In November 2004, the American voters made their choice as to who will lead our nation for the next four years.

A post-election analysis showed that 11 percent of African-Americans and 45 percent of Hispanic voters decided they will no longer be taken for granted by the national Democratic Party and voted for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. This is a significant sign that no longer can the Democratic Party depend on the two major minority groups to blindly follow its philosophy.



For far too long minority groups have given their allegiance to the Democratic Party with little results to show how their loyalty has improved their quality of life. Now, more have seen the light, have made the wise decision not be taken for granted and have switched to the Republican Party – the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight David Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and other great American presidents.

While growing up as a lad and onward through middle adulthood, I was totally committed to the philosophy of the Democratic Party. It was ingrained in my mind while growing up that the poor had only two friends they could depend on – “God and the Democratic Party.” How foolish and wrong I was.

I hate to admit it, but I even voted for Jimmy Carter, whose indecisive and weak leadership were responsible for American hostages being held in Iran while they set up an Islamic state sowing the seeds of the evil fruit we are now bearing. Remember the long gas lines, double-digit interest rates and inflation? Carter’s pessimistic attitude and gloomy rhetoric are still helping to fuel an anti-American self-loathing amongst left-wing ideologues.

When Ronald Reagan became president, Americans began the long road back feeling confident and good about ourselves again. Our national honor was restored and our resolve strengthened. The Berlin Wall came down and communism did go into the “dust heap” of history just as he predicted. I began to see the light and came to realize how naive I was, giving total allegiance to the leftist Democrats who used and continue to use the same shopworn tactics of fear and promises of more and more social, welfare, educational and health “benefits” to gain, hold and increase their power.

I have seen newsreel footage of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat when he took office during the height of the Great Depression, challenging us in his first inauguration speech to pull together by saying, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Now the party of hope has become the party of fear. It now appears that it is promoting a philosophy of fear of just about everything including: scaring senior citizens about losing their Social Security and Medicare benefits; how terrible our economy is doing; how our rights are being taken away by the Patriot Act; how our president has lied to us; how badly our military is doing; and on and on with gloom-and-doom messages that paint vivid pictures of retreat and defeatism.

To those of you who will vote for a Democrat no matter what, there is no greater insult to your sense of dignity and self-worth than to be taken for granted. The Democratic Party thinks it owns minority voters as well as other lifelong Democrats and fully expects they will follow the party no matter what vitriol its leaders spew.

But ask yourselves this: Has your life really been improved by ignoring the facts and naively being loyal to one political party?

May I encourage you not be taken for granted? Instead, I urge you to free yourself of voting for the national Democratic Party regardless of its left-wing policies and join your many friends and families who have dared to make the change. I urge you to earnestly and thoughtfully consider voting for national and local Republican candidates in future campaigns.

Open your hearts and eyes and join your brothers and sisters of all races, gender and ethnic groups who were once politically blind but now see.

E. Harold Keyes of a Meridian is a professor emeritus at Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus. His e-mail address is ehklbm@comcast.net.