Lenny McAllister

February 03, 2012 | Opinion

Komen vs. Planned Parenthood: Democrats Created This Mess

And what exactly have Democrats done to uplift common, everyday Black people over the past 50 years? Over the past 20 years? 10 years? I see the elite Black class getting more and the everyday Black middle class slipping into oblivion – even while Democrats have controlled urban centers since the earliest parts of the 20th century.

I can attest to that while I listen to gunshots firing in Chicago, a city with a 33% Black population and Black aldermen making $123k annually…

1. What’s up with the Republican slam? I didn’t mention partisanship in my comment. I only mention the president’s (misguided) love for Planned Parenthood and how it contrasts with his record for standing for Black folks.

But, with that said:

2. I have – on more than one occasion – called the Republican Party out on their contradictory stances on issues including the one that you note below as well as their desire to cut bureaucratic services to urban (usually Black) Americans to get “smaller government” without solutions on how to facilitate the ability of those individuals to rise up into their potential. Now, my question is this: when will more Black Democrats open their hearts (and, many times, their mouths) at the risk of their pocket books/wallets like I have to speak the truth and hold fellow Democrats accountable in the same manner that I have within the Republican Party?

One, if we are not going to be “for abortion” – which liberals say that they are not “for abortion”, but, in fact, they are “pro-choice” which…usually…means that poor Blacks are “advised” to “terminate their pregnancies” when not planned…

The conservative position is to ensure that business, education, and societal opportunities for self-sufficiency and greatness within these situations are still obtainable.

Many would argue that this should come about by way of tax structures that advocate, promote, and guide investment to communities that need more jobs, less food deserts, and better educational avenues. Others would add that this should include school vouchers and other programs that divest from failing systems and allow lower-income Americans (including many trapped Black Americans and those that struggle from unforeseen situations such as a mistimed pregnancy) to rehabilitate their life paths instead of being trapped in a path of dependency and disappointment.

The conservative policy would also be to rehabilitate the pride that Americans used to have in all walks of life, so that the working classes have honor in working with their hands and the struggling classes have the fulfilled faith and ability to rise from janitors (to quote Newt, if you will) to doctors within one generation, or go from scooping Baskin-Robbins as a left-behind boy living with grandparents thousands of miles away from his biological parents.

Yeah – good thing for President Obama that the “conservative” plan for pro-life kicked in for a 17-year White woman that was pregnant by a Kenyan divorcee.

What is the Republican answer on stopping gunfire in Chicago?

In regards to this, the conservative solution must include an investment of presence, activism, partnership, and shift back to education and economics. Areas in Chicago where the gunfire is most rampant cannot be food deserts. They cannot be areas where businesses are scarce. They cannot be areas where Black aldermen serve for decades at the clip of $125K annually for multiple 4-year terms without challenges.

These areas need representation that will fight the establishment credos coming from on high, much like how Mr. McDonald did against the Chicago gun ban, where only criminals had guns but not law-abiding citizens that needed to protect themselves; (of course, when this edict came down from the first Mayor Daley, many of the Black aldermen in the mayor’s back pocket refused to pipe up about this out of fear of losing their own gravy trains.)

As well, you stop the gunfire in many of Chicago’s Black neighborhoods when you stop allowing the teachers’ union from controlling how the schools are structured and run, even at the detriment of the students they are intending to serve. In addition, there must be a commitment from local churches, faith-based organizations, and Black elite leadership on both sides of the aisle to move forward to with investing a generation’s worth of volunteer time and energy in order to right the embedded wrongs in these communities.

The conservative policy on poverty – again – is simple: redirection of educational dollars to the best avenues for immediate academic yield in order to create a work force worthy of global economic competition. It also involves business-friendly policies that encourage on-the-job training, mentoring, and other avenues through which the forgotten human capital in America is re-discovered and unearthed.

Lenny McAllister is the host of the radio show “Get Right with Lenny McAllister” found on LMGILIVE.com and often re-broadcast on Politic365. He appears weekly on “CNN Saturday Morning” with host Randi Kaye and former DNC Communications Director Maria Cardona at 10:30 AM Eastern Time. He also regularly appears weekdays on CNN's "Early Start" at 5am - 7am and "CNN Newsroom" at 12:30pm Eastern. He also appears as a political commentator on multiple outlets including Sirius-XM Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC Radio in Australia, and Chicago Public Radio. Lenny has written previously for a number of publications including Rushmore Drive, Global Grind, and The Chicago Defender. In 2009, McAllister was a panelist at the 10th Annual State of the Black Union and the CNN panel discussion Young & Black In America: Empowering the Next Generation of African American Leaders. In 2010, Lenny was featured in the Studio 360 series “American Icons” in the episode, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. He was also featured in the November 2010 Essence Magazine roundtable discussion “Race (Still) Matters” that featured the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Ben Jealous, and CNN’s Soledad O’Brien.

10 Responses to Komen vs. Planned Parenthood: Democrats Created This Mess

Noneofyourbeeswax says:

5:29pm February 4, 2012 at 5:29 pm

It is clear Lenny that you are on the Koch Brothers payroll. This stuff is pure crapola. Messrs. Koch are not getting their money's worth though because obviously no one is reading it.

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Dan Lee says:

11:01pm February 4, 2012 at 11:01 pm

Mr. McAllister, the headline of your article is completely misleading. There is NOTHING in that article that supports your contention that the Democrats created the Planned Parenthood vs. Komen debacle. Your selective criticisms simply don't hold water when you compare the open hostility of the GOP to the occasional bungling by the Democrats. This so called Pro-Life stance only applies to the fetus. After that the GOP seems to go out of it's way to make that former fetus's life a living hell. This includes everything from opposing Health care for lower income mothers to their gleeful sadistic support for the death penalty. I just wasted a few minutes of my life reading this!

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- mel palmer says:
  
  11:11pm February 4, 2012 at 11:11 pm
  
  This article totally misses what happened. It creates a story to divert us from the real story. The cure board would rather not support women's health.
  
  Reply
Todd Lawson says:

12:09am February 5, 2012 at 12:09 am

This is pure garbage. The headline is garbage and so is the reasoning. How about just one fact: That Planned Parenthood does 97% basic health care service for women.

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Tif R says:

12:12am February 5, 2012 at 12:12 am

Black conservatives always go after other blacks and blame them for everything and no one else. Self hatred anyone? Learn how to write.

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PurposefulRain says:

1:23am February 5, 2012 at 1:23 am

The silly ideas mentioned in the last paragraph leave out an interesting fact: You never hear anyone on the Republican side like Rience Preibus or Mitt Romney or John Boehner or Mitch McConnell or anyone else even talking about doing that policy. So you mention people in Chicago making $125,000 and you forget about those in power on higher levels in your party of haters making $200,000. If you think Mitt Romney cares about people who look like you you are absolutely crazy. Yet you step to fetch and do the bidding for them.

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Chau Nguyen says:

5:04am February 5, 2012 at 5:04 am

The author needs to organize his thoughts. I find the article confusing and the title seems mismatched. Please get an editor.

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Severin Beach says:

7:13am February 5, 2012 at 7:13 am

Forget the politics the article makes no sense whatsoever.

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SittingReadingThisBS says:

5:20pm February 6, 2012 at 5:20 pm

"…usually…means that poor Blacks are “advised” to “terminate their pregnancies” when not planned…"

How the hell do you know that? As usual with the conservative argument you switch the subject to some unrelated nonsense. What's the Republican position on poverty again as you cut every prevention program focused on teen pregnancy?

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