They Think You're Stupid (10 page)

The second characteristic new leaders must possess is
an ability to produce
positive results
. Blacks will believe in the promise of conservative policy solutions when they see their personal economic situations improve, when schools improve and show dedication to educate every child, and when barriers are removed that prevent them from achieving their American Dreams.

The third characteristic demanded of new Black political leaders is
an ability to speak frankly
with people but to inspire them at the same time. A person's determination can be inspired to a higher level. Their belief in something can be inspired, their inner energy can be inspired, their faith can be inspired, and their motivation can be inspired. A leader's ability to inspire is determined most by the ability to communicate with words and symbolic actions. Words, phrases, and sentences delivered convincingly or with convincing passion inspire people. If done appropriately, actions can inspire as well as words. The most obvious action that can inspire occurs when the leader accomplishes what he or she determines to achieve or when the leader reaches a predetermined benchmark. An effective leader will then inspire people to set and achieve their own goals. As the late Morehouse College president Dr. Benjamin E. Mays used to tell us, "It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals. The tragedy lies in not having any goals to reach for."

The Democratic Party has also taken the Hispanic electorate for granted. Increasing numbers of Hispanics are aware of that fact and have shown a willingness to support the Republican policy agenda. Hispanics represented 7 percent of the vote in the 2000 presidential election, and 62 percent voted for then vice president Al Gore. President Bush received 35 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2000. By 2004, Hispanics represented 8 percent of the vote, but President Bush increased his support among Hispanics by nine percentage points. Democratic candidate John Kerry received 53 percent of the Hispanic vote. Hispanics now slightly outnumber Blacks as a percentage of the U.S. population. As more and more Hispanic voters achieve economic success and begin to leave the Democratic plantation, they can expect to be subject to the same divisive and fear-based rhetoric currently targeted at conservative Black voters.

Though they have lost significant percentages of their traditional base, Democratic Party leaders still show an unwillingness to acknowledge that their radical liberal ideology does not match the values of the majority of U.S. citizens. U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, admitted after election day in 2004 that "We were on a tough playing field." She went on to blame Democratic losses in key races on the fact that Republicans appealed more to socially and economically conservative former Democrats by emphasizing what she referred to as the "wedge issues" of same-sex marriage and abortion.

Is throwing more money at a broken Social Security system a wedge issue? No, it is simply stupid. Are raising taxes and taking more of peoples' hard-earned money to fund inefficient government programs wedge issues? No, it is insane, and people are sick and tired of it.

What Congresswoman Pelosi means by the term "wedge issues" is that these issues are simply distractions used by Republicans to drive a wedge between the Democratic Party and its former base. She does not think the electorate is intelligent enough to look at the entire policy agendas and issue positions of both parties and make a sound, informed decision. Democratic leaders still believe that the public only disagrees with them on one or two issues and agrees with them on most other issues. Wrong!

As my grandmother used to say, "Wishing doesn't make it so." People do not leave the political party they grew up with because of a disagreement over one issue. They leave when their party abandons its fundamental principles on the biggest issues and offers the wrong solutions to fix them. By labeling the biggest issues for many voters as wedge issues, the Democratic leaders show that they do not understand and therefore cannot address the biggest problems.

The fact that Democrats call such fundamental issues "wedge issues" demonstrates how out of touch they are with mainstream America. We live in a nation where most people have conservative social and economic values and where most people try to live their lives according to the morals and values taught to them in their church and by their parents. Most people do not think it is acceptable to abort unborn children or for people of the same sex to marry each other or to continue to waste taxpayers' money.

The majority of the public does not support removing the words "one nation under God" from our Pledge of Allegiance. They do not support removing the words "in God we trust" from our currency. They do not support presidents who carry on extra-martial affairs with interns in the Oval Office of the White House. Democrats simply cannot understand why most people involve their faith in making the big decisions in their lives. They cannot understand why people do not and cannot switch their faith on and off because of a notion of "separation between church and state"--a phrase that does not even appear in our Constitution! For most people, their religious faith, their personal and business lives, and their political views are inextricably intertwined.

For Democrats, "issue leadership" is a deceptive two-step process. First, they take a poll or conduct a focus group to determine what issues are most important to the public. Second, they frame the core liberal ideology and policy agenda around the issues most important to the public. The goal of this strategy is to fool the public into believing that the Democratic Party stands with the majority opinion on the electorate's core issues. They attempt to mimic the language and values of the public but in reality offer policies that are counter to the public's morals and values.

The Democratic Party's view of morality and the morality agenda they will offer the public in the coming congressional sessions and election years is not a morality based on biblical principles and traditional notions of right versus wrong taught by our parents and grandparents. Democrats will once again try to fool the public. They will argue that their traditional issue positions are more moral than the Republicans' positions. The Democrats, though, will not really side with the majority of people who know the difference between traditional and secular morality.

Instead, Democrats will argue that it is moral to pass an increase in the minimum wage. They will argue that that it is moral to enact a socialistic national health care system, paid for by the federal government, small businesses, and large corporations. They will argue that it is moral to tolerate the lifestyles of all citizens, no matter how aberrant we think they are. They will argue that tax increases are moral because tax increases indicate sacrifice and a sense of fairness. Democrats will not change their core beliefs and liberal ideology. They will only repackage their message and agenda and attempt to sell it to the public with a slick new marketing campaign.

