Bill Bennett doesn’t care about black people
Writing by treason on Friday, 30 of September , 2005 at 10:05 pm
I like Bill Bennett. He has this bearish, big dog quality that I find immensely appealing. He’s smart. He’s solid. He’s not a racist. But you wouldn’t know that if you were listening to the media this week. Again, they’ve taken one sentence out of a whole conversation and run with it.
He was on Hannity & Colmes, unapologetic, and fiercely stood his ground. Good for him. He has reason to be outraged. Calling Bill Bennett a racist is like calling Jack Kemp a racist. It makes no sense.
In a nutshell, this is what happened. In a discussion during his radio talk show, a pro-life caller made the assumption that if there were no abortions, all those surviving fetuses might have grown up to be productive American taxpayers that would be pouring money into the economy. The result would be a stronger GNP and a more solvent Social Security system.
Bill Bennett then said that the argument, on the surface, might seem to make good sense, but warned that hypotheticals like that should be avoided. There are better arguments against abortion. Please note here that Bennett is virulently anti-abortion and is firmly pro-life. And that’s precisely why the brouhaha over his comments makes absolutely no sense.
With the book Freakonomics and wacky arguments put forth to support positions in mind, Bennett offered up one example to the caller. Let’s say you want to reduce the crime rate. You could abort every black baby in the country and your crime rate would come down.
He stated a fact. This is not racist. Years of statistics support this argument. But the press has neglected to supply the rest of Bennett’s quote. That doing such a thing is morally reprehensible. It might fix the problem, yes, but it’s just something that could not be done. Similarly, we can fix a lot of society’s problems, but we don’t because the solution would be as horrible as the original problem. (Think Hitler’s solution to his “Jewish problem.”)
Intelligent people heard Bennett and understood precisely what he was saying. And they were probably happy to hear someone talk openly and rationally about race instead of skirting the issue or mincing words.
But the media got wind of this and made it an issue. My beef is that the Right should be firmly on Bennett’s side, defending him and making clear that only half the quote has been reported. Instead, they’re hiding under desks. Even the White House issued some weirdass statement about the quote being “inappropriate.” What they were thinking was: “Gee, Bill. Now is not the time to be talking about race because, after this little hurricane episode, everyone thinks we don’t care about black - er — African-Americans. If we defend you on this we’re going to dig a deeper hole, so we’re going to back away from you - just as if you were one of those corpses on a New Orleans overpass. Sorry!”
I understand the position, but I don’t condone it. The White House just blew an opportunity to get a hold of this whole race issue and open a discussion. Everyone on the Left knows that Bill Bennett isn’t a racist and everyone fully understands the point he was making. But they’ve chosen to twist it and misrepresent his message. Bill Bennett has been on the right side of addressing education and drug issues in the black community for decades, and they have the nerve to try to wipe that off the record with this crap?
Kudos to Rush for being as outraged as Bennett. He’s issued a statement of support and has planted his own quote:
“Bill Bennett should be applauded!”
The press will run with this, too, and say: “See? What have we been telling you? Limbaugh’s a racist!”
The Left is still stuck on stupid. They’re first to complain about talk radio and say it’s just right wing nuts shouting down sensitive, thoughtful callers who have an alternate opinion. They don’t get it. Bill Bennett has a program that welcomes intelligent discussion on tough - and sensitive - issues. If more show hosts could follow his lead, we could start talking about problems honestly and solve them. But that’s obviously way too scary.
If we solved the race problem, too many people would be out of their race-baiting jobs. It’s like tax reform. How could we possibly lose our beloved IRS? What would all these tax-preparers, lawyers, and accountants - and all those beloved IRS employees - do if we went to a fair or flat tax?
If we cured cancer, what would all those who have built their careers on cancer do for a living?
All together now: SOMETHING ELSE!
And that could be a good thing. All that brain power could be directed somewhere else. But don’t hold your breath. There’s a cure for most diseases, unfair taxation, poverty, ignorance, and racism. But if a thoughtful, intelligent person like Bill Bennett can’t even discuss these topics, you think our government can?
Where’s the leadership? Where’s the balls? Where’s the candidate who will campaign against political correctness and talk about issues openly and honestly without fear of the media?
STOP THE MUZZLING NOW!
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