Speaker 1: Fifteen eighty. We always ultra blacker out here. Yes, indeed,
who said the East Coast and the West Coast can't
work together? Ultra black?
Speaker 2: That's ultra black right there.
Speaker 1: Okay, So speaking of black, one of the things I
would like to focus on this hour is what I
call the mystery of the Black Republican, the mystery of
the black Maga. And we have an African American Republican
joining us this hour who is He doesn't consider himself MAGA,
but yet he doesn't abandon his party. It's a conversation
we've had many, many times, not just with him, but
with other African Americans who continue to stay in the
party even though we are firmly and undeniably in the
Maga era. He's a senior Fellow with a Commonwealth Foundation.
A Pittsburgh native, he's been an op ed writer, of
political analyst, and a media staple on outlets from Radio
New Zealand and Serious ex Am to CNN, MSNBC and
Fox News. Lenny McAllister has a brand new book venn
Diagram of One Lenny McAllister.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Dominique.
Speaker 3: It's always good to talk to you, ma'am.
Speaker 1: How you doing today, I'm blessed and highly favored.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 3: I am the same, and thank you for having me
once again.
Speaker 1: Indeed, indeed, so congrats on your book.
Speaker 2: I know that thanks you more than a notion.
Speaker 1: Getting a book published, getting a book written is a lot.
Speaker 3: It is, and it's also what you write. You Know.
What I've learned throughout the process now is there are
plenty of people that write books and have nothing really
to say what I wanted. I mean, you and I
both know this, right.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed it comes with being on the radio.
Speaker 3: There you go. But what I really wanted to do
was highlight some of the things that we can do
to turn things around. I mean, to make sense even
for people that would read event diagram of one, to
be able to look and say, oh, this is why
this guy won't leave the Republican Party, even the party,
even though the party is acting in a particular way.
He is true to his principles. He was like he's
in a fight for the next twenty years, not necessarily
trying to be popular over the course of the next
twenty minutes. And the book is the very first time
in my life where I've had longer than an hour
segment on the radio, or my radio show in Pittsburgh,
or little segments on CNN and the like where I've
been able to explain my story, my principles, why I
take stances where I do, and how people gravitate to
those stances, even within the Republican Party, because as we
well know, there are more and more people jumping off
the MACA ship and they're going to be looking for
a place to go again that is full of principled
ideas and has principled leadership. I'm trying to provide that
where I can.
Speaker 2: Well, you said a lot right there.
Speaker 1: What is since we're on origin stories, we were on
hip hop origin stories earlier in the show today, what's
your Republican origin story? What landed you there? In the
g OP, the Grand Ole.
Speaker 3: Party, the principals were always there as a Western Pennsylvania Democrat,
conservative Democrat. In fact, my dad, who was a lifelong
Democrat growing up in Pittsburgh, he switched his registration to
Republican this year. Now, did he do it because he's
a Donald Trump? Sam? No, don't even say Donald Trump
around my dad and without him giving you a look
and wondering if you have something wrong with you. Mentally.
Why he changed to the party is because one, he said, look,
we've always had these principles. Number two, we need other
people representing the Republican Party that are not on the
fringe and doing some of the things that have been
detrimental to this country. And he wants to see a
change back to what he saw. He was a big
Frederick this person, he got us on the Frederick Douglass
when we were young. He wants to see it go
back to that vein. Now, did I expect an eighty
four year old to switch registrations. No, but my origin
story in switching because of those values lead to people
like that including believe it or not, my name, well,
I'm his namesake. My dad him doing that as well.
And I've heard plenty of stories like that from people
that had been in a Tea Party movement to conservative
moderate Republicans saying we need somebody that really understands principles,
not just going along for the MAGA train.
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, when I hear that story, I
hear you know a lot of things. One of them
is Lenny McAllister convinced his dad to switch over to
the republicas Oh, I did not.
Speaker 2: He did.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing, Dominique, this is the guy you got
to understand. Twenty years earlier, this guy walked two and
a half miles in the rain to vote for Barack
Obama because this car wouldn't start. This guy was not
thinking about switching parties, and I hadn't even tried to
even convince him this week party. That was not something
I thought I should even do. In fact, much of
the work that I do is not to tell people
to switch parties or vote Carte Blodge for the Republican Party.
