Now If Only I Were Black . . . [UPDATED]

I could be a Cosby Republican -- Booker Rising's designation for voters, many of them "old-school blacks," who are "socially moderate to conservative, but fiscally liberal to moderate."

Silly me. It's not about me. Even with a new skin, I wouldn't fit: I'm not a churchgoing Christian and don't disapprove of homosexuality per se. But I am attracted to those rare political positions that, as Bookerista Shay Riley says in an accompanying e-mail, "turn the current dominant model of social liberalism and fiscal moderatism on its head." I too have the impression that the majority of self-described "moderates" are, like Instapundit, socially and fiscally libertarian. [UPDATE: Or as a commenter on Sisu describes himself, "I myself am a neo-con. I favor democracy, whiskey, sexy.* Sex, drugs, roc 'n roll even."] It's clearly true that "social liberals have . . . ceded concerns about . . . the moral environment to social conservatives," who then often take it to the other extreme. And, like the Cosby Republicans, I believe in some government regulation of free enterprise, to protect the small from the big.

I don't believe in legislating intimate morality, or in perpetuating victimhood and fettering ambition (I can appreciate the ambivalence of one of Shay's uncles, who "favors a social safety net but believes it is abused by folks"), but I do believe the culture needs to pull itself up by its values and reform itself -- on both the lust and greed fronts. Those of us who aren't traditionally religious must respect the fact that faith plays an important part in this for many people, including some of the best of the black community.

Anyway, read this fascinating post. It will give you insight into both the uniqueness of the black community and the dilemmas it shares with the rest of us.

- amba

*I well remember hearing those words from a newly "liberated" Iraqi. My heart sank, which of course made me feel like an old prune of a party pooper, because everyone around me thought it was so cute. But it bothered me that the foremost concept of "freedom" as modeled by America was the freedom to get drunk, get laid, have fun, and get lots of stuff.

One can be starved for those pleasures too, of course. It's as bad to be starved as it is to be glutted or addicted. I said someplace here that we only really thrive in a moral temperate zone, as well as a physical one. But starvation does not conduce to temperance, and we haven't done a very good job of modeling the art of moderation and making it attractive. America is hopefully something a little more than a huge frat party the rest of the world wants to crash.

Comments

[Danny]

I'm interested in the above "per se." More comments on that?

Did you grow up (as I did) with a steady diet of how we Jews were in the same struggle with "the blacks" and how bonded we were (even though the only blacks we ever knew growing up were my grandparents' maids)? My family members worshipped Martin Luther King, Jr. but locked all the car doors whenever they saw African-American people on the street. Oy.

For a different take on the relationship between blacks and Jews, check out this post from "Citizen of the Month." The answer for any remaining tension is clear: BARBRA!

[amba]

All the "per se" means is that I don't like aggressively promiscuous, publicly sexual gays any more than I like their straight counterparts. I'm for people doing it deeper rather than wider.

On the relationship between blacks and Jews: there was a cartoon in the New Yorker once that showed two Gucci-clad princesses walking along on the Upper East Side, and one said to the other, "After all, 'Yo' is only 'Oy' backwards!"

[amba]

By the way, I'm pretty sure the picture of Barbra as a hooker on that post is from "The Owl and the Pussycat." Jacques, my mate, was in that movie -- it was before I even knew him. He played Rapzinsky, the Polish super who threw Streisand and George Segal out on the street when they made too much noise in the middle of the night.

[Danny]

Oh my God, it is from "The Owl and the Pussycat" and I forgot that Jacques was in that (I remember his part quite well and he was superb!). You people have so many hidden talents!