Which party promotes racism?

Flanked by AP President Tom Curley and reporter Jennifer Loven at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, President Barack Obama snickered as emcee Wanda Sykes pilloried Rush Limbaugh.

"Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails... So you're saying, 'I hope America fails', you're, like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq'."

"He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying. You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight."

"Rush Limbaugh, I hope the country fails, I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? He needs a good waterboarding, that's what he needs."

Writing in The London Telegraph, US editor Toby Harnden was a bit stunned at the President's reaction: "Obama seemed to think this bit was pretty hilarious, grinning and chuckling and turning to share the 'joke' with the person sitting on his right. There's not much room for differing interpretations of what Sykes said. She called Limbaugh a terrorist and a traitor, suggested that he be tortured and wished him dead. What was his crime? Hoping that Obama's policies - which he views as socialist - will fail. That's way, way beyond reasoned debate or comedy and Obama's reaction to it was astonishing...Obama laughing when someone wishes Limbaugh dead? Hard to take from the man who promised a new era of civility and elevated debate in Washington."

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Painting Limbaugh as an out-of-touch white man is easy. It's trivially simple. But when it comes to a more careful analysis, which party's leadership promotes racism -- and which party actually fights it?

Democrats and single-parent families

Of 23 peer-reviewed U.S. studies since 2000, 20 found that family structure directly affects crime and/or delinquency. Most research "strongly suggests both that young adults and teens raised in single-parent homes are more likely to commit crimes, and that communities with high rates of family fragmentation (especially unwed childbearing) suffer higher crime rates as a result."

One study that ran more than two decades found that nearly 90% of the change in violent crime rates can be attributed to the change in percentages of out-of-wedlock births. Conversely, divorce rates had no relationship with crime.

In The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead noted that the "relationship [between single-parent families and crime] is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime. This conclusion shows up time and again in the literature. The nation's mayors, as well as police officers, social workers, probation officers, and court officials, consistently point to family break up as the most important source of rising rates of crime."

Let me repeat: Control for single-parent families and there are no differences between the races when it comes to crime.

In addition, the statistical link between the availability of welfare and out-of-wedlock births is conclusive. There have been dozens of studies that link the availability of welfare benefits to out-of-wedlock birth.

One study found that a 50 percent increase in the value of AFDC and foodstamp payments led to a 43 percent increase in the number of out-of-wedlock births.

Research for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed that a 50 percent increase in the monthly value of combined AFDC and food stamp benefits led to a 117 percent increase in the crime rate among young black men.

Despite reams of studies that prove welfare not only doesn't reduce poverty, but actually increases it, Democrat leaders incessantly push for more. Put simply, the party bosses demand a culture of dependency and encourage single-parent families and, therefore, higher crime rates. This is a fact. Curious observers would ask, "why?"

Democrats and school choice

New York Times columnist David Brooks recently received an email from a Harvard economist. One powerful sentence read, "The attached study has changed my life as a scientist."

The Harvard Study (conducted by Roland Fryer and Will Dobbie) analyzed charter schools in Harlem. They compared students in the charter schools (called "Harlem Children's Zone") to all New York City public schools. What they discovered was nothing short of startling.

In a nutshell, they found that the Harlem Children’s Zone schools produced “enormous” gains: "[The study] makes a rigorous case, using two different methodologies, that the charter school investigated in this area (Promise Academy I, 6-8 grade) had a huge effect on children’s academic performance as measured by standardized tests. The effect size was particularly large in math - enough to close the black-white achievement gap, something that no previous (rigorously demonstrated) effect has come close to.

Let me repeat the key finding: in mathematics, the charter school approach completely eliminated the black-white achievement gap.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that charter schools level the educational playing field for both white and black students, Obama and the Democrat Party leadership are crushing school choice programs like that in Washington, DC.

The Wall Street Journal points out the hypocrisy in stark terms: "President Obama and his Education Secretary have repeatedly promised to support "what works," regardless of ideology. The teachers unions adamantly oppose school vouchers, whether or not they work. Ergo, Messrs. Obama and Duncan decide to end a D.C. school voucher program that works and force poor kids back into schools where Messrs. Obama and Duncan would never send their own children. What a disgrace."

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And so I ask the Democrat Party chieftains: who are the racists here? Which party embraces failed policies, year after year and decade after decade?

And which party wants to fight the tyranny of Statism, dependency and racism?

The answers are obvious. All who favor liberty -- whether they are black, white, rich or poor -- should vote Republican.


Linked by: Jules Crittenden and The Anchoress. Thanks!