same way.
#9 mcgurk (Link) on 2008-09-14 13:14 (Reply)
Obama is Black? Kinda of like Winston Churchill is American, right?

Gotta love this crazy world...God created it and even put goat herders in Kenya.
#10 John Hetman on 2008-09-14 13:25 (Reply)
Since you ask...

It would depend on what you mean by "conservative." A few outspoken contrarian Republicans (not really thought of as "conservative" in their African American communities) can be expected to vote for Obama's opponents. But a deep well of hopes and pride and shame and familiarity and banding-together-for-survival has been tapped, not by Obama-the-anomaly but by his bandwagon, and many African-Americans whom I know casually (I regularly volunteer with Meals on Wheels in a medium-size city), whose day-to-day life basically agrees with Republican values, would IMO not allow themselves to examine issues and policies and the implications deeply enough to wander off on their own from Democratic, and now, Obamic, litanies of agreement. Better continued malaise that is comprehensible, than new possibilities in new territory (with a predictable sound-track of Whoopi-type invocations of a fearful past and Dangerous Whitey).

It would be a lot to ask of them.
#11 anonymous on 2008-09-14 13:30 (Reply)
Ask Allen Keyes?
The answer is obvious, of course not. No conservative of conscious could......
#12 Jimmie on 2008-09-14 13:54 (Reply)
I wouldn't expect to see Thomas sowell or Walter Williams voting for Obama.

I'm of Lithuanian descent on both sides, and hell would freeze over before I'd vote for Dick Durbin. I wouldn't vote for a blood relative, if he was a liberal democrat.
#13 David Zincavage (Link) on 2008-09-14 15:18 (Reply)
White guy here. In answer to #2: No. Absolutely not. And I find the very notion that I should even consider it mildly offensive. It says to me that, even in this day and age, there are still those who consider people qualified or not solely on the basis of irrelevant externals. I thought better of my fellow citizens.

M
#14 Mark Alger (Link) on 2008-09-14 15:44 (Reply)
White here. I'd love to vote for Sowell, Powell, Rice or one of the others. If I were black, holding my beliefs, don't know what I'd do. I might, thinking it's just a passing thing, and it's time. I perceive Reverend Manning isn't voting for Obama.
#15 Bob on 2008-09-14 16:43 (Reply)
Maybe I'd try to cast a half vote for Obama.
#16 Bob on 2008-09-14 17:38 (Reply)
The single most objective reason I would not vote for Obama is his apparent stand on taxation, and specifically on his own explanation of why he would raise capital gains tax rates even while acknowledging this would reduce revenue.
(See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpSDBu35K-8). I would not vote for anyone this socialist, unless the only alternative was someone more socialist. Skin color is not a factor in any part of my evaluation which includes primarily this, as well as other considerations. (Ayers, executive experience, not knowing when to salute, etc. etc.)
#17 Uncle Ralph on 2008-09-14 22:19 (Reply)
Caucasian here. I would absolutely not vote for Obama. He used his brief position in the senate as a stepingstone, nothing else. Look at his record. He is the third highest recipient of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lobbyist donations, which is another word for bribes. The qualified blacks in DC are Condi Rice and Colin Powell. Obama's previous contacts with questionable individuals makes him even more suspect. Why is it when we need statesmen, we get politicians?
#18 Bill T. on 2008-09-14 23:21 (Reply)
Why are a few of you feeling compelled to state your race? The question of the post was to IMAGINE yourself as black and to make a determination AS a black person if you'd vote for Obama.

Play right.
`
#19 Meta - White female on 2008-09-14 23:49 (Reply)
M-WF:

Can't speak for all, but I stated my status in order to make it clear which part of the question I was answering.

As a member of a family of mixed race, I find the whole focus on race as a relevant criterion for anything other than -- possibly -- gene-linked disease control (e.g., sickle cell anemia), extremely offensive.

M
#19.1 Mark Alger (Link) on 2008-09-15 11:11 (Reply)
Mark,

I think because race has so become a relevant criteria for this election cycle, the post question is valid. We didn't make race relevant. Obama did. All the post asks is to imagine yourself as black - how would you vote. That is not racist; it is inquiry, and it is quite interesting considering all of us would like for race not to be an issue to say nothing of being sick and tired of hearing about it.
#19.1.1 Meta on 2008-09-15 13:06 (Reply)
I wouldn't, even if ya asked me, mita.
#19.1.1.1 Leag on 2008-09-16 12:35 (Reply)
Maybe full disclosure? Maybe we're not sure we can imagine ourselves other than we are?
#20 Bob on 2008-09-15 02:07 (Reply)
I was considering Obama, very early on. He represented the voice that I felt was missing in DC for so long - one of reason, non judgemental, non-partisan, above the fray.

As the campaign wore on, I lost interest in Obama. He has proven to be EXACTLY like all his Democratic predecessors. I was less concerned about his politics, which I knew I'd disagree with, and more concerned about his message, which I felt was a good one in this day and age.

Now it's very clear, however, that Obama is not what he says he was. He has silenced his opposition to the surge (which I disagreeed with him on) due to its success. He has joined McCain in saying the Bush Tax Cuts will last if the economy is in peril (it is). He has backed off of his pledge to use public funds to finance his campaign. He refused to do 10 town hall meetings with McCain when he realized he lacked the ability to speak extemporaneously.

He also has adopted the negative campaign spin that he said he would NOT engage.

Regardless of his skin color, which is NOT an issue, Obama has simply proven that he is an ideologue of the worst kind. I say the worst because he has little record to prove otherwise. McCain can be ACCUSED of being an ideologue based on his recent rhetoric, but his record speaks boatloads about his ability to reach across the aisle. The fact he is friendly with Hillary Clinton (ugh) says alot about his character.

I loved his choice of Sarah Palin, a woman who I have for several months been telling all my friends to do research on as I felt she would be the ultimate choice. They did, and loved her until the press went on its witchhunt and found information that everyone KNEW about, but wasn't germaine to the campaign until the pinhead journalists decided it was.

Obama may win. I doubt it though. He hasn't proven he's different. He's proven he has no record and no character that everyone once believed he had.
#21 Rick on 2008-09-15 17:52 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.