My goal was to show principles, be principled in my leadership,
and then show how to love people through leadership. Doctor
Cornell West was here in Pittsburgh just last week, and
he and I always have a good time when we
interact with each other. And one of the things he's
always said is you've got to love the people you
want to lead, and that always stuck with me ever
since I met him. Had stated a Black Union actually
out in Los Angeles in two thousand and nine. I've
tried to take that ethos and let that be part
of my public life always. I think those examples, those
type of sentiments are the ones that might get somebody
to switch political parties. But I'm much more focused on
that than I am ever focused on Hey, can I
see your registration car?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And speaking of doctor West, he'll be on this radio
station next hour, so that there's something to look forward to.
Speaker 2: I get that.
Speaker 1: And when I hear black Republicans like yourself talking about
Frederick Douglas, Frederick Douglas, Frederick Douglass, of course, we all
love Frederick Douglass, the formerly enslaved person who rose to
be the highest levels of power and influence and intellectual
vigor in this country and globally, and Republican black Republicans
love to say he was a Republican. Yeah, but back
then Republicans were not the racist party. Today, the Republican
Party is the party of white supremacy. So it is
totally it's like saying, you know, well, yeah, I'm team
horse and buggy. Okay, are you gonna take your horse
and buggy on the freeway. That's not what we're doing now,
That's not what the Republican Party even is now. So
to me, that's like it's almost like intellectually dishonest. When
when black Republicans say Oh yeah, we're the Party of Douglas.
Were we're the Party of Douglas.
Speaker 3: I understand where you can come from with that, and
I do think, to be fair, a lot of black
Republicans put their arms around Lincoln and Douglas and say, see,
we're the party of this. When I bring up Frederick Douglass,
I bring up the spirit of pushing back, agitate, agitate, agitate,
and that means you push back against injustice, regardless of
where you see it. Folks. That will go by a
then diagram of one and you can get it audiobook, ebook,
or hardcover. They'll see me pushing back directly the Vice
President Mike Pence on stage eye to eye about the
coded language of law and order during twenty twenty. They'll
hear me push back in print with a statement against
Donald Trump in twenty sixteen when he was playing with
the idea of nationalizing stop and frisk. How I can't
decide a lot of different things as a Republican. To
try to remind people of what true Republican values are,
that's the true spirit of Frederick Douglas, agitating and being
in position where you can push back with a sense
of moral authority and history to get people on the
right track. If you're just claiming Douglas or Lincoln or
MLK used to be a Republican and then you don't
live that life, then you're a fraud. The one thing
I'm trying to do is not live my life publicly
and privately as that partisan political fraud. And I think
that A ven Diagram of one has enough stories for
my life to illustrate that I live the life that
I profess.
Speaker 1: Lenny McAllister is my guest, and we are on the
topic of black Republicans, most especially in my view in
the Maca Area era Black Republican MAGA era, make it
make sense. Lenny mckellister will try that's what he's doing,
and you're invited in if you'd like to comment or
have a question. At eight hundred and nine two oh
fifteen eighty I'm dominating Taprema for KBLA Talk fifteen. You're
waking up with me. But also Lenny McCallister is the
author of A Then Diagram of One, an American story.
It's a memoir. I suppose it's a memoir, and it's
very very relevant to the conversation today about how does
a black person, especially one who, as Lenny McAllister just mentioned,
lives his life by a set of principles.
Speaker 2: How do they.
Speaker 1: Remain in the Maga party of today even if you
don't vote for Donald Trump? Now, the Republican Party is
clearly the party of white supremacy.
Speaker 2: And it's not just hyperbole. I mean we're talking about.
Speaker 1: Partying the people who stormed the Capitol and tried to
overturn the election results, who threatened to lynch the vice president.
You know, it's not it's not subtle at this point,
and we're to talking about an administration who has admitted
not one single black refugee since taking office. The racism
in the party is not not subtle anymore. How does
that square with the principles that you live by, that
you know that you describe in a Venn diagram of one?
Speaker 3: Well, I will go with two things, and there's two
separate things. I'll talk about the book second, but I'll
answer your question first, Dominique, and again I appreciate being
on and everybody that's woman buy the book, ebook, audiobook, hardcover.
