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Let Alan Keyes Speak! (at the GOP Convention) |
Current rating: 0 |
by David Corn
(No verified email address) |
18 Aug 2004
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Please, Alan Keyes, please-rush the stage at the GOP convention and tell all that New York City was blasted by al Qaeda because of abortion. |
I should be digging up more material on Representative Porter Goss, but writing about Illinois senatorial candidate Alan Keyes (as I did yesterday -- http://www.bushlies.com/blog/index.php?p=89) is far more fun. And let me ask why Keyes is not getting a primetime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention. Isn't he the most prominent African-American candidate the party has? And he certainly is articulate. As profiles of him always note, he won some national debating contest when he was a kid. I think the country would be thrilled to see him orate. (Jesse Jackson, too, has called on the GOP to hand Keyes a speaking slot. But, I wonder, is Jackson just playing politics?)
What would he talk about before this audience? Well, perhaps he could expand upon the call he made yesterday for descendants of African-American slaves to be exempted from federal income taxes. Pointing to the tax policy of the Roman empire, Keyes said, "When a city had been devastated, for a certain length of time-a generation or two-[the Romans] exempted the damaged city from taxation." This ought to play well with GOP delegates. Some might call it pandering-a cheap stunt to swipe black support from state Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic contender for the Senate seat (and the likely winner). After all, in years past, Keyes has decried the notion of reparations for black Americans. Just two years ago, he noted "the truth of the Civil War is that the terrible price for American slavery has been paid, once for all" when Union soldiers sacrificed their lives to abolish slavery. He added, "The price for the sin of slavery has already been paid, in blood." But that was then. Keyes has had a change of heart-just as he has had on the subject of carpetbagging. When Hillary Clinton engaged in the practice it was an abomination, an affront to democracy. When Keyes moves from Maryland to Illinois to run for the Senate, it is an act of political salvation. (See here -- http://www.bushlies.com/blog/index.php?p=89)
Speaking of salvation, after Keyes finishes explaining to the GOP convention-goers why African-Americans deserve to pay no taxes, he can then share with them-and the audience at home-his take on the horrific 9/11 attacks. In May, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, Keyes had this to say:
"Now, you think it's a coincidence that on September 11th, 2001, we were struck by terrorists an evil that has at its heart the disregard of innocent human life? We who have for several decades killed not thousands but scores of millions of our own children, in disregard of the principle of innocent human life-I don't think that's a coincidence, I think that's a warning. I don't think that's a coincidence, I think that's a shot across the bow. I think that's a way of Providence telling us: I love you all; I'd like to give you a chance. Wake up! Would you please wake up?"
That sounds strikingly familiar to the post-9/11 comments made by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who said God allowed 9/11 to happen because She/He/It was pissed off at feminists, the ACLU, and gay rights activists. Talk about exploiting a tragedy. Did God send Hurricane Charley to Florida as another warning? And what about that 1972 earthquake in Nicaragua that claimed, among others, the life of baseball great Roberto Clemente? (He died while flying relief supplies to victims.) Was God warning the people of Nicaragua? Or fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates? More recently, did God strike down Ronald Reagan as another shot across the bow? And why is God so god-darned cryptic? Why not just write in flames across the sky, "Criminalize Abortion Now!" That would convince me, and maybe even Gloria Steinem.
But please, Alan Keyes, please-rush the stage at the GOP convention and tell all that New York City was blasted by al Qaeda because of abortion. Given that you have tried to push your way into debate halls in the past when you have not been invited to speak, we know you are capable of doing this. And-if you have time before Arnold Schwarzenegger crushes you like a bug (and professes his support for abortion rights and gay rights)-cry out, "No taxes for black people!" That would bring some relief to the staged performances. And, more importantly, it would provide people with reasons to reconsider a Republican Party that has anointed Alan Keyes one of its leaders.
Don't forget about David Corn's new book, The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception (Crown Publishers).
Copyright © 2004 The Nation |
Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
