Nonpartisan Conservatism

According to Democratic politicians from Joe “vote for me our you ain’t black” Biden to Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass) saying “Democrats don’t need any more black faces that don’t want to be a black voice,” if you’re Black, you’re expected to be a liberal Democrat.

Ward Connerly, the man who led the campaign to end affirmative action in California’s universities back in 1996, and came out of retirement in 2020 to defend an attempt to reinstate affirmative action, is not a liberal Democrat. But that isn’t the only stereotype he’s breaking.

Connerly recently posted a series of tweets that asserted his willingness to vote for a Democrat, even though he identifies as a conservative. His tweets, and the argument they put forward, are not going to trend, because they send a message dangerous to liberal Democrats – it’s not your ideology or your party that we object to. It’s your countless policy failures that are too obvious for anyone to ignore. If you would fix them, we might vote for you.

His series of tweets merits posting in their entirety:

1/ At the outset, I was prepared to reject the Recall if Governor Newsom gave a credible defense of the policies that bother so many of us. Instead, he simply fell back on his disingenuous theme of “Republican Recall,” appealed to partisanship and race, and tried to dismiss the

2/ Recall by bullying those who are worried about the current course of our country and our state. True leaders don’t operate that way. I knew Governor Deukmejian personally and Governor Pete Wilson is a very close personal friend. I know that they regarded every citizen as

3/ a person of value and to be respected. Sure, they were also partisans, but once elected, they sought to suppress their partisan instincts. The inherent flaw of one-party rule in a democracy is that it eventually results in lack of accountability, arrogance and contempt for

4/ those who reject blind party loyalty or who are not of your party. This Governor did not learn that lesson as the mayor of SF or the second in command to Governor Brown. Let’s vote!”

The life work of Ward Connerly has been to fight racism by demanding equal treatment. In an irony that certainly was not easy, how Connerly fought for equal rights was rejected by liberal Democrats. And yet he demonstrates his willingness to put partisanship aside, if the ruling Democrats in California were willing to acknowledge their policy failures and come up with new ideas. Instead they engage in the same pandering that motivated their countless attempts to undercut California’s ban on affirmative action.

Equal rights. Equal treatment. That is the only genuine way to show respect for all people. Ward Connerly gets it. And there is nothing partisan about it.

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