The House race in Florida between Republican and Tea Party favorite Allen West and Democratic incumbent Congressman Ron Klein might well be the most fascinating race of the election. Right now, it looks like West is slightly ahead, and Klein is desperate to keep his seat. So desperate, in fact, that he recently came out with the following over the top campaign ad.
The basis for this is that West at one time wrote articles for a biker oriented magazine called Wheels On The Road, which Klein says is affiliated with the Outlaws motorcycle gang, a criminal organization.
It is actually a one man operation, run by a man called Miami Mike, who has threatened to kick Klein's ass, wherefore Klein has filed a criminal complaint against him. Personally, I hope Miami Mike eventually makes good on his threat, but hey, that's just me.
The real importance of this race is that it could signal the beginning of the end of the Democratic Party's stranglehold on black voters, which is facilitated by their seeming domination of qualified black candidates and office-holders at the national level. Of course, the true qualification is that they meet the seal of approval of such groups as the NAACP, National Action Network, and Operation Rainbow Push. Because West does not run in those circles, and because he is a conservative as well as a Republican, you can cue the Uncle Tom accusations in 3, 2, 1-
But for now let's just content ourselves with smearing this decorated retired Marine Corps Colonel by tying him in with one of the most vicious criminal gangs in the history of the country, based on not even flimsy evidence, but on actually nothing but the most ephemeral of associations.
Now if West wins, which I think it will, that would be Justice. This is especially true in that he might be one of many up-and-coming Republican black conservatives in the US Congress. Yes, they are running all over the place this year, including against Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's in Maryland. I have already posted as to how Hoyer got so angry at his opponent during a debate, he met him offstage and punched him in the back, telling him "I'm coming after you".
There is another black candidate in Illinois, a female, whom Democrats have tried repeatedly to exclude from the ballot.
Although that last one did make at least one national news broadcast, the vast majority of the other conservative Republican candidates have been ignored by the media, as though they didn't exist. After all, that would be going against the narrative of the Democratic Party as the party that supposedly protects the rights of minorities.
If this year is as big a Republican year as most now seem to think it will be, you might have a phenomenon similar to 1992's "Year of the Woman". 2010 could well turn out to be "The Year Of The Black Conservative Republican".
If the Congressional Black Caucus ended up being dominated by conservatives, or eclipsed in power and influence by "The Congressional Conservative Black Caucus", that could only be good, for blacks and for the country as a whole. But it shouldn't be that much of a surprise. After all, it won't be the first time Republicans have freed black folks from Democrat slavery.
