Allen West: Media Never Rushes To The Defense Of Conservatives
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Former Colonel and Congressman and current President and CEO of the National Council for Policy Analysis, Allen West, addressed comments made by Rupert Murdoch, the Chairman of News Corporation, in which he said that Ben Carson would be a 'real black President,' in comparison to Barack Obama.
West, speaking with Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT and reacting to criticism directed at Murdoch, said the media never rushes to defend Republicans and conservatives when they are the victims of derogatory slurs.
"Carly Fiorina has been chastised because she does not agree with the Planned Parenthood line. You see people like Ben Carson and also Clarence Thomas being attacked because they're not following the normal liberal, progressive line in the black community. You have a University of Pennsylvania professor, right there, who called Ben Carson a coon and you don't hear any screaming coming from the left."
He stated Carson's candidacy could give Republicans a chance to begin a dialogue with African American communities that has been closed off for a long time.
"You saw Ben Carson going into Harlem. I can go back to my neighborhood in Atlanta and address the issues of how we have gone in the last 50 years from the Great Society and world poverty programs, where we had 77 percent two parent households in the black community, now we're at 25 percent. I had a mother and father in my home. Ben Carson only had a mother. We can talk about the things that we learned from that. We can talk about better education opportunities...It's those experiences that we can bring to the table. We can go into communities like Ferguson, we can go into Baltimore, and we can say there's a better way and I'm the example that you don't have to follow along this line."
West used himself as an example of the difference someone can make in returning home to a struggling environment.
"When I get the opportunity to go back and speak some of these high school junior ROTC students, because that's what made the difference in my life in 1976, they have to see those role models. It's just the same as athletes going back and giving back to their communities. I think you can make a difference and I'm not willing to surrender because I know what happens if we do."
