Really, Mr. Powell?

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

Like I give a crap what Colin Powell thinks.

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.

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.

I have read the Powell piece several times and like others in this thread disagree with most everything he says. This so-called "dark vein" that he refers to is at best vague, but I think I get what he is implying, and I just don't see it. Either in the Republican party or in the American people as a whole. For once I think I can say without sarcasm that "there is no there, there". My agreement with his comments starts and ends with "we have come a long way...", and my disagreement starts with: "...but we have a long way to go."

I don't see that at all. What happened in Selma 50 years ago was horrible, truly racist and un-American. But to state that racism like that still exists in today's America is absurd. Unfortunately, Mr Powell seems to have bought into the current political tactic of seeing racism, or better "using" racism to dismiss out-of-hand any criticism of
Liberalism. Welcome to the Democrat party, Colin.

To say that there are no racists in a country of 300+ million is of course ridiculous also. But on a scale seen in Selma 50 years ago? Absolutely not. And I would venture to say that in that vast population there are as many Black racists, Muslim terrorists and other extremists.

And then I would question precisely what he means by "we still have a long way to go", meanwhile pointing out that we currently have a Black President and Attorney General.

I'm quite afraid that in addition to seeing a "dark vein" that isn't there, he is NOT seeing the destruction caused by Liberal/Democrat policies in destroying great cities like my hometown of Detroit, and millions of black families in the process. If by "a long way to go" he is suggesting more affirmative action, welfare and urban removal, sorry, renewal, then I would have to say, at the risk of being called racist, forget the dark vein, he has truly gone to the "Dark Side".

I would like to speak for the unsophisticated, redneck masses that are sick and tired of the sham that our republic has become. The founders were very fearful of what would happen due to factions and we have realized their worst fears. We have Democrats vs Republicans, labor vs. capital, whites vs. blacks, whites vs Hispanics, blacks vs Hispanics, liberals vs conservatives, libertarians vs government and progressives against the private sector. I haven't even mentioned Wall Street vs Main Street, cops against citizens and a half a dozen more that I could think of but I have already become boring.

We unsophisticated rednecks would just like to be left alone and to enjoy a break from hating anyone.

I cannot think of a single social issue that intervention by government has caused a net improvement. Most of all, when I think about the Civil War I get pretty angry. I think that 500,000 slaughtered American young men was totally unnecessary and that the reconstruction caused more harm than a few more decades of an economically unsustainable institution of slavery. Too little was done to settle the differences between the southern and northern states and even if they split time would have brought them back into the fold. Just as bad as the lives lost was the dumping of a couple million uneducated, unskilled people totally unprepared for freedom onto the streets with no plan of how to integrate them into society. Their families had been broken up. Their men and women were kept apart and taught not to form tight family units. It was illegal for them to learn to read and write and their experience in adjusting to free America was worse than a new immigrant from Africa would have been.

If the southern planters had been left to dismantle the inefficient slave system it would have been to their advantage to have done a better job of training and integrating their workforce. The north was willing to "give" them stuff for political consideration but not willing to be involved enough to implement any real program to aid their absorption. The southern whites, having been beaten and impoverished by the war resented the give away programs, forced integration and all is not forgiven even 150 years later by either side.

I see this as bad government starting with the founders who knew better but were not able to perform up to their own standards of "ALL men are created equal". There is always a price to pay for a desired outcome and any shortcut only exacts a greater toll when it comes due.

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.

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.

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

He's just another CFR mouthpiece. Pay no attention...move along...

Colin Powell's true colors came through with his endorsement in 2008 of Obama. My respect for him has diminished ever since. Thankfully he did not run for president. How he can support a Marxist like Obama and rip the GOP is beyond me.

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.

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.

The political parties have only minor policy differences and sometimes even swap positions. The sales job, though, is completely different. GOP markets to unsophisticated bigots, and Democrats market to unsophisticated people who believe the gov't can do something about a laundry list of little problems that are outside the influence of gov't. They're focused on the unsophisticated b/c everyone else has checked out or just lobbies gov't w/o regard to the nonsense.

I don't know if there's a dark vein among GOP party leaders. I never perceived that. There's more than just one dark vein of intolerance among their voters. GOP counts on the intolerant redneck vote just as Democrats count on voters who think gov't can do something to create middle class jobs or make basic expenses more affordable.