October 3, 2007

Does Clarence Thomas ever criticize conservatives?

Yes.

At page 178, of "My Grandfather's Son," Justice Thomas, who was chairman of the EEOC, states that his "main quarrel with the Reagan administration... was that it needed a positive civil-rights agenda, instead of merely railing against quotas and affirmative action."

At page 179, he writes: "Too many of the president's political appointees seemed more interested in playing to the conservative bleachers..." He suspected this was because "blacks didn't vote for Republicans," so there was little to be gained by helping them. As proof that his suspicion was right, he notes that he offered to help the Reagan reelection campaign "only to be met with near-total indifference." A "political consultant" told him "straight out that since the president's reelection strategy didn't include the black vote, there was no role for" him.

7 comments:

paul a'barge said...

Sad, but black people have been asking for this for years now.

It's called marketing. If you won't package it, present it and sell it, don't whine about people not buying it.

hdhouse said...

Paul Paul Paul, tsk tsk tsk..

I think you missed the point.

If you offer to package it present it and sell it and the boss says I don't want that nor do I care about that product, fancy package or not, then you need to find another boss.

But even if Clarence packaged promoted it and sold it when opened it would yield no pony, just the usual pile of excrement.

hdhouse said...

Paul Paul Paul, tsk tsk tsk..

I think you missed the point.

If you offer to package it present it and sell it and the boss says I don't want that nor do I care about that product, fancy package or not, then you need to find another boss.

But even if Clarence packaged promoted it and sold it when opened it would yield no pony, just the usual pile of excrement.

rcocean said...

Thomas was treated in the correct manner.

Politics isn't about making everyone feel good but getting votes. You hunt where the ducks are.

BTW, every Republican who reaches out to the black community and supports AA and special preferences increases the Republican black vote from the usual 10% to 15%.

Blacks are wedded to the Democrats, and won't be swayed from their beloved liberals - no matter what.

Revenant said...

If you offer to package it present it and sell it and the boss says I don't want that nor do I care about that product, fancy package or not, then you need to find another boss.

That's an amusingly childish way of looking at it. I'd say that if you offer to do a lot of work on a project and your boss says no, you shrug and get back to work.

IgnatzEsq said...

I understand the political nature of the decision. But, rocean, part of the reason "Blacks are wedded to the democrats" is because the republican party (and yourself) doesn't think it's worth TRYING to appeal to them.

It's pretty easy to see why you'd expect a black person, such as Justice Thomas to not associate with them, even if they have more conservative values. That's a fairly normal reaction to that kind of adversity.

It's great that he's been embraced by the republican party, but I think it's easy to say that Thomas is non-representative of the black population as a whole, and probably not even the black conservative population.

Revenant said...

But, rocean, part of the reason "Blacks are wedded to the democrats" is because the republican party (and yourself) doesn't think it's worth TRYING to appeal to them.

There are many areas in which Republican positions are much closer to those of black Americans than Democratic positions are, especially on social and religious issues. The large majority of blacks are against gay rights, gay marriage, and abortion and in favor of school prayer and school choice, for example.

The thing is, the Democratic approach to black issues amounts to "give black people government benefits and make wealthier people pay for it". The Republicans can't match that kind of offer without alienating much of their base, because the "wealthier people" in question overwhelmingly vote Republican.

The Republican position is that you work for what you get and get what you work for. That's a much tougher sell than "free money from the magic money tree".