The importance of Tim Scott and Mia Love
I am especially happy about the victories of Tim Scott, South Carolina’s Senator, and Mia Love, new Representative from Utah’s 4th District.
There’s no way to deny that their race becomes important, if only because Democrats have emphasized race so very much. Sadly, these usually-baseless accusations of Republican racism have become more frequent, not less, since the administration of Barack Obama. Scott and Love are living, breathing refutations of that rhetorical approach, and proof that Republicans only object to black candidates when they are liberals. Conservative black candidates can win even in a place like Utah, which is one of the whitest areas in the US.
I’ve not seen much of Love yet, but I have of Scott, and he’s one smart cookie. Here’s an example of his approach:
The Democratic Party must be shaking in its shoes worrying that black people might actually start listening to someone like Scott.
I have another reason to have special respect for black Republicans such as Scott and Love. By definition, they must be courageous and hyper-adept at defending and explaining themselves. If they are political changers (and quite a few are), they would also tend to be people who have thought long and hard about political principles and made independent and tough decisions. But even if they are not political changers, they are quite obviously people who are not afraid to be different, and who have the courage of their convictions. They have been forged into steel in the crucible of the calumny that’s been heaped on them, not by Republicans but by liberals and the left.
I congratulate both on their well-earned victories.
They better be ready for slanderous attacks. The democrats and media have already dusted off the Clarence Thomas playbook. Remember how the NOW was holding street demonstrations for months? Also remember when the Monica Lewinski scandal broke the NOW said, so what, who cares? No big deal.
well said, neo & ditto
Wonder if it will be problem that Scott has got to run again in 2016 — this was a special election that only lets him finish out Jim DeMint’s original term. You know, will he need to be in campaign mode the next two years.
These 2 prominent minority GOP are just the beginning of a crack in the wall of the Dems stranglehold. They must be shaking in their boots at the DNC. With the new media it is possible to get the Constitutional message of individual freedom explained to people. They are beginning to wake up & see the DEMs are all about divide & conquer. How old tired and boring is War on Women, (it s a joke now)
how old & tired is racism, racism, racism, that is a bore to listen to now too.
DNC is under the gun (pun) to come up with a new silly trope & in the age of tweets, hash tags & short attention spans their moment (as the old Democrat Party is over ) it s over, so is the old Repub party &
they better wake up to the fact because this election has given them a *head s up *
I hope they are smart enough to see it.
Neo, I believe that the NAACP has already attacked Senator Scott. He and Congresswoman elect Love provide additional evidence that accomplished people of various races and ethnicities have a bright future in the GOP–and by extension the U.S. Intolerable in some quarters.
Gov Martinez, Gov Jindal, Gov Haley, Allen West, and (one of) the former Secretaries of State are other examples of Republicans from diverse roots who are performing admirably. Perhaps some day the numbers will reach the tipping point, and force the media, and eventually the electorate, to take notice.
Of course the Democrats can point to Sheila Jackson Lee, Corrine Brown, Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters, Eric Holder, and others of similar stature, as their contributions to diversity. I would like to avoid even mentioning Obama, but suppose it is obligatory.
The rapper Waka Flocka endorsed Perdue in Georgia and was at the victory party.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2014-midterm-elections-georgia-senate-race-pits-waka/story?id=26715187
Tim Scott won by a pretty good margin–and by a wider margin than did Lindsey Graham. He’s pretty well liked down here, so barring anything senate coming up in the next two years, I think he’ll be reelected.
“Strange” not “senate.” I need to proofread better before hitting submit.
Love and Scott refused to buy into the victim narrative, put their shoulders to the grindstone, and succeeded. So like others who have followed similar paths they must be labeled Uncle Toms and oreoes. I wish them more success in the days ahead.
Being a black Republican can be very trying. Once Oklahoma had a black congressman, J.C. Watts. He had everything – smart, handsome, football star. The Republicans did everything they could for him, making him Chairman of this and Co-Chair of that. If there were a cameraman anywhere around someone would run and fetch him. He finally fled electoral politics when they started making embarrassing guesses about what J.C. stood for.
He once said that if the doctors told him he had only a year to live he’d want to spend it in the House of Representatives.
Congratulations to them both.
The more I learn about Tim Scott, the more impressed I am. He seems to have a smart and novel strategy, as discussed in the WaPo profile that I linked to yesterday, that may help him at least partially sidestep or deflect the attacks sure to come from our inclusionary Left.
