Project 21 Leader Says Liberals Take Blacks for Granted
by Chad Groening and Jenni Parker
February 22, 2005
(AgapePress) - The head of an African-American moderate and conservative group says a recent statement by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean demonstrates that political leaders on the left are taking African Americans for granted.David Almasi is staff director of Project 21, an initiative of the National Center for Public Policy Research to promote the views of African-American moderates and conservatives whose ideas and values have not traditionally been echoed by the nation's civil rights establishment. He believes the presidential election last November showed that many blacks are disenchanted with the Democratic Party.
The black conservative leader believes that many African-American citizens are particularly displeased with the way many liberals seem to count on their votes while discounting their voice. For evidence, he points to places like Prince George's County, Maryland, a suburban county noted as one of the wealthiest African-American majority areas in the United States.
Almasi feels it is significant that the voter turnout in Prince George's County was down by 12 percent in the November 2004 presidential election. "These people didn't go out to vote for Bush," he says, "but they didn't go out to vote for Kerry either. I think it shows taking the black vote for granted is not going to work anymore. And what Howard Dean did the other day, I don't think is going to help his cause anymore."
The Project 21 spokesman refers to the recent comment by the DNC chairman, in which he suggested to a gathering of the Black Congressional Caucus that the GOP leadership would have a hard time rounding up a roomful of African Americans. The Washington Post quoted the former Vermont governor and presidential primary contender as saying, "You think the [Republican National Committee] could get this many people of color into a single room?" and going on to add, "Maybe if they got the hotel staff in there."
But Almasi asserts that, while the Democratic Party touts itself as the party of minorities, more and more blacks are starting to understand what is really going on. "I think that Mr. Dean's comments are indicative of the way a lot of people on the left feel," he says, "and I think that black America is realizing that the liberals are taking advantage of them."
According to Almasi, this can clearly be seen in the Clinton administration. He notes that while Bill Clinton was in the Oval Office, the Democratic president boasted that he had a cabinet that looked like America, "yet the people who were in positions of authority did not look like that same demographic."
Clinton may have talked a good populist game, but Almasi feels when it came to his cabinet appointments, the proof is in the positioning. "He had a white, male inner circle," the Project 21 director says, "while he put his black cabinet members in places like labor and commerce and energy -- places that were not key. They were not central to the way the government runs."
A recent ReddingNewsReview.com article points out that Howard Dean has also been asked in the past to explain why he had no blacks in key positions on his gubernatorial staff during his term as governor of Vermont. On the other hand, Almasi points out, President George W. Bush has named African-American and Hispanic leaders to key cabinet positions in both terms, including having appointed two blacks to fill the prominent position of Secretary of State.
