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The problem with Republican conservatives and the Black community, to me, is one of lack of understanding of our sociocultural ethos and the particular political calculus that spells the profile of many African Americans. For instance, Bill Clinton gets it and "we" gush over Bill, even though he basically highjacked Newt Gingriches' 'Contract for America' and really pushed much of what was programmatically significant about it into reality legislatively, when it was to his benefit politically.
And as much as I feel the present Bush administration is in disarray and we are seeing the outcomes of some bad policy decisions and the result of political hybris, the Democratic Party lacks backbone and intellectual capital and is not worthy to lead in any manner at present. Where does that lead us? Je ne sais pas! But we've got to become more sophisticated consumers politically on a national level, while we must hold our African American politicians to a higher standard. We want more than platitudes or promises of more money. We need more progressives and people with a background in the Civil Rights Movement to stand up like Bill Cosby, and we need more thinkers of the same ilk as Orlando Patterson of Harvard, who give us a full-orbed accounting of where we've come from, our challenges from within and without, and solutions which call us to sacrifice for the common good of our people.
"Que Psi Phi 'til the day I die"
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