Reply #10: The Republicans treated him like shit [View All]

[CatWoman]

House negro: Why J.C. Watts is Congress' last black Republican

The tragedy for Watts and his conservative allies is that their own defensiveness is their worst enemy. Certainly one can hold conservative principles and question America's historic relationship with African Americans. Just look at Louis Farrakhan. But the GOP's rigidity, and ultimately, its tendency to airbrush the reality of racism, past and present, out of its vision of America, prevents the party from matching even the nuanced perspective of a man as dogmatic as Farrakhan, who recently has found a receptive audience among middle-class blacks with his lectures on personal responsibility and traditional family values.

African Americans are acutely aware of this, and thus are acutely aware of the difference between being a conservative and being a Republican. While they don't advertise it, many blacks fall into the former category, but as things are, very few will ever fall into the latter. Which is why, when J.C. Watts leaves Congress, there won't be many people lining up to fill his shoes as that body's token black Republican.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_12_34/ai_95914097