Posted by
Bruce Bartlett on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 10:50:04 AM
I originally set up this blog to respond to the many critics of my syndicated column, which appeared at Townhall. I have since decided to give up the column--not because of my critics, but because I have decided to concentrate my writing efforts on book projects.
For those who may be interested, my next book is titled, Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past. It's scheduled for January, 2008 by Palgrave Macmillan and is available for preorder at Amazon.com. It basically argues that, historically speaking, the Democratic Party has been the party of racism in this country throughout most of its existence. I am hopeful that the book will open the door ro Republicans in the black community. For their own good, I think African American voters need to be courted by both parties. As it is, they are essentially ignored by both--the Democrats take them for granted, while Republicans have given up hope and don't even try to get black votes any more.
Furthermore, I believe that the growing problem of immigration may be a wedge issue for Republicans because blacks share their concerns about it. I think it is revealing that Congressman Tom Tancredo--a one-issue, anti-immigration candidate--was the only Republican who showed up to speak to the NAACP convention on July 12. Moreover, he appears to have gotten a good bit of applause for his comments. I discuss the similarity between black views of immigrants and those of Republicans in my book.
In case anyone is curious, I am now working on another book about economic policy. My hope is to get it out shortly after the election next year when people tend to be receptive to new ideas.
As a consequence of my shift toward books and away from column-writing, I will probably not be posting on this blog any more. One of these days I will set up a real web site, but right now I just need to get the next book finished.