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“Duh ha-ha-haaa…Duh ha-ha, ha-ha, haaaaaaa!”
My apologies to one of Chicago’s early rap artists, The Duke,
if I have not accurately quoted his lyrics. Written in 1985, “Rappin’ Duke,” was
a very popular comical homage to actor John Wayne. In the song,
Duke, using a Wayne-like voice, did his usual bit of rap braggadocio
and indicated that there was a “par-ty over here…par-ty over there” and
encouraged all listeners to have fun, and participate in any party,
anywhere.
And so it goes with Alan Keyes; HE wants YOU
to participate in the Republican Party! The Republican Party, after considering
many other candidates, finally decided to serve Keyes up as the
sacrificial (and Negro) lamb to run against the Democratic candidate,
Barack Obama, for the Illinois United States Senator seat. Keyes,
described by NewsMax.com as “a longtime promoter of conservative American values and
defender of the Constitution” in a statement in a recent
NewsMax newsletter proclaimed that:
I received thousands of
calls, letters, and e-mails urging me to accept the Illinois
Republican Party's nomination for the United States Senate.
I am humbled and honored by your overwhelming pledges of
support in this endeavor. After careful deliberation, and
on the strength of deep and contemplative prayer, I have
decided to accept this nomination….
Like most Americans, I didn't
know much about Barack Obama other than what I saw when he
was a keynote speaker at the Democratic national convention.
And though he looked to me like a pretty standard liberal
with whom I disagree about most everything, I have to say
that from the way he came across at the convention, he didn't
seem to me to be some rabid threat to the future of the country.
He looked like a pretty likable guy. Certainly intelligent
and articulate. And I saw no particular reason to believe
that I should leave Maryland, the home of my family and my
heritage, in order to go and oppose him in this race.
And then I looked at his record,
and what did I find?
I found somebody who, as we would
expect from the kind of liberalism he professes, has never
seen a spending bill he couldn't find some excuse for, and
has never seen a tax increase he didn't like.
I found somebody
who, in the tradition of a lot of liberals, would prefer that
our children were educated in schools controlled by impersonal
bureaucracy, rather than in schools under the influence and
control of the parents who love them and care about their future.
Oh boy; Keyes is reciting the far-right wing’s part of the GOP
playbook lock, stock, and barrel! As a minister, I believe that
he honestly used prayer in his decision to run for senator.  However,
sometimes, we pray for the wrong things or believe that we are
right for a particular position. Sometimes, people hear voices
that are not there; this, by no means, suggests that Dr. Keyes
is delusional. Keyes is simply misinformed.
How can Keyes talk about Obama and spending? Consider the following
statements made by President Bush in a February 2004 interview
with Tim Russert, host of the political television show, “Meet
The Press” (taken from a CNN transcript):
Bush…defended his handling of the economy,
despite the loss of 2.2 million jobs so far in his term and
a $521 billion budget
deficit.
"I have been the president during a time of tremendous
stress on our economy and made the decisions necessary to lead
that would enhance recovery," Bush said. "The stock
market started to decline in March of 2000. That was the first
sign that things were troubled. The recession started upon
my arrival."
He also said the criticism of his administration's
spending by conservatives, such as radio talk show host Rush
Limbaugh
and the Heritage Foundation are "wrong."
"If you look at the appropriations bills that were passed
under my watch, in the last year of President Clinton, discretionary
spending was up 15 percent, and ours have steadily declined," he
said.
"The other thing that
I think it's important for people who watch the expenditures
side of the equation is
to understand we are at war ... and any time you commit your
troops into harm's way, they must have the best equipment,
the best training and the best possible pay."
Now, if the radical conservative icon Limbaugh
and the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation believe
that Bush has spent too
much, it must be the sign of the apocalypse! So, in essence,
we are led by a “tax-and-spend” Republican president. (By the
way, where were Iraq’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction?”?) Furthermore,
in terms of military spending, the Bush Administration is not
even doing it wisely! Reflect on the following statement from
the Texas Veterans website:
Rumsfeld and company have reportedly been
stunned to learn that the military is in even worse shape than
they had averred during the election campaign. The Army recently
ran out of bullets, much of the Reserve helicopter fleet has
been grounded for spare parts, and training hours in all branches
of the service have been cut. The problem of Navy and Air Force
pilot retention has become proverbial even as some of the Army's
best and brightest junior officers are leaving in droves. Solving
those problems will require a number of actions, beginning with
an infusion of as much as $6 billion this year, and a lot later.