Another example of Democratic Party leaders taking their base constituency for granted is when they advocate conservative policies in their home states but vote against these policies in Washington, D.C., where they think their voters are not paying attention. Throughout South Dakota Democrat and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's 2004 reelection campaign, his opponent, Republican congressman John Thune, brought to light a number of examples of Daschle's long history of insincerity with South Dakota's voters. One example was Daschle's doublespeak on the issue of the global war on terrorism. Thune released a press statement that detailed Daschle's contradictory positions on the war:

Senator Daschle's contradictory behavior is particularly noteworthy on the first anniversary of the beginning of the fall of Saddam Hussein and the liberation of Iraq. On the eve of military action beginning in Iraq, Senator Tom Daschle attacked President Bush: "I'm saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war. Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn't create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country" (Senator Tom Daschle's remarks to AFSCME conference, 17 March 2003).

Slightly less than a year later, after continuing to attack President Bush on Iraq, he suddenly reversed himself during a speech in South Dakota: "Senator Tom Daschle praised the Bush administration's war and nation-building work in Iraq and said he has no serious concerns about the lack of weapons of mass destruction. Daschle told state chamber of commerce representatives meeting in the South Dakota capital that he is satisfied with the way things are going in Iraq. He said he is not upset about the debate over pre-war intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, an issue that has dogged President Bush as Democratic presidential contenders have slogged through the primary season" (
Rapid City Journal
, 20 February 2004).

On election day, South Dakota's voters sent Minority Leader Daschle and the Democratic Party a message that voters are not fools and their votes could no longer be taken for granted when they voted him out of office and replaced him with the more conservative and trustworthy Congressman Thune.

Fortunately, the statistics from the 2004 elections show that some of the politically homeless are willing to leave the Democrat plantation and support conservative social and economic policies. The statistics show that Blacks, Hispanics, Jewish voters, and Catholic voters are no longer a monolith, bound by tradition and the rhetoric of their political leaders to vote for the Democratic candidate. These voters, who have found at least temporary shelter in the Republican Party, demonstrated by their votes that we can no longer view people simply as members of groups. Individuals from any race, ethnic background, or religious denomination have individual political ideologies and interests that transcend their skin color or church affiliation. Democrats will continue to view people as members of racial, religious, or victimized groups, treat them as such, and in doing so take them for granted, at their own peril.

The biggest social and economic issues are blind to race. The current federal tax code is bad for everyone. The Social Security structure is bad for everyone, and the state of the Medicare system is bad for everyone. The rates of abortion, out-of-wedlock childbirths, and illiteracy directly or indirectly affect all members of society. If a significant percentage of our nation's youth are trapped in failing schools, unable and uninspired to learn, the negative repercussions will impact our economy and society for generations. The problems that adversely affect our economic and moral foundations have a negative impact on all citizens, but common sense solutions to our problems will benefit all citizens.

Though we all face the war waged on our economic and moral foundations, those at the lowest strata of economic achievement are the most adversely affected. The federal tax code has a negative impact on everyone, but it has a greater impact on the poor, which includes a disproportionate percentage of the racial minority population. The tax code was engineered in 1913 to raise money needed to fund wars, foreign and domestic programs, and the operations of federal government. In the almost one hundred years since it was enacted, it has ballooned to an eight-million-word mess that no one has ever completely read.

Over the years, Congress has added loopholes and tax credits that reward all manner of specific groups, organizations, and businesses. In doing so, Congress also created disincentives to individuals to start their own businesses, pursue the American entrepreneurial spirit, grow the economy, and pass their businesses and wealth on to their heirs. The federal tax code disproportionately hurts those from the lowest economic levels by increasing their tax burden as they make more money.

Every time the president or congressional Republicans discuss lowering the marginal tax rates by even one or two percentage points, eliminating whole brackets altogether, or replacing the tax code with a fairer system, Democrats in Congress and the liberal-dominated news media respond on cue that changes to the tax code will only benefit the rich. They do not even bother to check the facts or give people the facts. The amount of control the liberals can exercise over our lives is largely determined by how much of our money they can take from individuals and businesses in the form of taxes.

Federal government control over your life is exerted by redistributing to the poor, through an inefficient government program, the tax monies the government receives from you. In so doing, the government controls you by limiting the amount of money you have to spend, save, and invest. The government also controls the recipient of its largess because if poor people or other government dependents improve themselves financially, they are no longer eligible to receive government assistance. Over time, the recipients often lose incentive to better their lives and get off the government dole.

At the same time, middle to upper class income earners who had their income taxed lose incentive to create more wealth through investments or grow businesses because their increased earnings could easily push them into an even higher marginal tax bracket. Only the very wealthy can take advantage of the special tax loopholes written into the tax code, such as making enough money from the dividends of tax-free municipal bonds or setting up corporations and paying themselves as employees.

Liberal congressional Democrats actually attempt to convince the public that this is a fair system that benefits everyone but the rich. In reality, no one benefits from the federal tax code except liberals in Congress who feel they are smarter and better equipped than you to make the decisions that most affect your life. Unfortunately, liberals have been somewhat successful in maintaining their control through manipulation of the tax code. They have instilled in millions of U.S. citizens a sense of jealousy and class envy against those in the highest income brackets. They have created a mentality among the poor and those not educated in elementary economics, those who do not pay a significant percentage of income taxes anyway, that the best and fairest way to fund the activities of government is to punish those who work hard and achieve economic success. Instead of eliminating barriers so that all citizens have the opportunity to achieve, liberals seek to create more barriers to achievement and increase the number of people dependent upon their programs.