I think Powell and his family got tired of being labeled "Uncle Tom" and now forever trying to appease their race regardless of reason or reality.

I have very little confidence in the American people, particularly those in the major cities and along the coasts...that said, not everyone, but far too many to be comfortable or confident.

I remember watching an interview with Powell when he announced his endorsement of Obama. I wish a body language expert would critique it. He cleared his throat constantly, his voice lowered at strange times and he seemed very uncomfortable. I wondered if he really supported him. He needs a dose of Objectivism---A=A.

What troubles me most is that Powell casts a blind eye to the reasons that the so-called dark vein exists. Take Ferguson which Powell uses as an exemplar of the prejudice which is rampant. Knowing the progress made already, why has this little suburb gotten such a bad record? Perhaps it's because the highest percentage of crime is among blacks. Perhaps the gangs in the area are primarily composed of blacks. Perhaps the amount of domestic disturbance calls, drunkenness, assaults, and rapes are from the black community. The cops are not social workers. It is not their job to help with the ills of the community, but to protect the citizens from those ills. When one has experienced enough of the above, one learns to be cautious among blacks and express that caution in both action and speech. Powell knows all that, but if he speaks to those problems he will become an outcast in the black community. Blacks who ignore the problems and who support the Sharptons and others are either self aggrandizing or delusional.

I once respected Powell until I read that he voted for Obobo about 6 years ago.
It's a no brainer to vote for skin color.

Maybe, just maybe, the intense exercise in communism we have endured the last few years, coupled with the fact we, as a Nation loaned the power the GOP said they needed to fix it - only to be flipped off by them without comment when the time came to act, will be the impetus for independent citizen candidates to get a reasonable shot.

to begin with powell became a turn coat after he left bush. and he further demonstrated that he is in my opinion a racist. he did vote for 0. and he is further showing this attitude with his remarks. he is a tragic man.

What I love is that the hurdles they put up are of their own making. How many real race issues actually happen around the nation? How many are made up and propagated by those like Sharpton and Jesse Jackson just to get money?

If you want to find intolerance, you only have to look at the mirror, Mr. Powell.

This is very confusing. I have to believe that Mr. Powell is very intelligent otherwise he would not have risen to the power he enjoyed. So the confusing part is him not seeing that it has been the Liberal Progressives/Democrats that have, throughout history, worked to keep the black community on the plantation & not the Conservatives/Republicans.

Yeah. My first thought is, "Why be part of an organization if you think it's that evil?" It's like being a Catholic and being concerned about child abuse...

No people with character are allowed by party leadership to run for national office unless that character can be subverted by the party leadership. That is why supposedly good people never have an effect in the Dark Center, and never will as members of the DemRep party.
Every vote for any candidate in the DemRep party is a wasted vote. I agree AJA that multiple independent parties are needed to replace the existing parties. Competition and experimentation is the best way to more effective results.
The only small chance to break free by voting is to vote against all DemRep candidates, and to act in your personal financial decisions to economically damage the DemRep party and their corporate sponsors, while making it clear to those sponsors that their survival depends upon the individual liberty of their customers.

Powell is a good example of the methods used by the DemRep party, always selecting those that they can control for positions of influence. A few, naive like Powell, continue to think they can change things for the better while being a puppet in reality. Powell's criticism is political, and does not strike at the real issues. Powell may be a perfect example of the loyalty that is perverted by the DemRep party to destroy the ability of the people to limit the power of their government.

Indeed the leadership of the DemRep party is responsible for the constant march to dictatorship of the past 50 years.

Powell should just go join the Dems and be done with it.

"How do we break free of bipartisan consensus of gov't costing more and intruding more in our lives?"

Elect people with character and conviction from within the two parties in such numbers that they loosen the strangle hold the R's and D's placed on the system to forum new viable parties that can participate. This country needs at least 7 political parties.

Similarly, I'm neither unsophisticated nor think gov't can do anything positive about a laundry list of middle class inconveniences; yet I've almost never supported a Republican. Neither one reduces gov't, so I go with the one whose candidates are most like me and actually have a chance of winning. So their little game works on me somewhat. How do we break free of bipartisan consensus of gov't costing more and intruding more in our lives?.

I can agree with much of that you are saying as long as us is Americans and them is everyone else. Unfortunately, many Americans are among them when it comes to the best interest of self and country.

It seems to me that when you seperate the wheat from the chaff there isn't a hairsbreadth of difference between the parties. Left or right, Republican Or Democrat, Conservative, NeoCon or Liberal...they're all the same. The incredible fact is at we the people are so well conditioned that 537 of these Washington pogues control over 300 million of us, forcing things down our throats that NONE of us really want. And as long as we're fighting amongst ourselves, we'll never realize that we're engaged in the wrong activity; it's not Republicans vs Democrats. The real contest should be us vs them.

Spot on. +1

Eudaimonia: Most unfortunate but true.

AJ: AMEN!!!

Agreed.

Amusing, I am neither unsophisticated or intolerant, it will be a cold day in hell when I vote demOcrat and it takes quite a bit for me to vote with any degree of confidence for any republican. Yes, I vote mainly republican because there is no alternative thats even remotely American coming from the D's.

Really, Mr. Powell?

Well, I see a dark vein of Marxism in the DNC and a yellow vein of Cowardice in the GOP leadership.

CG, I live dead center in "intolerant redneck" country, and you are so wrong. You have swallowed the bullshit put out by the MSM and hardcore liberals. Shame on you!