America is a history of second acts and we can
I can. I don't want to do it. What about
it isn't, but we can very easily ask why did
African Americans flood the Democrat Party to become elected officials
in the nineteen sixties, literally in the shadows of one
hundred years of Jim Crow and the Ku Kux Klan
running the Democrat Party in most sections of the country,
including Indiana in the Midwest as well as the South,
where a lot of our people have come from, included
a lot of Angelino's. The bottom line is we have
to play the long game. We have to stick to
our principles and make sure that both parties are meeting
our needs, and when they don't, there has to be
change agents that are inclined to stay where they are
and make sure that we bend history back towards justice.
That's just how that is. We've seen it happen before
on multiple occasions. We have to go through that era today.
That's part of what my role is in my career.
Now back to a then diagram of one, It's more
than just a political borglory a public policy book. In fact,
I would argue that it's more of a love story.
I mean, I talk a lot about what my parents
overcame as a couple that first met when they were
twelve years old, and how they had to overcome racism
in the fifties and the sixties to go from sea
students at an urban school to raising three college graduates.
I definitely think it's that black love story, talking about
the bond that my wife and I have as she
overcame domestic violence, as we both overcame being college dropouts,
for me to graduate from Davidson, for her to graduate
as an honor student with a biology degree of fifty three,
there's something to be said about living your principles that
say so much more than partisanship. And for those that
are looking for the political or partisan aspects of a
Van diagram of one, they will see critiques both of
the Republican Party but also the Democrat Party. Because the
book is about values and getting back to a certain
American way of life, regardless of our ethnic backgrounds. It's
a lot more about that and those type of stories
of hope than it is about partisanship and why somebody
should vote this way or that way.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, we can boil it down to partisanship,
but there's also a reality here, you know. So are
you saying that you think that black people or black
people of principle, let me qualify, that will flood back
into the Republican Party. Are you saying that that's something
that you would like to see, would like to see
us reversing that exodus from the Republican Party, in reversing
the balance within the party itself.
Speaker 3: No, what I'm talking about is I want black people,
and let's talk specifically about our folks, our people. I
want black people to fully enjoy security, empowerment, and opportunity
once again An America have that in a way where
they can enjoin those rights fully. Now, if that empowerment
means they stay democrats, I still love them as children
of God, and we still got to find a way
to work together, and we will. If that empowerment means
that they consider voting for one Republican candidate, five Republican candidates,
a bunch of Republican candidates, so be it on that
as well, we still have to work together and love
each other again. Diagram of One is not a book
to persuade people to become Republicans. It's nothing of a sort.
It is a book. It is a book that encourages
people to go find their values and their empowerment once again,
so that we can start healing our country and then
find the best ways to be able to make the
country better understood.
Speaker 1: The topic that I chose for today is the mystery
of the black Republican under the MAGA world. So I'm
not meaning to imply that that's what your book is about,
but certainly, you know, we want to let people know
about the book. And you keep referring back referencing these principles.
Speaker 2: And morals really that you have.
Speaker 1: And you said that your father reference when he was
explaining what made him come back and register as a
Republican in the middle of a Trump era. That's baffling
to me. What are those principles?
Speaker 3: Well, I think those principles number one or empowerment. And
let me clarify my dad's position. He was less saying
that he was leaving the Democrat Party because he thinks
they're koops. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying
is there are too many people that have lost their
ethics and their moral compass in the Republican Party. He
sees his position, as a Catholic of over fifty sixty
years as being one that does align with many things
that the Republican Party does. Being a pro business individual,
even at eighty four years old, he sees that as well.
But he also sees a need for balance, and he's
saying that there's no more balance from the Republican Party.
He's seen me profess that level of balance and stick
to those principles over the course of twenty years, and
that's what persuaded in switch. Less about trying to make
a judgment or the Democrat Party, but making a judgment
in regards to the lack of balance that we as
black people have politically moving forward. So I want to
make sure I clarify that, because it's not as though
he was making the Democrats when he made that move. Yeah,
I was, to your point in regards I.