Something of his approach must be effective because at the end of that article were multiple comments saying such things as — “I am not a Republican, and in no way agree with his positions, but this is a man I can respect.”
The color of Tim Scott and Mia Love’s skin will do little to deter the Democrats from their lies. When lefties ask their followers “Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes” their followers respond “you, not my eyes.” One of the special talents of the left is their ability to repeat obvious lies so often and with such apparent sincerity that many people who know better begin to become habituated to believe their lies.
Anyone who tries to refute the leftist’s lies with facts is destined to lose. It has always been easy to refute the “war on women” meme with numerous examples of strong conservative women – ie. Sara Palin or Ann Coulter or Condoleezza Rice – but that has done absolutely nothing to keep millions of people from believing that lie. The Republicans have already had J. C. Watts in Congress which did nothing to tamp down the lie that Republicans are racists.
These courageous souls know that they are stepping in to the fiefdoms of the Racist Marxist Monsters that have destroyed the grand visions of Fredrick Douglas and Martin Luther King for the Blacks’ ascension into full participation in Liberty and Prosperity. Mia and Scott both recognize that they come to act as Destroyers of Lies and as Beacons of Truth. They have a High Commission. Conservatives must support and defend them with every ounce of courage they can summon. They have mine.
Why wouldn’t the NAACP give Scott an F? He advocates for economic freedom and personal responsibility, they for unending government programs and victimhod. Don’t hope too much for those who are so emotionally invested in the cult of the victim to acknowledge that they are wrong about racism or whatever happens to be the cause of the rage of the moment. They only become angrier and more resentful when confronted by this reality thing.
It’s true that the Left tries to disqualify black and minority Republicans from being legitimate representatives of their communities. They’re aided in that though, I think, by the conservative approach to politics.
Bobby Jindal, Allen West, et. al. talk about lower taxes, fewer regulations, a stronger military, just like any white Republican. They don’t specifically address Indian-Americans or African-Americans the way Democrats do. That’s why it’s so easy for Leftists to paint them as errand boys for whites.
Of course, conservatives speak this way because we believe Americans are Americans, regardless of color, gender, or sexual preference, and that good policy benefits us all.
But while this may be the right way to go in terms of policy, I do think messages need to be crafted for different groups. Blacks, Latinos, women — each group has cerain unique challenges. Our politicians need to acknowledge those challenges, and then go on to show how our policies will lead to better outcomes for them even though there are no preferences for any group.
That’s what I found novel about Tim Scott’s approach; it seems that he’s finding a way to address disadvantaged groups so that they feel heard and then leading them to viable solutions that don’t involve pandering to them.
Supporting government versus family solutions is an argument solved by looking at black versus asian history in America. Republicans accept and want family before government. If it is the other way around, chaos and poverty result.
“Conservative black candidates can win even in a place like Utah, which is one of the whitest areas in the US.”
She has a good platform and that’s more important than skin color around here. Sure, the urbanites in SLC are reliably leftist, like most urbanites, but Utahns on the whole are conservative. That’s the key.
Mia Love’s speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention was in my opinion, one of the best given by any Republican. Of all the new faces that the Republicans have to offer, I think there is something special about her. She sounds like Ronald Reagan. She’s persevered in the face of ridicule and hatred, and consistently delivers a message that America is a positive place. She is a living, breathing problem for the Left’s narrative about this country. She’s the Anti-Obama in every way, and the Left should be afraid.
LZ Granderson (who is black) wrote this about her:
“Love is progress, whether so-called progressives want to embrace it or not. Her election is a reflection, yea an extension of the Rev.. Martin Luther King Jr’s dream. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, born in Brooklyn, living in Utah, a state that is less than 1% black, judged by the content of her character. And because of that, she is coming to Washington. If that is not what the dream is all about then we truly have lost our way.”
The whole article is short but it is very good:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/05/opinion/granderson-mia-love-victory/index.html
You can’t say it better than that. He begins the article by asking if Obama will call her like he did Sandra Fluke and other heroes of the Left.
If the Republicans don’t put her front and center themselves, I have a feeling Mia Love will work her way up there anyway.
I just heard an interview with Tim Scott on the radio, in the car, and I was extremely impressed.
I had never heard of Scott until his victory in this election, and I didn’t even know he was black until the interviewer made reference to it at the end of the interview. That’s even more impressive..it takes a lot of guts to be a black Republican.
More like him please.