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NAACP Gives McCain A Warm Welcome

Lower Taxes and School Choice -- Not More Handouts -- Best Route Out Of Poverty

By: Dan Spencer (Diary)  |  July 17th, 2008 at 07:17 AM  | 

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Mark Carlson, reports Senator McCain received a warm welcome at the NAACP Convention:

John McCain told the NAACP and some skeptical black voters Wednesday that he will expand education opportunities, partly through vouchers for low-income children to attend private school.

[. . .]

We will pay bonuses to teachers who take on the challenge of working in our most troubled schools — because we need their fine minds and good hearts to help turn those schools around.

McCain promised to create more internet based learning tools:

I propose to direct 500 million dollars in current federal funds to build new virtual schools, and to support the development of online courses for students. Through competitive grants, we will allocate another 250 million dollars to support state programs expanding online education opportunities

McCain highlighted his support for school choice and vouchers, a major difference with Barack Obama and the teachers’ union:

Senator Obama dismissed public support for private school vouchers for low-income Americans as, “tired rhetoric about vouchers and school choice.” All of that went over well with the teachers union, but where does it leave families and their children who are stuck in failing school

Unlike Obama, McCain was “not afraid to take questions from the crowd and give answers that weren’t popular.”

Watch Carlson’s report in the following video:



In an editorial entitled “No to ‘conventional thinking,’” the Las Vegas Review-Journal praised McCain’s remarks to the NAACP Convention:

It’s lower taxes and school choice — not more handouts — that offer the best route out of poverty for blacks and other minorities, the Arizona senator said.

[. . .]

These are winning issues not because they necessarily draw immediate cheers from every side, but because — since freedom is always the answer — they can only gain strength over time, even as the coercive, top-down schemes of the redistributionists inevitably founder on the shoals of history.

You can read McCain’s entire speech here.

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COMMENTS

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  • zsmvf6

    I’m proud of McCain. And this is one of those times.

    • tcgeol

      That was an excellent job by McCain and the NAACP sounded more open-minded than I gave them credit for being. If McCain can do things like this, we might be in reasonable shape going into the fall.

      The only problem was the online schools. What problem are they going to solve and by what authority does he want to install them?

  • BlackRepub

    We will never increase our numbers in Black communities if we never go anywhere with the message. I think that partially the reason that Bush increased his numbers from 8 percent in 2000 to 12 percent in 2004 was because he went to places like the Urban League and other large Black groups and asked for the Black vote. While members of the NAACP leadership might be in the tank for the Democratic Party, not all of the members are. Also, I completely agree with you in terms of Black nationalism leading to Black conservatism, as that was the path that led me to conservatism, as well as like you said prominent Black conservatives from Janice Rogers Brown to the Honorable Justice Thomas.

    • Jack_Savage

      And tell me why it should not make white people uncomfortable.

      • pilgrim

        should be made uncomfortable if black nationalism is defined by Justice Thomas.

        You are not in the ‘I hate justice Thomas camp’ Jack IMO.

        • Jack_Savage

          It is presented as a well-thought out position, but the term makes me uncomfortable.

          And your are correct, I am a Thomas supporter and think he is one of the most courageous people in America.

          • mbecker908

            I absolutely want to go directly to the folks and I want to do it through organizations that we help build that offer a conservative alternative to people who hear only from DNC/Marxist organizations.

            I absolutely believe we are in a war for the soul of this country and the people I listed, and their fellow travellers, are Enemies of the State.

            As far as McCain’s speech, it was nothing but pandering. He offered a new (note that I didn’t say “replacement”) program funded by more Federal dollars. He offered absolutely no vision of a Conservative alternative for blacks. Just more of the same old BS, just funded from the right pocket not the left one.

          • mbecker908

            McCain didn’t “engage the enemy” he showed up and offered them more of the same crap they get from the Ds. There’s nothing new here, just more Federal dollars.

          • zsmvf6

            Like I have at grad school. You might want a trusted monitor in the room where the teacher is not, though.

  • ZootSuit

    All the reviews I’ve read have given McCain very positive reviews. Let’s face it, in this historic election, McCain will get very few votes (which is perfectly understandable and not an example of “Black racism”) but McCain is showing that he can reach out and be the President of the United States of all Americans. And that’s a very good thing, both politically and practically.

    By the way, the closing quote in the Los Angeles Times is the best:

    St. Elmore Sutton, a retired Southern California Edison worker from Prentiss, Miss., said he thought McCain had sounded the right notes.

    “Who knows,” Sutton said. “He might have picked up a few votes.”

