The new Republican representative from South Carolina was the focus of many Congressional watchers after this year's midterm elections in regards as to whether we would be joining the Congressional Black Caucus. His membership would have made him the first Republican in the group since Rep. Gary Franks was defeated in 1996.
While new Florida congressman Allen West who has accepted the invitation to join, Scott has chosen, quite publicly, to decline the invitation extended from the CBC. West promised to "shake up" the group -- whatever that's supposed to mean.
However, Scott, who will represent South Carolina's 1st District, says he won't be joining because "the future is more important than the past."
He says the black community will benefit basically when capitalism fixes everything for everybody and there's no need to look at black folk as special.
"...reducing the tax burden, decreasing government interference in the private sector, and restoring fiscal responsibility, and I don't think those ideals are advanced by focusing on one group of people."
For Scott, apparently, history means nothing, disparities in education, housing, health, crime, economics in the black community are not significant enough to tackle for a politician whose campaign was "never about race." Apparently, in his district, there are no black people, so he really won't have to worry about them.
Indeed, the area votes largely conservative and is almost 75 percent white with only a 21 percent black population, 2.5 percent Latino, and 1.3 percent Asian populations. So maybe what he's scared of is riling up his major voting constituents -- who likely couldn't care less about issues in the black community -- by joining a legislative caucus whose primary focus is the black community.
For him it seems to be a smart political move. He gets into Congress, he serves his tourist trap constituents (the largest voting city in his district is Myrtle Beach, most of Charleston's residents were gerrymandered into the 6th district long ago), and he doesn't have to worry about the needs of Colored folks. For him it's win-win.
But in a way, it is a loss for the CBC. Through most of its history, the Congressional Black Caucus has been a democratic body. Republican legislators have continually declined to join, ignoring why the group exists in the first place, preferring not to "see race."
But they do the black community a disservice when they do not present political alternatives to African-American voters. Most blacks in America live in districts where they are represented by Democrats, so it is almost guaranteed that blacks will vote that way and the result is the Dems taking the black vote for granted.
That wouldn't happen if black folk felt there were Republicans who had their best interest at heart. But so far, the GOP prefers to ignore race completely. Secondly, to be honest, the conservative principle of "too much government" could work well for black people because there really is "too much government" in the 'hood.
Seriously, man. Walk up in any housing project or in any poor area in your city. You will find a large population of people whose lives are adjoined and affixed in some way by some government agency, be it welfare, the court system, Medicaid, the police or some other entity. The more you see of that, the less you see functioning legitimate black-owned businesses, educational achievement, good health, low crime rates, etc.
I'm not saying we don't need government agencies, but far too many of our lives are joined to them. If there were more black politicians who threw a different way of thinking into the mix, that would benefit us all. The failure of Democrats is that they by and large haven't called for such a thing as a potential solution.
Now, I disagree with Republicans on most things these days because they are almost myopically focused on their hatred for President Barack Obama.The one GOPer who wasn't, Joseph Cao in New Orleans, got left for the vultures by his own party. But if there were black Republicans challenging and discussing pertinent issues with black Democrats and coming up with solutions, it would be a much better political landscape for black folk in America.
So should Tim Scott join the CBC? I mean, he's seemingly wiped his nose with the invitation letter, so it's not likely he'd be welcome now. But the idea of having a diversity of ideals in the group would make it worth the price of admission.