Who is a ‘real’ Black?

I was at a writers’ guild meeting last week and this woman I had just met decided to unload on me about racism in America. She had a half dozen stories about how this person or that person (all of whom I had never met) had treated her with disrespect because she was black. She didn’t seem to be saying that I was a racist, but I walked away definitely thinking she is one. So when I encounter people who cannot see their own racism, I often go looking to see what reasonable people of color say on the subject.  Star Parker is one of my favorites.

Source: Who is a ‘real’ Black?

I am currently not planning to vote for a candidate of either major political party in the 2016 Presidential election. 2014 marked the first election where I did not vote for a single candidate who was a member of a major party. I’ve just become so disgusted by all the shell game nonsense. Candidates who proclaim themselves to be small-government conservatives who then switch to sounding an awful lot like progressive Republicans have caused me to seriously question voting at all (and I’m a super voter!). So I’m planning to vote 3rd party in 2016. No, the candidate won’t win, but that is not the point. I don’t trust either major political party to represent me and I’m hoping the many other voters out there who agree with me join me in giving a 3rd party (any 3rd party) candidate a sizable minority vote so that we can send a message that we’re tired of politics as they stand right now in the United States.

However, I do like Ben Carson, if for no other reason than that his story is compelling and he seems not to be as much of a statist as some in the race. I could be persuaded to vote for him in the primaries (Alaska lets non-partisans vote the Republican ticket in the primaries). If he won the nomination, I would have to decide whether to trust the GOP nominee or not.

I don’t think Carson will be the nominee. In fact, I am still almost certain that it will be Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, not because of any polls, but because the RNC has already chosen their nominee. We can vote however we want to and it’s still going to turn out the way the party leadership wants it to, which is going to guarantee that Hillary Clinton is the next President of the United States, even though she is a terrible choice.

But in the meantime, until the convention, actual conservatives can hope they’ll get a voice in the Party and, maybe this time, the disappointment will drive us to form or join an actual conservative 3rd party to give us an actual voice in American politics. There is no reason other than tradition that we have only two political parties in American politics and we are not well served by adherence to that tradition.