Let us explore the true nature of the Republican
Party. We
must remember that it is the party of Trent Lott and other conservative
ideologues that have propped Keyes up because of the color of
his skin, thinking that he could siphon votes from Barack Obama. Perhaps
Dr. Keyes believes that the Republican Party is progressive or
that it is “The Party of Abraham Lincoln.” In a sense, he is
correct. Judge the following statement by Lincoln:
I
will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of
bringing about in any way the social and political
equality of the black and white races – that I am nor ever
have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes,
nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry
with white people; and I will say in addition to this that
there is a physical difference between the white and black
races which I believe will forbid the two races living together
on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch
as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there
must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much
as any other man am in favor of having the superior position
assigned to the white race. (From James H. Cone’s, Black
Theology & Black Power, 20th Anniversary Edition,
paperback version, p. 10.)
Maybe I am judging Dr. Keyes too harshly. Perhaps, “The Party
of Lincoln” has a “big tent.” But then, let us explore commentary
by The New York Times’ Bob Herbert in the wake of Bush’s
refusal to address the NAACP during its annual conference:
Just as George W. Bush is on track to be the first president
since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs, he
is now the first president since Hoover to fail to meet with
the N.A.A.C.P. during his entire term in office.
Mr. Bush and the leadership of the nation's oldest and largest
civil rights organization get along about as well as the Hatfields
and the McCoys. The president was invited to the group's convention
in Philadelphia this week, but he declined.
That Mr. Bush thumbed his nose at N.A.A.C.P. officials is
not the significant part of this story. The Julian Bonds and
Kweisi Mfumes of the world can take care of themselves at least
as well as Mr. Bush in the legalized gang fight called politics.
What is troubling is Mr. Bush's relationship with black Americans
in general. He's very good at using blacks as political props.
And the props are too often part of an exceedingly cynical
production.
Four years ago, on the first night of the Republican convention,
a parade of blacks was hauled before the television cameras
(and the nearly all-white audience in the convention hall)
to sing, to dance, to preach and to praise a party that has
been relentlessly hostile to the interests of blacks for half
a century.
I wrote at the time that "you couldn't
tell whether you were at the Republican National Convention
or the Motown Review."
That exercise in modern-day minstrelsy was
supposed to show that Mr. Bush was a new kind of Republican,
a big-tent guy who would welcome a more diverse crowd into the
G.O.P. That was fiction. It wasn't long before black voters would
find themselves mugged in Florida, and soon after that Mr. Bush
was steering the presidency into a hard-right turn.
Again, I indicated that I believe Alan Keyes
prayed about whether or not he should campaign for the Senate. Nevertheless, I would
love to know what god he prayed to when he made the following
statement, as reported by AlterNet’s John K. Wilson in his commentary on
Keyes:
In a May 7 speech in Provo, Utah, Keyes
said the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,200 people,
were a message from God to
oppose abortion: "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?'" During a campaign appearance
in Bedford, N.H., in 2000, Keyes asked a class of fifth-graders, "If
I were to lose my mind right now and pick one of you up and
dash your head against the floor and kill you, would that be
right?" He then went on to tell the children that some
courts and politicians think it's OK to murder 6-month-old
children.
Keyes has an apocalyptic view of America's
future unless it repents: "I do stay up at night thinking
about what's going to happen to America. I do stay up at
night with a vision
of our people in conflict, of our cities in flames, of our
economy in ruins."
Keyes’ thinking is dangerous and absurd. If he believes that
911 was a message, then what will happen to America because Bush
led the country into an unnecessary (and deadly) “war” on Iraq? I
would not want to consider the consequences of the actions. However,
Keyes' emphasis on the abortion issue shows that he is a true
Republican in that he focuses on a single issue and avoids issues
that have a broader effect on the American public, like safety,
jobs, health care, and the environment. Abortion is a
major issue but not the only issue or the main issue.
Still, Keyes’ interpretation of God reveals a major issue in
politics lately: religion. The Republican playbook includes
working hand-in-hand with the Religious Right. Now granted,
I am a Baptist minister with a clear political bent (progressive)
but, I would never believe that someone was God’s candidate! We
are all God’s children!
