The John Birch Society, William F. Buckley and me...

Black Leader: Democratic Party Architect of Racism
Monday, February 25, 2008 9:43 AM
By: Ronald Kessler

Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association, describes the Democratic Party as the architect of modern day racism.

Rice, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and lawyer, says in an interview it was Republicans who pushed through much of the ground-breaking civil rights legislation in Congress. Now, she says, Republicans stand for empowering blacks to help them out of poverty. In contrast, Rice says, the Democrats push to keep blacks dependent on government handouts and encourage them to see themselves as victims.

“The Democratic Party has built its power base on the backs of poor blacks, and they want to keep blacks poor, angry, and voting for Democrats,” Rice tells Newsmax. “Every election cycle they go into the black community and preach hatred against the Republican Party and get blacks to cast a protest vote against Republicans.”

In Rice’s view, “The Democrats fight every effort of Republicans to get blacks out of poverty because they know that once blacks become prosperous, the Democratic Party will lose its power base.”

Rice co-founded the National Black Republican Association in 2005 with the mission of returning African-Americans to their Republican Party roots. Because co-founder Andre Cadogan knew Newsmax CEO and Editor in Chief Chris Ruddy, the first meeting of the organization took place at Newsmax offices in West Palm Beach, Fla. The organization has grown from five members to over a thousand members. It publishes a quarterly glossy magazine — The Black Republican — and has a Web site: www.nbra.info.

Rice says the Democrats oppose giving blacks the opportunity to become wealthy through Social Security personal accounts and oppose efforts to reform Social Security, even though blacks on average lose $10,000 in the current system because blacks on average have a five year shorter life expectancy.

Aligning themselves with special interests, Rice says the Democrats are “fighting school-choice opportunity scholarships that are designed to get black children out of failing schools, because the teacher’s unions wants to maintain control over buildings.”
Rice also cites widespread opposition by Democrats to the No Child Left Behind Act, which has lifted reading scores of black children but is reviled by teachers’ unions.

“Our philosophy in the Republican Party is to teach a person how to fish, so he can feed himself for a lifetime, whereas the Democratic Party’s philosophy is give a man a fish, so he can eat for a day,” Rice says.
Rice says most blacks are not aware that from its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party, the Republican Party has been at the “forefront of the struggle for civil rights, which is why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican.”

It was Republicans, she notes, who fought to free blacks from slavery and amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote. Republicans also pushed through much of the ground-breaking civil rights legislation in Congress from the 1860s through the 1960s, Rice says.
“It was the Democrat public safety commissioner, Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor, in Birmingham who let loose vicious dogs and turned the fire hoses on black civil rights demonstrators,” Rice says.

Democrat Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox “brandished an ax handle to prevent blacks from patronizing his restaurant,” Rice says. “Democrat Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in front of the Alabama school house in 1963 and declared that there would be segregation forever. In 1954, it was Democrat Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus who tried to prevent the desegregation of Little Rock public schools. It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who sent the troops into the South to desegregate the schools and who appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in the 1954 Brown versus Board of Education decision.”
In contrast, the Democrats “fought to keep blacks in slavery, started the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize blacks, and fought civil rights legislation,” Rice says.
“The Democratic Party is the architect of modern day racism,” Rice says. “Now they are fanning the flames of racism in order to keep blacks in economic poverty.”

Much has been said in the media regarding William Buckley’s death and his sparring with the John Birch Society. Some of it has been fantastically untrue with what appears to be the goal of discrediting and smearing the Society once again, something that Mr. Buckley seemed to enjoy.

When news of Mr. Buckley’s passing became public, the John Birch Society chose not to use the event for media exposure or to create additional sales for the book we published about him in 2002. We certainly had our disagreements with Mr. Buckley. But we respected him as a fellow man in life, and we maintain our respect for his family now. We wish them comfort and peace now in their time of loss.

