Black comedy, also known as black humor or dark comedy, is a sub-genre of comedy and satire where topics and events that are usually treated seriously – death, mass murder, sickness, madness, terror, drug abuse, rape, war etc. – are treated in a humorous or satirical manner.
That about covers OpEd columnist Eugene Robinson’s column today … except that he wasn’t trying to be funny.
His column, “Diversity in Cannon Fodder,” argues that the three black Republican Senate candidates were “cannon fodder,” sacrificial stooges in a Republican effort to hoodwink voters into thinking the party cared about blacks. But, in an attempt to show that he doesn’t automatically preclude the possibility of blacks ever voting Republican, Robinson allows:
There is no reason Republicans can’t someday win a big share of the African American vote. All the GOP has to do is adopt policies that most black Americans believe will work to their advantage, rather than leave them behind….
Instead of making a legitimate play for the black vote, Republicans convinced themselves that tokenism would be enough….
In short, it seems, all Republicans have to do to garner black votes is … stop being Republicans.
But wait. Then there’s Robinson’s take on Michael Steele, the black Republican candidate in Maryland:
Michael Steele’s run for the Senate was another story. Steele, Maryland’s lieutenant governor, was recruited by the White House to run in what has historically been a Democratic stronghold. He was another sacrificial lamb, like Blackwell and Swann, an African American face meant as a demonstration to voters that the Republican Party had finally become serious about diversity.
….
Republican strategists looked at the numbers and saw that Steele might actually win as long as he kept pretending not to be a Republican. Several prominent black Democrats, piqued that there were no African Americans at the top of the ticket in Maryland, endorsed Steele….
It would appear that black Republican candidates are stooges when they run as Republicans … and stooges when they don’t.
As I said, good black humor.
“argues that the three black Republican Senate candidates”
One small correction: They weren’t all senate candidates. Steele was the senate candidate, Swann and Blackwell were candidates for governor.
blacks will never vote republican more than we do now, because most of us just don’t agree with the values. blacks are socialists and even communists. we believe in a redistribution of income. the democrats are promising that we will be able to get almost everything for free and be relieved of all anxiety about life. republicans cannot compete with that. the republican message of self reliance and responsibility frightens most black people. just imagine 150 years ago, when irish immigrants were coming to this country. They were a wretched lot. what if politicians had said i will guarantee you food and shelter. Irishwomen dont worry about having children without a husband. I will guarnatee you an income and child care and medical care. the US would be a poor country, because there would have been no inducement to work hard. republicans may find that they cannot compete in regard to hispanics and even whites, not just blacks. Of course the democratic plans will be disastrous, but people won’t know that until it happens. and then they will be used to it, used to a bad economy, used to high taxes, used to competing for government largesse. they won’t even remember a time when things were different. the democratic message, that if you are not rich, you have been cheated, that all economic anxiety should be removed, that if you commit a crime, it is society’s fault and society has to fix itself before you can be expected to be honest, this may prove irresistable to many americans. the traditional self reliance and sturdy independence may not be able to withstand these blandishments.
Anita writes:
>>>”blacks are socialists and even communists. ”
Where do you GET this stuff from?
–Cobra
Further note:
Sen. Barack Obama, (D) IL, put it this way:
>>>”Listen, I think it’s great that the Republican Party has discovered black people,” Obama told a crowd at predominantly black Bowie State University. “But here’s the thing … You don’t vote for somebody because of what they look like. You vote for somebody because of what they stand for.”
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/08/black.republicans.ap/index.html
And the black Republican candidate that Obama beat 70%-27% in that race?
>>>”Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate who once referred to reparations as “an insult to our slave ancestors,” is now calling for a plan that would exempt the descendants of slaves from income taxes for at least a generation.
Tax exemption would give Blacks “a competitive edge in the labor market,” because they would be cheaper to hire than federal tax-paying employee” and allow Blacks to be compensated “for all those years when your labor was being exploited,”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5747800/
And when the smoke cleared, what did the exit polls say about voting patterns in that race?
>>>”Obama won the support of nine out of 10 black voters and seven out of 10 white voters, according to voter interviews conducted at the polls Tuesday for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. About 40 percent of Republicans backed Obama, as did 75 percent of independents.
Keyes drew his strongest backing from white Protestant conservatives, according to the poll of 1,392 Illinois voters. Results were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, higher for subgroups.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137408,00.html
Can you taste the sweetest of IRONIES that white Protestant Conservatives, the BACKBONE of the anti-affirmative action movement, would be the strongest supporters of an African-American running on a SLAVERY REPARATIONS platform?
LOL, you know…I kinda missed old Al this election cycle.
–Cobra