Speaker 1: Wasn't ald On, I wasn't implying that your dad was
saying we were koops. But what you referenced was the
foundational uh, you know, the foundational moral compass or the
foundational principles that you live your life by, which you
have described in your book and which your dad says
he's lived his life by. And so I'm trying to
figure out what those are and where they are to
be found within the Republican Party. I mean, it's hard
for me to even imagine. And I understand you're saying
you can change it from within. But at the same time,
if we just forget about partisanship, and we forget about
even like our platforms, and we just look at the
grifting alone, that the corruption alone within the party at
this moment, how I don't know how that what moral
principle does that line up with?
Speaker 3: But here, because this is what's happening, Dominique, you're combining
me saying I'm living by certain principles and that's the
reason why I'm a Republican. I might be a Republican
because there's certain public policy positions. You and I disagree
on the whole school aspect, but that's one of them.
You know, that might be something. Principles are non partisan issues.
Speaker 2: You mean the school private value to shoot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, let's see, we disagree on that. We're not
gonna go down there, but we love each other when
it comes to when it comes to principles, principles are nonpartisan.
I'm not you know, I have never ascribed to saying
that the only way you can have a moral compass
is if you're a conservative, and thus you're a Republican.
I know that there are people that say that I
have never abscribed to that, you know. You know, God
doesn't walk around with a maga had on so and
wasn't a Republican before we got to this point in time.
So the point is, there are certain principles that we
should live as Americans that allow us to move forward
with what we do on a daily basis, and then
from there we can each determine what political party, or
if they're other than the Big two, that match our values.
Then we move forward with that and belong to that
party and try to do the best we can can
to mold it with our actions.
Speaker 1: We only have a minute before news, traffic, and sports,
so you may have to answer this more on the
other side, but I understand what you're saying. Principles are nonpartisan.
Sounds good, It's very catchy.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: However, certain principles are you know, pretty scarce in the
GOP right now, and one of them is honesty. You know,
I mean straight up with that, non prevarication. So how
does an honest person stay in that environment?
Speaker 3: With prayer and persistence, That's a pretty short answer. We
can get to that before the commercial break.
Speaker 1: That's a very short answer, Lenny McAllister dot com. That's
where they find the book, right, Lenny McCallister dot com.
Speaker 3: They can go there, they can go to Barnes and Noble,
they can go to Amazon wherever books are sold. You
can get an ebook, audiobook, hardcover of and diagram of
One in American Story wherever books are sold.
Speaker 1: Lenny McAllister's here, we're talking black GOP, Black Maga when
we come forward on KBLA talk fee eighty. He is
an author, a Senior Fellow at the Commonwealth Foundation, a pundit,
and his new book is A ven Diagram of One
in American Story. Lenny McAllister joins me this morning speaking
on the mystery of black Republicans in the Maga era.
And you going back to these principles, you said, these values,
you said empowerment.
Speaker 2: What else?
Speaker 3: Security, empowerment and opportunity and these are things that let's
just be real, Republicans use to stand for a long
time ago. Constitutional protections. You know, one of the things
I talk about with security is security of self, security
of citizenship, are you an equal citizen? And then security
of potential. Do you have the same opportunity to fulfill
your potential in America than others do. That's something we
don't do as much as Republicans anymore. And you talked
about the grifting. Grifting goes back to the whole prospect
of I'm going to get something just because I'm connected
to power. It's the same thing with the DEI quote
unquote didn't earn it. Well, what was Jim Crow? It
was one set of people getting advantages over a different
set of people, and those individuals got the advantages that
they didn't earn. They got it by way of racist laws.
That security has to be put back in place. We
start talking about empowerment. Empowerment through education, entrepreneurialism, and not
just making a business dominique, but being able to reinvent yourself,
being entrepreneurial with your personal brand on a regular basis.
Do you have the empowerment to do that? Many people
oftentimes they want power for themselves. Again, let's go back
to the grifting. But I can get power for myself.
I don't care if you're empowered. If you're truly about
constitutional protections, if you're a constitutional conservative, you want every
American to have constitutional protections, to be empowered, not just
have power over them. Again, these are things that constitutional
conservatives say that they're about until you watch how they've
been over the last fifteen to twenty years.
