Talking points for my radio show.

[BlakeB]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to say thanks for the last talking points regarding minimum wage. I greatly appreciate the help, but your assistance is needed once again. The other day on the show, Tim Jones (a black Republican), was going off on how Democrats have been the cause of black America's problems by creating social programs that have made a dependent class of people. He argued that Democrats were holding black people down and using them for their votes. I had some counterpoints involving Republican bigotry and the success of many Democrat social programs, but I would like to know if you guys have any better counterpoints I could use against his argument. Can you guys give some examples on how the Democrats have assisted black america, or why this guys argument is completely wrong?

I want to say thanks again for the suggestions and talking points last time, it really did help out-leaving that Republican guy often times speechless. Of course anytime I say anything to zing them they quickly change the subject, but I guess that's what one gets for being on a show hosted by Republicans on a Republican talk radio network. I know I'm not too much of a regular, but just be mindful that I'm always reading the forums and really enjoy what you guys have to say; just wish I had a greater amount of free time so I could post more frequently.

Thanks. -Blake Broussard

[WCGreen]

1. Here's one....

I guess it's okay to create entitlement programs for white folks...

Such as the Mortgage Interest deduction....

Cut rate Capital Gains rates....

Getting rid of the Estate Tax....

And point out to your Black Republican that there are far more white folk on public assistance than there are black folk in America....

And that the Earned Income Credit, the one good thing this government does for the working poor, of which many millions are Black, is the one program the GOP wants to gut....

Tell him that White Suburbia is filled with entitlement programs that are robbing the soldiers in Iraq from having body Armour....

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Civil Rights Act of 1964

Republicans opposed it. LBJ made sure it got through, as a legacy for JFK. At the time, it was VERY controversial. This was what started the exodus of the Dixiecrats from the Democratic Party (and good riddence imho)-Strom Thurmond among them.

Head Start-for poor folks in general, but black Americans definately benefitted from it. Started under LBJ-I volunteered for the first summer session of Head Start. This has been proven to be a most successful program in helping children succeed in school-not a handout, but a hand up. Sort of like the 40 acres and a mule the Republicans promised the freed slaves-and then never gave to them (typical Republican ploy).

[BlakeB]

3. Okay...

good points, but the Republican said that there was a civil rights act before 1964 that the Democrats blocked. I retorted that I'm not completely familiar with that but if it did occur then it was probably due to dixiecrats not democrats. Correct or no?

And the guy thinks its time to do away with Head Start... yeah really.

[immoderate]

5. Correctomundo!

Before 1964, Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond and the usual gang of bigots were Democrats (Dixiecrats.)

Republicans at the time had no voting constituency in the south. They were then the hated party of Lincoln, who ended slavery and defeated the south in the Civil War.

--IMM

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. Actually, if memory serves,

the Republicans in Congress weren't all racing to propose their own Civil Rights legislation. It was SCOTUS that enacted Brown v Board of Education; Eisenhower, by sending troops to Little Rock, was only enforcing it. You may wish to ask any Repuke to name the specific piece of Civil Rights legislation that was proposed by a Republican in the 50s or early 60s-I don't know of any.

Thought of another thing a Democrat did-and this was when the Dixiecrats were still there. Harry S Truman integrated the Armed Forces. I think that was one reason the Dixiecrats bolted the party in 1948, though I wasn't born yet and don't remember that far back. For a long time, the Armed Forces was one of the few places where a black person could rise to "management level" in an integrated "business", and get training that could allow him to better himself (I say "him" because back then the majority of soldiers were male).

[xray s]

4. How does he explain the obvious?

Black poverty is rising, even though REPUBLICANS have been in contol of the House and Senate for the last 12 years and have held the White House for 18 of the last 26 YEARS! It sounds to me that REPUBLICAN policies are the problem.

The #1 reason the poor, black and white and brown, are getting screwed today is because the industrial base in this country has been sold and outsourced to countries that pay their workers 20 cents an hour. The jobs poor people use to climb out of poverty are GONE.

The almighty dollar chasing sacred corporate profits AT ALL COSTS so the richest can get richer and still piss all over the poor. That's the problem.

Class warfare is real. One side just isn't fighting.