Democrats taking blacks for granted

Democrats taking blacks for granted

Columnist Ruben Navarrette hit the nail on the head with his editorial on Democrats’ hypocrisy toward blacks. I generally do not agree with Mr. Navarrette, but in this case he is 100 percent correct. African-American Republicans catch a lot of flak for saying that liberals are not as progressive as they pretend to be, and many African-American activists aren’t completely sincere about wanting the community to achieve political power and break barriers. The only people they want to see arrive at positions of influence are those beholden to the Democratic Party. By the way the same is true for Hispanics.

African-American Republicans are regarded with suspicion; they are regarded as unrepresentative and out of touch. This year President Obama got 93 percent of the African-American vote. The only black senator in the Senate is Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina. He was nominated by Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, and since Scott is a Republican, the left sees nothing positive in this appointment. In fact, Scott will become a target, just like Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Republicans don’t undermine black interests, rather its politics. African-Americans are taken for granted by Democrats, and why not? They always vote for the party that does the least for them. But they should raise the question: Why haven’t Democrats done more to improve the condition of African-Americans and other minorities? The only two African-Americans to serve as secretary of state were Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. What have the Democrats done? Appoint the rich man John Kerry.

Silvio Pontarelli

Mount Prospect