President George Bush spoke at the Urban League's national convention this morning in Detroit. He was welcomed more warmly by that organizations' attendees than the NAACP's chairman and attendees would have last week.

In his speech, the President emphasized black entrepreneurship and working toward a true two-party system within black America working to solve the ongoing problems that exist in the black community.

Does the Democrat party take African American voters for granted? (Applause.) It's a fair question. I know plenty of politicians assume they have your vote. But do they earn it and do they deserve it? (Applause.) Is it a good thing for the African American community to be represented mainly by one political party? That's a legitimate question. (Applause.) How is it possible to gain political leverage if the party is never forced to compete? (Applause.) Have the traditional solutions of the Democrat party truly served the African American community?

Does blocking the faith-based initiative help neighborhoods where the only social service provider could be a church? Does the status quo in education really, really help the children of this country? (Applause.)

Does class warfare -- has class warfare or higher taxes ever created decent jobs in the inner city? Are you satisfied with the same answers on crime, excuses for drugs and blindness to the problem of the family? (Applause.)

Conservatives in general, nor President Bush in particular claims to have all the solutions, but isn't it worth the time, effort and energy to discuss the possibilities and consider the alternatives?

Sadly, too many members of the "soul patrol" would prefer to vilify conservatives as the bad guys and paint them with the same sort of broad brush that so many racists have done to blacks for so many years. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, many of those "soul patrol" members don't know what compassion is. They would prefer to do wrong, just as they were wronged. They prefer to create a nefarious enemy where there is none. And they prefer to ignore and slap away the hand offered in friendship.

Posted by: mhking at 08:58 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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