Mr. Buckley, however, was never one to shy away from controversy, and shortly before his death an excerpt from his forthcoming book was posted online. Based on conversations from the Goldwater era, the book appears to spend considerable time taking parting shots at the John Birch Society. This, perhaps, set the tone for the press coverage of his passing, which has contained all manner of outrageous attacks and libels concerning the Society. Perhaps, knowing his affinity for debate and confrontation, Mr. Buckley would be pleased by this. He also, we think, would expect a response. With due regard for the memory of Mr. Buckley, we’re happy to respond.

Today, Mr. Buckley is perceived as a conservative pioneer. In fact, he was not so much a pioneer as a disruptive force among conservatives. Generally, conservatives applaud openness, honesty and integrity. Buckley, by contrast, had a penchant for the secret and the subversive. At Yale he was a member of the secretive Skull and Bones. After graduation, by his own admission, he became a “deep cover” agent for the CIA.

By contrast, the leaders of the conservative movement in the 1950s were largely Senator Robert Taft and industrialist and author Robert Welch. Eventually going on to found the John Birch Society, Robert Welch in the 1950s, one could describe him as “America’s conservative ambassador to the world,” was corresponding with and meeting world leaders like Korean President Syngman Rhee, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenaur, and Republic of China leader Chiang Kai-shek.

To build up his own prominence and that of his publication, National Review, Mr. Buckley decided to attack both Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. Such a move, given the prominence of both the Society and its leader at the time, was a brilliant public relations effort, even though it was dishonorable and underhanded. It was mudslinging, pure and simple. While, collectively, we’re accustomed to such tactics today, at the time it was a novel approach and it served to garner for Buckley all the attention he sought.

To the detriment of the nation and the world, over the ensuing years Mr. Buckley steered his new found audience more and more away from the classical liberalism of Taft and Welch toward increasing accommodation with ideas from the left of the political spectrum.

Today, to a great degree, the Bush administration is a monument to the success of that decades long effort. And what, exactly, has been the outcome? Ruinous spending, acceptance of big government interventionism, the weakening of the Fourth Amendment, acceptance of torture, disastrous trade policies, ongoing attacks on freedom, and empire building overseas. No, Mr. Buckley was not personally responsible for all these -- but, in large part, it was his considerable intellect and influence that patiently molded and guided the neoconservative movement that today holds the reins of power.

Today, as always, the John Birch Society stands astride the nation’s headlong, Buckley initiated, rush to the left and yells “Stop!” We believe that all the people of the world have natural, God-given liberties and freedoms and that, instead of intervening in people’s lives, governments are created to respect and protect those liberties and freedoms. To that end, our mission is simple: To bring about less government, more responsibility, and — with God’s help — a better world by providing leadership, education, and organized volunteer action in accordance with moral and Constitutional principles.

Apparently that places us into the conservative movement, even though the very term has drastically changed since the 1950s. It has changed so much that we consider ourselves Constitutionalists. We have even renamed our long-running “Conservative Index” to “Freedom Index,” being the tool that rates the votes of members of Congress on the basis of their adherence to the Constitution.

If he were here, we’re sure Mr. Buckley would enjoy all the attention. One thing is true, though. By deciding to tangle with the John Birch Society again shortly before his death, Mr. Buckley as much as admitted that he had been unable to damper enthusiasm for the Society and its work. That’s because freedom is popular. The last few decades may have belonged to Mr. Buckley. But the future belongs to the free -- and the JBS will be leading the way.

Bill Hahn
Public Relations Manager
The John Birch Society
Appleton, WI

Organizations like this = GOOD.

Persons or organization that support or create organizations like the above linked = GOOD.

Persons or organization that oppose GOOD persons or organizations, or who oppose those organizations created by GOOD persons or organizations = BAD.

Thus: JBS = GOOD; WFB = BAD.

Simple, really. ;-P

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Liberty for Dummies

Buckley was nothing more than an establishment shill, probably a pervert 'grover.' Goldwater himself outed the CFR as being a conspiratorial treasonous organziation.

"All men in power should be distrusted.." -James Madison

Is considered a racist organization....and the fact that they support Dr Paul has hurt us