Speaker 1: That when I would argue, I mean I would argue
longer than that, But I understand what you're saying. It's
more blatant now. But among the values, I.
Speaker 2: Don't see justice.
Speaker 1: I don't see equity or equality. I don't see truthfulness.
I don't see compassion. I don't see fairness. I don't
see a lot of the things that you know I
would think of as from my perspective as a progressive patriot,
I don't see to me, those are American values also.
Speaker 2: Ya, But you don't list those.
Speaker 1: You list empowerment, security, and opportunity, which you know could
I mean that could be you know President Bouque's list.
Speaker 3: If you're if you're secure in your citizenship, you cannot
have the will pulled over your eyes. You cannot have
the law put against you. If you're empowered through education,
you not only know the laws, but you know yourself.
If you're empowered as an American citizen, you're going to
be entitled and you're going to have access to the truth,
you're going to be treated fairly, you're going to have justice.
You can't be in powered.
Speaker 1: So we so justice is implied, equality and inequity is implied.
We just have to say it's included. But don't you think,
given what's happening in our country today and and actually
some of the atrocities on which it stands, we need
to explicitly state that justice and equality are in fact
not just equality but equity are in fact values morals
that we intentionally stand on.
Speaker 3: At the risk of sounding like a salesman, my dear sister,
it's in a vent diagram of one. I do lay
that out. I'm not with that hopefully. Yeah. The themes are, yes,
you have you have the thematic themes of security, empowerment
and opportunity. But as I break down, whether people listen
to it on audiobook or read a e book or hardcover,
they'll see me talk about those very specific things and
talk about how when you get away from the grander themes,
those other things can't be there for everybody. So in
order to make sure that there are certain protections for everybody,
including the injustice, that we're referring to including the fracturing
of the truth that we've seen over time. You have
to get back to those those principles. So yes, they
are specifically called out civil rights, honesty, honesty.
Speaker 2: Honestly that one I mean.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thinking about Carolyn Levitt right, she's stepping
down from her job at the tender age of twenty
eight to quote unquote spend time with her family, which
means zero because everyone says that all the time.
Speaker 2: I'm always but I.
Speaker 1: Mean, this person is highly successful and rose to the
top of the Republican Party.
Speaker 2: In this moment that we're in.
Speaker 1: Not that she's black, but it's to me, it's emblematic
of where the party is at. And she blatantly lied
all day long, like when the truth would do just lie, lie, lie,
lie lie. How can a person of principle affiliate with
the group that's I understand this impulse to reform, but
if people are lying every day and one of my
core values is honesty, I don't want to be around
those people.
Speaker 3: Well, there's two things to that. Number One, in the book,
I am honest even when I had flaws, So for example,
my dad's shooting, I talk about the tensions he and
I had just two weeks prior. I talked about the
mess that my life was as far as not following
up on my potential, not doing the things I needed
to do in the moment right before he was shot.
I talk about other instances of being a college dropout,
going from an Ivy League school the South to being
a delicate Clark making four dollars an hour. That level
of honesty in regards to this is where I was
allows people to see the vulnerability of being honest with
themselves and moving forward. But back to the other point
that you mentioned in regards to reform, This country is
built on people to find a way to reform the
things that they see that are broken. How has it
been working out for African Americans in the Ruby red
South when we don't have access to a level of
political balance. How has it worked out when Republicans run
all three branch of the government at the federal level.
I'm sitting in Washington, DC right now. How has it
played out for those that did not want the National
Guard here without having some same voices speaking up for
constitutional values that they professe, that they stand up for,
but they don't live out in principle. The bottom line
is there are some of us that simply do not
have the option of walking away from doing the hard work. Now,
we may get critiqued for it along the way, but
I'm trying to be historic, not trendy. That means I'm
gonna have to take some of these bows and arrows
coming at me. I'm gonna have to take some of
the slurs sometimes coming at me because I got a
as I'm leading and as I'm doing what I'm doing.
I talk about this in event diagram of one. I
gotta love people more than they may like me in
the moment, because that's what leadership's all about.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, okay, I hear you. Ah.
