07 Feb 2014 Black Conservatives With No Regrets on Beliefs
Between the fact that it’s Black History Month and that it’s getting close to the observance of President’s Day, there can be more pressure than usual on black conservatives to compromise their values as a show of respect for Barack Obama.
Over the past few weeks, for instance, there was the case of Reverend Willian Barber, the head of the North Carolina NAACP chapter. Barber criticized Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) for being what he considered a ventriloquist’s dummy. Later, Barber called all black conservatives “mouthpieces” in league with a nondescript conservative conspiracy.
Project 21 members don’t believe that the color of one’s skin merits a free pass for making bad decisions — for themselves or for bad policies that impact the entire nation.
As a result, almost every Project 21 member has their own stories about being ostracized at some point by friends and family for going against the political grain. Some of these stories have more divisive endings than others, but the end result is almost always that the Project 21 member emerges even more confident and contrarian.
In the wake of recent events such as President Obama’s poorly-received State of the Union address, another bad jobless report, more extensions and problems related to the rollout of ObamaCare and no end in sight for controversies regarding the NSA’s spying and the IRS’s alleged targeting of conservatives, at least two Project 21 members are showing that they remain steadfast and justified in their conservative beliefs.
For instance, Project 21 member Christopher Arps, who is also a founder of the Move-On-Up.org social networking site for black conservatives, said about the mostly unswerving black political support for Barack Obama:
I’m all for black pride, and I can understand on an emotional level why black folk have a loyalty to President Obama.
I get it. I really do.
But if loyalty is not being returned and I’m just being taken for granted, all bets are quickly off!
I am nobody’s fool — not even for the first black president. Sorry.
Likewise, Project 21 member Darryn “Dutch” Martin, a former diplomatic service official and business consultant, sees the poor policy returns for the black community during the Obama presidency and his blood boils. For all of the criticism he has endured, he doesn’t hold back in his rebuttal:
This is what the Obama Kool-Aid drinkers voted for — twice?!
What do you want to bet that blacks, Obama’s most loyal voting block, are going to be the ones most adversely affected by all of this progressivism when everything is said and done?
To all of you true believers who have bad-mouthed me for being a black conservative and for daring to disagree with Obama’s policies and showing — or at least trying to show — you fools why his administration was heading our nation in the wrong direction, this is what you get.
I hope you are ready for the shock, because the downside of this president’s policies are likely to hit Obama’s most ardent constituency the hardest.