But I digress. Keyes mix of apocalyptic religion and politics
reveal another strategy in the Republican playbook: use churches
(of all kinds) and allow the religious right to suggest that
voting for Bush and other Republicans leads to the path of righteousness
and glory. Fortunately, there are those that understand Keyes,
Bush, and the Republican playbook and have taken steps toward
a more rational approach to voting and campaigning. The publishers
of Sojourners Magazine made the following statement regarding
the Religious Right:
You know the saying
that truth is stranger than fiction. When it comes to the
Religious Right,
we believe that truth is scarier than fiction. Sojourners
is outraged by claims that Christians can only vote for George
W. Bush and that Bush is God's candidate….
We also distributed a petition that
has been signed by more than 25,000 people. It will appear
as a full-page advertisement in The New York Times next
week during the Republican convention – and in other local
newspapers across America!
Every faithful citizen
in America should know that they can choose to vote for any
candidate – for
reasons deeply rooted in their faith.
Let's tell America that the Religious Right
doesn't speak for us. Let's take back our faith.
Keyes, as a religious man, should understand
that God allows us to have varying viewpoints. In addition,
dissenting viewpoints are the cornerstone of American life
and democracy.
In addition, as a man of faith, Keyes should
realize that faith comes with a price or a caveat – responsibility and compassion,
not “Compassionate Conservatism.” He would do well to read an
August 8, 2004 article by Scott Lindlaw of the Associated Press
titled, “Bush Family Listens as a Minister Urges Wealthy Congregation
to Ditch Possessions”:
Kennebunkport, Maine – A clergyman implored
his affluent congregation, including President Bush's family,
to jettison their material
possessions, gently mocking George H.W. Bush's struggles on
the golf course to drive home his point.
The Very Rev. Martin Luther Agnew preached Sunday to a packed
Episcopal church just down the road from the Bush family's
seaside estate. Its oceanfront parking lot was filled with
luxury cars made by Jaguar, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo, testament
to the wealth of the summer visitors at this southeast Maine
resort.
"Gated communities," Agnew said, "tend to keep
out God's people." But, he said, "Our material gifts
do not have to be a wall."
"They can very well be a door. Jesus says, 'Sell your
possessions and give alms,'" Agnew said. "I'm convinced
that what we keep owns us, and what we give away sets us free."
The sermon culminated with a joke about the first President
Bush's battle to chip a golf ball out of an anthill. Swinging
the club in a mock re-enactment, Agnew said Bush had swung
twice and whiffed completely, wiping out hundreds of ants.
The ants got together and agreed: "If
we're going to live, we better get on the ball!"
Keyes should realize that everyone could agree with this message.
Despite being a one-issue candidate, I believe
I have the key to getting Keyes elected: he should put on a
cowboy hat! Americans
seem to have this romanticized view of cowboys and since John
Wayne was not around to become president, we settled for two
fictional cowboys: Ronald Reagan and George Bush. We like the
take-charge guy, the guy that “shoots from the hip,” speaks the
truth, and has simple answers to everything. Simplicity is what
Reagan and Bush want or wanted to provide: America – good, always
right; Soviet Union – The Evil Empire; Saddam – The Boogie Man
(don’t forget the “Axis Of Evil!); Taxes – bad; Large Corporations
Not Paying Fair (or any) Share Of Taxes – Good; “Trickle Down
Economics” (the belief that if corporate America is ok, everyone
from the richest to the poorest will benefit) – even better! In
short, be simple! People like simple. Speak in 3- or 4-word
bites. Avoid complete sentences. (Keyes has a model for that
from whom he could learn a great deal! I’ll let you decide on
who that might be.)
Cowboys make fun entertainment, but poor
leaders. But, I guess
to be elected he must be a cowboy, which is a rather sad commentary
on us. Black people have seen many games – from Reconstruction,
to Jim Crow, from Jim Crow, to poll taxes, from being slaves
to being prisoners (the new plantation), and from civil rights
to getting attacked by The Right. But Keyes, as a member of
The Right fails to realize or consider that it may not have the
answers to issues that affect America, especially Black America:
-
Faith-based initiatives
(faith institutions, through their community development
corporations have been
involved in getting grants for education, business development,
health care and the like for decades – it is nothing new; do
not believe that President Bush is innovative in that respect. He
just promotes it better.)
Possibly, Keyes should examine how he could
explore the cowboy life. Gil Scott-Heron, in his poem “B Movie” may provide some
valuable insights. Although this poem was written decades ago,
it remains quite insightful:
Well, the first thing I want to say is…”Mandate
my ass!”
