Update to a story from last month: Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory has produced a video to his constituents, explaining why he switched parties from Democrat to Republican. Â This made him the first black Republican state senator in Louisiana since Reconstruction.
To reiterate my earlier reservations, I’m not a big fan of party switchers. Â Party affiliation is a big deal, something voters take into account when casting their ballots. Â Switching parties in the middle of a term has never seemed entirely fair to me.
Having said that, I thought Guillory’s speech at the time of his party switch was excellent, and this video is even better. Â The gentleman from Louisiana is playing my tune when he says, “At the heart of liberalism is the idea that only a great and powerful Big Government can be the benefactor of social justice for all Americans. Â But the Left is concerned with one thing: control. Â And they disguise this control as charity.”
“The idea that blacks – or anyone else, for that matter – need the government to get ahead in life is despicable,” says Guillory. Â “And even more important, this idea is a failure. Â Our communities are just as poor as they have always been. Â Our schools continue to fail our children. Â Our prisons are filled with young black men who should be at home, being fathers. Â Our self-initiative, and our self-reliance, have been sacrificed, in exchange for allegiance to our overseers.”