Speaker 1: I mean, those are choices that we make. So is
your ultimate vision that more and more people of principle,
presumably black people of principle, will become more and more
influential in the party. Because when I look at the
Republican Party now, which seems to be under the full
headlock of you know, trump Ism, I don't see those
dissonant voices being successful at all. You know, even with
the confirmation of Todd Blanche we heard lame duck senators
who have already been primaried by the president.
Speaker 2: Or at the president's behas.
Speaker 1: Still falling in line and voting for this guy who's
clearly set out of his own mouth that he's the
president's personal lawyer, and has clearly set out of his
own mouth that he intends to go after people for
their political proclivities and continues to be an election denier.
They said they weren't going to confirm him, but in
the end they did. In the end, they all caved.
So I don't see where there's any room in the party.
I don't see where there's any any space for any
kind of debate, dissonance, or even slight conversation that does
not support the absolute monarchy of the resident, as I
like to call him.
Speaker 3: Well, you and I have talked about this story before.
I have to live and work for the America we
want two, three, five, ten years down the road, not
just today. I told you this story. I told you
this story before working with the Reverend and I I
told you this story I was working with the Reverend
Jesse Jackson Senior, who said this same exact thing to
me in twenty thirteen and said, Lenny, you are a
good Republican and you're a good man, but your party
is more concerned about confederacy than they are about democracy.
They're never going to change, I said, Reverend, out of
all due respect. When you went to college in the
nineteen sixties, Jim Crow was around for one hundred years.
You kept going to libraries that they arrested you for.
You kept getting arrested, going to bathrooms in the restaurants,
and they told you, Jesse, what are you doing. All are
you gonna do is get yourself hit upside the head.
They're never going to change. I came to North Carolina
to go to college. Twenty years later. I can go
to any library I wanted to, any restaurant. I wanted
to any restaurant I wanted to. Things don't change until
they changed. And even the progressive two time presidential nominee said,
mister Lenny, you have a point to put that work in.
Speaker 2: So I mean you have a point. I'm not sure
what the point is in Jesse Jackson's case.
Speaker 1: Even in the sixties, they were making progress. There was
evidence that there could something could be salvage or something
could be moved. I'm not seeing it. I see the
corruption doubling down. I see the white supremacy amping up.
I see the oligarchy settling in and digging its teeth,
and you know, keep hope alive. I guess what you're saying, It.
Speaker 3: Is what I'm saying. I mean, the bottom line is, Dominique,
we some of us have to do the work where
we are. And it doesn't make it look, it doesn't
make it comfortable. It doesn't mean I coalesce, it doesn't
mean I agree, but and it does mean that there
are times I'm going to be uncomfortable speaking of truth
when I'm speaking it alone. It literally says that on
the back cover of a N diagram one. There are
people that have seen me do this over the course
of twenty years. There are stories of me doing that
over the course of twenty years. And yes, it might
take a while, but we and I'm not just staying
about African Americans, because again, one of the book is
not just for black people, but it is written from
an African American perspective. And two, it's not just the
political book. But with those two things in mind, we
have to have more access to everybody in government, everybody
that writes laws, everybody that has their fingerprints on the
way we live our lives in modern day America. And
in order to do that, you have to have some sensibilities.
You have to have some compassion and some respect for
constitutional rights for all Americans, emanating from both sides of
the political spectrum. I'm doing my part for the America
that I want to see from my children and my
grandchildren much less in contemporary times, in a shift sooner
than later.
Speaker 1: David McAllister is my guest as usual. You're invited in
if you have something to say, a question or conversation. Oh,
they are going at it in the YouTube chat. If
you want to hop in there. That's a KBLA fifteen
eighty on YouTube dot com.
Speaker 2: I'm Dominique Diprima.
Speaker 1: This is KBLA Talk fifteen eighty talking with Lenny McAllister.
He is a political pundit. He's a senior Fellow with
a Commonwealth Foundation and the author of a ven diagram
of one. He also happens to be a black Republican,
and I'm trying to understand.
Speaker 2: I've never quite.