Because it seems as though we’ve been convinced that 26% of
the registered voters, not even 26% of the American people,
but 26% of the registered voters form a mandate – or a landslide. 21%
voted for Skippy and 3, 4% voted for somebody else who might
have been running.
But, oh yeah, I remember. In this year that we have
now declared the year from Shogun to Reagan, I remember what
I said about Reagan…meant it. Acted like an actor…Hollyweird. Acted
like a liberal. Acted like General Franco when he acted
like governor of California, then he acted like a republican. Then
he acted like somebody was going to vote for him for president. And
now we act like 26% of the registered voters is actually a
mandate. We’re all actors in this I suppose.
What has happened is that in the last 20
years, America has changed from a producer to a consumer. And all consumers
know that when the producer names the tune…the consumer has
got to dance. That’s the way it is. We used to
be a producer – very inflexible at that, and now we are consumers
and, finding it difficult to understand. Natural resources
and minerals will change your world. The Arabs used to be in
the 3rd World. They have bought the 2nd World and put
a firm down payment on the 1st one. Controlling your
resources will control your world. This country has been
surprised by the way the world looks now. They don’t
know if they want to be Matt Dillon or Bob Dylan. They
don’t know if they want to be diplomats or continue the same
policy – of nuclear nightmare diplomacy. John Foster
Dulles ain’t nothing but the name of an airport now.
The idea concerns the fact
that this country wants nostalgia. They want to go back as far as they can – even
if it’s only as far as last week. Not to face now or tomorrow,
but to face backwards. And yesterday was the day of our
cinema heroes riding to the rescue at the last possible moment. The
day of the man in the white hat or the man on the white horse – or
the man who always came to save America at the last moment – someone
always came to save America at the last moment – especially in “B” movies. And
when America found itself having a hard time facing the future,
they looked for people like John Wayne. But since John
Wayne was no longer available, they settled for Ronald Reagan – and
it has placed us in a situation that we can only look at – like
a “B” movie.
Being a cowboy represents the art of illusion
when applied to American politics. It is mind-numbing and, unfortunately effective. It
is imagery.
It is interesting that hip-hop artists have
interpreted what is it to be a cowboy or live a cowboy lifestyle. Kid Rock presents
an interesting perspective in one of the verses in his song, “Cowboy:”
And I'm headin' out west sucker...because I wanna
be a Cowboy, baby
With the top let back and the sunshine shining
Cowboy baby
West coast chillin' with the Boone's Wine
I wanna be a Cowboy baby
Ridin' at night 'cause I sleep all day
Cowboy baby
I can smell a pig from a mile away
Kid Rock shows us the cowboy life is about
the sun shining brightly all the time. During the day, we are asleep – literally and figuratively. The
last line in the verse is especially provocative; it begs the
question – can WE smell a pig from a mile away or do we make
something (or someone) a pig for financial gain? You decide.
Finally, rap pioneer Kool Moe Dee sheds light
on the cowboy and the “Wild West” images in his classic “Wild,
Wild West:”
We don't start trouble,
but boy do we end it
Our time, we like to spend it
Snapping, boy do we heat up
But we'll take time out to beat up
A sucker, if he wants static
Beatdown, yeah we got it
Good, and we'll accommodate you
Thanks to us, a lot of brothers hate to
Come back, to this very day
Cause losing's one thing we don't play
If you're ever in a fight and you're beating one of us
Break out, before you get bumrushed
At the...
The wild wild west
Ah, the images of America: the strong America
and America the protector, however it also implies that America
is the bully. Many
Americans thrive on that. Maybe that is the way Keyes must go – if
he wants to win. Fortunately, many Black people will not vote
for him because the cowboy is not steeped in reality; we have
seen too many cowboy movies, and the ending has nothing to do
with us.
Reynard
Blake, Jr. is a freelance writer, and President of Community
Development Associates, an East Lansing, Michigan-based nonprofit
and faith-based organization consulting firm. He has
written and co-authored articles in the book, Revitalizing
Urban Neighborhoods, the Journal of Urban Youth Culture, and the Michigan Family Review. He
is presently writing a book on Hip-Hop, Black Leadership,
and the Black Church: Implications for Positive Youth Development. He
is also a researcher at the Disproportionate
Minority Confinement/Minority Over-Representation Project,
housed at Michigan State University. Michigan
State University.Development. He
is also a researcher at the Disproportionate
Minority Confinement/Minority Over-Representation Project,
housed at Michigan State University.
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