President Bush and the NAACP

After five years of rejection, the NAACP finally received a yes from President Bush that he would accept the civil rights' group invitation to speak at their annual convention yesterday. Better late than never? Doubtful - President Bush has never been good at playing politician and to finally agree to show up after five years of no thanks during a crucial election year is just too obvious.

I remember vividly Jim Dobson pouting because President Clinton would not invite Jim or Shirley to the National Day of Prayer during his 8 years in office. Dobson acted as if Clinton were sinning by the snub. Seems the far right has forgotten those days and I heard several times yesterday it was Bush's "right" to turn down the invitation since the group had been so critical of Bush. No hypocrisy there at all.

Tony Snow - Bush's Press Secretary - really reflected President Bush's and the Repub's attitude toward the group with these words:

"It is clear that in this nation, racism and discrimination are legally unacceptable, but there are also residues of the past that we have to address," Snow said in previewing the speech. "We have to find ways to make sure that the road to opportunity is clear for one and all."
Snow denied claims that this was Bush's way of atoning for the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina. The Rev. Jesse Jackson and some black elected officials alleged that indifference to black suffering and racial injustice was to blame for the sluggish reaction to the disaster. In September 2005, Bush's top advisers met with black leaders to discuss their concerns.

"I think the president wants to make his voice heard," Snow said about Bush's speech. "He has an important role to play not only in making the case for civil rights but, maybe more importantly, the case for unity."

You can just feel the apathy dripping off those sentences. After six years in office, the Prez has done nothing to bring anti-racist legislation into the 21st century. Not surprisingly, President Bush got 11% of the African American vote in 2004. His predecessor will get half that in 2008 - and deservedly so. The Republicans have written off the African American vote in favor of the far right Christian vote. And the far right wing clearly has no interest in African Americans - their interests are in whiter schools, wider roads and lower taxes - preferrably in that order.