  • Rod_Patrick

    I was originally opposed to Senator McCain going to NAACP Convention.

    Lee Cary of American Thinker wrote:

    After the speech McCain admitted that, while the audience was cordial to him, he probably would not receive a majority of its votes, but that doesn?t matter, he said. He intends to be president of those who vote for, as well as against, him.

    And I admire him for that. Now I fully understand the main point of our Black Republican Compatriots here at RS. Thank you guys for enlightening me.

    Reach out… and continue the dialogue… we are one people and one nation after all.

  • Rod_Patrick

    I am now a repentant idiot. He! He!

    I made a separate comment on this post to show my penance.

  • mbecker908

    follow Mike Huckabee’s example and speak to the NEA?

    I was opposed to his appearance before he went and I still think it was a total waste of time. Again I’ll say, we need to do outreach work in specific “communities” headed by prople who have credibility with the folk. Bypass the DNC/Marxist fronts like NAACP and LaRaza and go straight to the people. Folks, we’ve got to take this lesson from Ronald Reagan’s playbook: go to the people! Do not bother with the media and do not bother with “organizations that represent [whoever]“.

    Folks, it’s time we treated domestic politics as what it is: war. And never forget that Democrats are the enemy. They, and their institutions – the NAACP, LaRaza, ACLU, Trial Lawyers, NEA & AFT and public employee unions to name just a few – are allied with aQ and enemies of America to crush the hope if liberty in this country and around the world.

  • Neil_Stevens
  • CoOldGuard

    I respectfully disagree that going to the NEA, NAACP or any other liberal group is somehow damaging to McCain’s campaign, or Conservatism in general.

    First and foremost, this is a political race, and McCain needs to keep himself in the news. The NAACP conference was widely covered, and McCain got some good positive air time.

    Secondly, to avoid the NAACP and other groups would result in negative press. In some cases, avoiding a group will be fodder for the MSM to imply lack of any of the following, and probably multiples: courage, open-mindedness, sensitivity to whatever minority/membership, acknowledgement of failure to appeal to whatever group, or simeple prejudice.

    Thirdly, a vote is a vote. I suspect that very few of the NAACP participants will vote for McCain, but the community they (mis)represent is not monolithic. Some will be open to his message.

    Finally, by going to the conferences of the opponent, McCain looks Presidential.

    I agree that the struggle against liberalism is very much a war. However, avoiding the home turf of liberals gives them a false aura of control. The challenge to conservatism is to rise above the “bumper sticker ideology” and one liners of the left, and show how success comes from individual freedom and responsibility.

    You cannot defeat an enemy without first invading his territory.

  • ZootSuit

    Do you really believe that

    ) “… Democrats are the enemy. They, and their institutions – the NAACP, LaRaza, ACLU, Trial Lawyers, NEA & AFT and public employee unions to name just a few – are allied with [al Qaeda] and enemies of America to crush the hope if liberty in this country and around the world.”

    We may be in a “cultural war” but in the end those same “Trial Lawyers, NEA & AFT and public employee unions” are still Americans who want what they think is best for this country and their fellow Americans, even as you and I may strenuously disagree with them about what is best for America and its many citizens.

    And as for “go straight to the people”; despite your rhetoric to the contrary, I don’t think you really want to. What you really want is for people to agree with you without your need to go to them.

    Look, many of the “people” you want to “go to” are in those organizations that you think are in league with al Qaeda. But if you don’t go to where they are, how are you going to reach them and convince them of the merit of your ideas?

    Take me for an example. I have been a conservative Republican for nearly twenty years now but I have been a Black nationalist for all of my life. In fact, as much as many people here on RedState would like to argue about it, I am now a conservative Republican precisely because I am a Black nationalist.

    Indeed, my fellow African-Americans who I am most successful in convincing to vote or at least consider the Republican Party are themselves Black nationalists and/or are described as such by others.

    And this is not unusual. Everyone from Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation to Stephen Carter, auther of Reflections Of An Affirmative Action Baby have noted that. Indeed, Newsweek magazine noted the link between Black conservatism and Back nationalism in an article they did during the time of the Clarence Thomas hearings. Another interesting book that somewhat touches on the subject is Integration or Separation?: A Strategy for Racial Equality by Roy L. Brooks.

    But the thing is, it seems you do not want to talk to those who in many cases already have many conservative ideas. Yes, domestic politics may be a “war” but it is a war of ideas and if you are not ready to take your ideas to others who say they do not agree with you, even sometimes when you both are reticent to admit that you already do, then you have already lost the war.

  • ZootSuit

    Perfect post!