Quote: Larry Elder

" Stop condescending, stop kissing *ss. Every time I hear a speech by a Republican, generally a white Republican, talking about the desire to reach out to blacks, they always spell it out with what kind of special programs that they're going to pass for black people or have passed for black people, that they've asked the SBA to expand loans for black people, and all this stuff - instead of saying the Republican agenda -- low taxes, limited government, our strong family values, and national security works to your benefit just like it works to everybody else's benefit. (Black Americans are)...not from Mars, (they're) Americans just like anybody else. They should emphasize things like vouchers. Here in California a few years ago there was a state-wide initiative to go to a state-wide voucher system. It failed. I tell you where it passed -- it passed in the inner city because black women and men wanted their kids out of these government schools where there was a high amount of violence, where as George Bush put it, (there was) a soft bigotry of low expectations.They wanted them out, yet it's the Republican Party that pushes vouchers and it's the Democratic Party along with the teachers' union that adamantly opposes it. Now I don't know what issue is more important to a parent than where his or her child goes to school. Yet you have the Republicans on the right side of this issue as far as inner city blacks are concerned and Democrats are on the wrong side of this issue. Another one is this attempt by George Bush to privatize, at least partially, Social Security. Well, blacks enter the job market sooner than whites. They die sooner than whites. The average black male dies at about 65 which is at the age when you get full benefits for social security. So, there is really a net transfer out of a black pocket to a white pocket because of the fact that blacks die sooner than whites do - so they get ripped off by the Social Security system. If this were explained to black people in a better way, I think more blacks would get on this. I've seen focus groups where this was explained to young black men and after these facts are explained to them, they become aggressive supporters of (personal accounts).So instead of going to black people and going, "I feel your pain. I'm so sorry for what the country did to black people in the past," it ought to be, "Here's what the Republican Party stands for. Here's why our issues (work) to your benefit and why it is true that blacks per capita make less money than whites. ...While low taxes may not benefit you directly, they will benefit the people who employ you and will give them an incentive to employ more people in the black community and, therefore, it will help you."What Republicans always do when they call me -- and I get phone calls from Republicans a lot, John, -- they say what can they do to increase the percentage of blacks (voting for me)? Honestly? Stop kissing *ss, stop talking to them like they're children. Talk to them like they're adults. Give the same speech to black people that you would give in a suburb. Don't change it, don't alter, don't try and soft pedal it because it's insulting, it's condescending."

Syndicated Talkshow Host Larry Elder on Republican efforts to gain Black American votes...

Mr. Elder was interviewed on "rightwing news.com." For the whole interview: www.rightwingnews.com/category.php?ent=6644