As the failures of our current president and the Democratic Party continues to pile up every day, rather than admit that their chosen party’s policies are ineffective , black American’s favorite counter is Why should we vote for Republicans?  This retort is absurd simply because it implies that individuals must decide as a group which political party to support.

The Democratic Party has successfully taught individuals that they should see themselves as part of a group.  Once an individual identifies with a group, it is easier to establish the victim status if that group has historically experienced some form of discrimination.  It is more difficult for an individual to claim personal discrimination, because it requires one to point to specific occurrences.

I have grown weary of hearing black Americans concede that the Democratic Party has not delivered on its promises (whatever those promises are) and yet claim that the Republican Party has not given any reason to vote for it, either.  Because of this reoccurring claim from my fellow black Americans, I will provide reasons why not only black Americans, but also all Americans should vote Republican.

Education

Everyone knows that the first step in ensuring one's chance at leading a successful life is that one must obtain some form of education.  Everyone also knows that the first step for a dictator (or government) that wants to control its people is to deny individuals a good education.

The Republican Party’s platform includes school choice.  By providing poor families school vouchers, parents have the option to send their children to better-performing schools.  The Democratic Party opposes the school voucher program.  The school voucher program puts parents in charge of their children’s education instead of the government.  The Democratic Party is in bed with the teachers’ unions, whose main goal is to ensure that their members get tenure regardless of overall effectiveness in the classroom.  Poor black children’s education has been stunted by an ineffective public school system that employs a high number of incompetent teachers.

Once poor minority kids have had an opportunity to graduate from a good performing school, they can decide on the kind of secondary education of their own choosing.  The Federal Pell Grant Program awards grants to the neediest of families.  In the 2012-2013 award year, $36 billion in Pell Grants helped almost 10 million undergraduate students attend college.  Pell Grant funding can cover tuition, fees, housing and food expenses, books and supplies, transportation, and childcare.

Focus on Job Creation

Republicans’ stance on job creation is economic growth.  According to the Small Businesses Administration’s report in 2012, small businesses make up 99.7 percent of U.S. employer firms and 64 percent of net new private-sector jobs.  The Republican Party’s platform includes lowering tax rates on small businesses to free up resources to hire more people.  Economic growth occurs when more citizens are employed rather than unemployed.  The Democrats’ claim that Republicans want to take food out of the mouths of poor people by cutting food stamps is a scare tactic.  The Republican Party believes that individuals would rather have jobs instead of food stamps, dignity instead of government handouts.  This can happen only if individuals (regardless of the color of their skin) are equipped with the tools (education and jobs) to better themselves.   

Protection of Individual Rights

Hardly a day goes by without some Democrat or liberal media personality talking about gun control.  The Republican Party supports and respects the citizen’s constitutional individual rights, from free speech to the right to bear arms (First and Second Amendments).  The Republican Party also respects the individual’s right to keep more of his or her income rather than have it taken by the government in the form of higher taxes.

Charges of Republican racism are the tool that Democrats use to keep black Americans in the Democratic Party.  Democrats have even rewritten their party’s history on slavery, Jim Crow, civil rights, and the Ku Klux Klan by claiming that the parties have since switched (that the former racist Democrats are now Republicans).  These charges of racism are used to distract poor black Americans from focusing on the fact that their (black Americans') kids are stuck in failing schools, that their unemployment rate is higher than any other group, and that their neighborhoods are a war zone.

It is amazing that black Americans demand that the Republican Party provide a reason why they (black Americans) should vote them (Republican), whereas the Democrats are not even held accountable by black Americans for years of failing policies.  The Democrats can get away with promising to make sure that black Americans continue to receive food stamps and welfare and nothing else.  My question to my fellow black Americans is this: why do you continue voting for Democrats?  What have they done for you?  What is your return on years of investments?

Christian Commentary (http://patriciascornerblog.com), or contact the author at dicksonpat@sky.com.