Rhetorical Outbursts

by OOTM

What do you get when you cross a black person, a Republican, and a Church of Christ preacher?

Whether or not it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, what you really get is Herman E. Wesley, a black Church of Christ preacher from Montgomery, Alabama who is making news by trying to bring more black Alabamians into the Republican fold. According to Wesley, more than 20,000 black Alabamians voted for incumbent Republican Gov. Bob Riley in the last election, and he and his council hope to add around 50,000 to that number for the coming election.

“What we want to do is to get the black vote re-engaged in Alabama,” council chairman Richard H. Finley said. “Presently everybody knows what the black vote is going to do — they’ve allotted a certain amount of money for that and that keeps black people poor and on the plantation and under control.”

Staying true to the Democratic model, Alabama’s top Democrat, Joe Reed, addressed Wesley’s efforts with an argument fit for an elementary school playground:

“If they want to try that, they’re Republicans and they’re welcome to,” he said. “If they can get 75,000 black folks to support George Bush in Alabama, we’re going to have to build some more insane asylums in Alabama for that many people.”

Notes to Joe Reed:

1. George Bush isn’t running in the next election, nor will he ever run for election again.

2. Perhaps the fact that your best argument against Wesley’s movement is to call them “insane” says a lot about why blacks are starting to listen to people like Wesley.

3. Black people are not as stupid as your comments suggest you think they are.

I have always wondered how the Democrat Party managed to get a stranglehold (pun intended) on the black vote in America. In addition, I have wondered how groups like the National Black Republican Association have been unable to make any inroads in the black community.

Whether or not movements like Wesley’s are successful in getting large numbers of black Americans to vote Republican, I hope they are at least able to move the dialogue beyond the traditional Democrat talking points (calling Republicans insane, racist, etc.) as exemplified by Joe Reed.