Democrat and liberal policies have hurt the black community

Rebuttal: 1.voting and the civil rights act of 1964 On the topic of Civil Rights, Republican President Dwight D Eisenhower championed the civil rights act of 1957, essentially proclaiming the same legislation as 1964. In 1957, however, the bill was filibustered by Southern Democrats in the senate, led by Lyndon B Johnson (1). Later, in 1964 under Lyndon B Johnson, the civil rights act would be made into law. What is perhaps more noteworthy is what Johnson had to say about it. "I"ll have those N*ggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years (2)" Using the example of the Civil Rights act of 1964 as an example of democrats or liberal politicians helping African Americans is absurd. Democrats filibustered it in 1957, only to enact it 7 years later and claim it as a Democrat victory. This is an example of good politics, not an example of Democrat"s benevolence. 2.Minimum wage and government services Rebutting Cons statement is almost as easy as repeating what (s)he said. "Many African Americans rely on the US federal government in order to meet the basic needs of their survival: food, shelter, and utilities like water." Thank you for proving my point, Con, this is exactly what I am talking about. In the United States, vast disparities of income, education, health, and others have left the blacks on the bottom of the socio-economic scale. A sign of real progress would be self-reliant African-Americans who are helping to build America and making it a stronger, wealthier nation, rather than finding themselves unemployed and/or living off the government payroll. Secondly, the use of the minimum wage example seems to have been blown out of proportion by my opposition. A minimum wage essentially only hurts young Americans who are trying to find entry-level work. In no way shape or form does this correlate to the stereotype that Con gives of African Americans living off of minimum wage jobs. Only 3% of workers above the age of 25 earn the minimum wage3. Since con admits that increasing the minimum wage would cost anywhere from 20,000-500,000 jobs, why would democrats want to do this to help "support African-American Families" as (s)he put it, when less than 3% middle to old age workers actually earn this wage? Instead, these jobs are stolen from young Americans, which give them more time on the street, give them less job opportunities, and robs them of job experience. Once again the use of statistics shows the futility of the minimum wage. Thirdly, con says: "Liberal policies are trying to help African Americans since we are trying to offer resources to them like food stamps, health care, a higher minimum wage, and a whole host of other services." This is a ridiculous notion of "help". A sign of these policies working would be poor African-Americans making use of these services, and then moving off them as they got educated, found work, and became productive members of society. Under the liberal policies of Barack Obama and even Bush, we have seen the exact OPPOSITE trend. Since 2001, the amount of people on food stamps has gone from 17 million to 44 million (4). And the cost of food stamps was 15 billion in 2001. In 2011 it was 72 billion. Liberals, loose with taxpayer money as always, have been pouring money into this program, in the face of no results. Despite how hard con is trying food stamps sound like it is helping poor Americans, instead this actually creates the situation where you have 43 million people who start to rely on the government for these handouts. The path to African-American prosperity is not more expensive welfare measures. Another approach, such as Reagan"s economic policy "Reaganomics", actually produces results. In 1982 when Reagan"s tax cuts started to take effect, black unemployment was cut from a high of 19.5%, all the way down to 11.4%. Black-owned business" income rose by an annualized 7.9% (6), and the black middle-class expanded by a third. Compare that with Obama, and his liberal policies. From 2009 to 2011 black unemployment rose by 1/4 to 16% (6). Under Reagan, the African-American community had more work, their incomes were rising, and they were closing the income gap to whites. THAT is real progress. 43 million people on food stamps, billions of dollars spent on expensive welfare measures that creates dependence and a rising African-American unemployment rate is not progress. Furthermore perhaps one of the greatest disadvantages that African-Americans face in American is the pathetic education they receive in government schools. Republican policy-makers in an attempt to fix this issue, has tried to get legislation for school-choice. Essentially this is giving vouchers to parents so they can choose a better school for their children. Personally, I tried a public school, and the academic standards were pathetic. My parents saved the money to put me through private high school, where I learned more, was put in a competitive educational environment, and I stayed away from drugs, crime, etc. Giving vouchers to poor parents gives them the same advantage my family had, so that their kids might get a better education. This model has been tried, to great effect, in Europe. Despite this, liberal politicians backed by public teaching unions are the biggest obstacle to reform. 3.Affirmative action Con admitted that my argument on affirmative action was solid, and was open to reform it. Once again, this shows the fallibility of liberal logic (or lack thereof). When affirmative action, minimum wage, government housing, food stamps etc. don"t work, they offer reforms and tweaks. But what they never offer is a change in direction. How many black college students who are set up to fail by affirmative action have to drop out of college before we scrap affirmative action? How many families need become dependent on government handouts before we realize they need a helping hand up, and not a hand out? How many young black children need to be failed by the public school system before liberals are open to reform? These are but some questions liberals often struggle to answer. Conclusion: When you claim "The reason why they vote Democrat is to ensure that their needs are met and that they can survive." (They being African-American), I think we have struck the root of the problem. Democrats benefit off a group of people dependent on the government handouts. Democrats have not won the white vote in a presidential race in decades (5). Having a minority that will always vote for the party that will "insure their needs are met" is exactly why democrats are so uninterested in reform (such as school choice) that will actually help African-Americans escape poverty and become independent. In a perfect society, all African Americans would have great educations, have good-paying jobs, and be productive members of our society. However if this were the case, they would have a whole lot less of a reason to vote Democrat, which is why I believe that Democrat policies are not geared towards creating this environment for blacks, but rather one of governmental re distributive justice. I hope my arguments have been enough thus far to sway undecided readers to realize the left-wing and liberal policies don"t promote the progression of African-Americans. Bibliography: 1.Hickey, Walter. "The Longest Filibuster In History Lasted More Than A Day " Here's How It Went Down." Business Insider (2013): n. pag. Web. 23 Jan. 2015. 2.Kessler, Ronald. Inside the White House: The Hidden Lives of the Modern Presidents and the Secrets of the World's Most Powerful Institution. New York, NY: Pocket, 1995. Print. 3.http://www.bls.gov... 4.http://cnsnews.com... 5.http://www.washingtonpost.com... 6.http://www.foxnews.com...