Speaker 1: Fully understand stood, although I actually do have some friends
and colleagues who are Republicans, what the draw is and
I understand what you just said, we have to work
where we are. Everyone has a role to play, everyone
can stay in their lane. On the other hand, my
friend jas Mechanic, who is a delegate in the La
County Democrat Party, makes an interesting point too when I
you know, when we hear some black people talking about
leaving the Democratic Party, not to run to the Republican Party,
but to find a find or found a third party
which would be more in alignment with the needs and
aspirations of black people in this country. And she says,
I like to be where the black people are, and
the black people are in the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: What do you say to that, I can be with
black people and be with all different types of people
and not necessarily align on one aspect of my identity.
And I think it's one of the things that unfortunately
Black Republicans have stuck on their foreheads and worn more
than anything else, which is they use it as their identity.
That's not my identity. That is part of what I do.
That is an aspect of who I am, but it
is not the identity who I am. I'm a child
of God, I'm an American, I'm a black man, I'm
in fact, i'm a black man before I'm an American,
and as a result, I have to act from that first. Now,
obviously there are going to be certain policy positions that
I gravitate towards as a Republican, certain policy issues that
I'm going to believe in, and I will articulate them.
But even with that, there's a way to articulate those
principles without doing it with the animists that we do
see from Republicans. And sometimes, let's just be fair, from
some black Republicans when they're talking to the black community.
That's not leadership either. So yes, I like being where
black folks are. I make sure I am where black
folks are. But you can do that more than just
where black folks are. Politically, the bottom line is we're
supposed to be there for our communities, regardless of you know,
being Catholic versus being Muslim versus being Jewish. It would
be the same with political parties and then fighting for
the things that people need with the political philosophies that
you think will work best short term and long term,
and pushing back where you need to.
Speaker 1: Of my apologies, Lenny, I do not think your name
is David. Apparently I was rushing. But Lenny McAllister is
my guest, and a couple of things you touched on
that I would like to follow up on. We only
have a few minutes here. One of them is the
civility question. And okay, I'll give you that there are some,
you know, impolite to put it, mildly, democrats, but the
sort of crassness, the boorishness, the insults, you know, the
hurling of insults has been popularized by the current resident
of the White House. And I wonder if we can
put that genie back in the bottle politically, regardless of
where you are on the spectrum, Yes we can.
Speaker 3: I mean, in the nineteen seventies, You and I grew
up in the seventies, and people thought that they taught
was a way of life for the rest of our existence,
and that the United States had lost its way. By
the nineteen eighties, celebrating the eighty four Summer Olympics in
la and jobs started coming back into the economy, and
within ten years the Soviet Union didn't exist anymore. You know,
four one hundred years we were told that, we were
told that black folks were inferior and they were going
to have separate but equal, and we'll just make it
more equal even though it's still going to be separate.
And then twenty years after legislation was passed in the
nineteen sixties, we have Barack Obama. So do I think
that I don't know if.
Speaker 1: Those examples no, well my analysis, but I understand your points.
Speaker 3: The point is the grossest of injustices. We have found
ways to get passed, not completely get passed from time,
and I mean, yes, have there been regressions, Absolutely, and
it's shameful. But the question you asked was, do I
believe that this genie can be put back in the bottle?
I do believe with the right type of leadership. And
I'm not saying we're publican leadership or democratic leadership, but
I am talking about the type of leadership that I
do talk about an event diagram of one which supersedes partisanship,
with that type of leadership from everyday people. I do
think that much of what's dividing us in essence really
hampering our existences collectively. I do think and be put
back in the bottle. I do think we can find
a better way.
Speaker 1: And then, you know you talked about at the beginning
of the conversation, you said, your book of n Diagram
of One is a store a black love story or
a story of black love, and you referenced your wife
and my colleague at this radio station, John Wood Junior,
is also a Black Republican, and I said one time
on the air that I think he's the only Black
Republican I know with a black wife.
Speaker 3: Maybe I know that anymore.
Speaker 2: Now I know too, at least.
Speaker 1: At least And I say that not just to be
a smart alec, but also because I think there is
a perceived rejection of our blackness, and certainly are black
women in the embracing of today's Republican party and all
the way down to you know, hundreds of thousands of
black women being pushed out of their jobs by this,
you know, the fake outrage over.
Speaker 3: DEI listen, you love who you love. I get that,
And I want everybody go to heaven as a Christian.
That's where I said, but.
Speaker 1: Everybody, you want everybody in there with you.
Speaker 3: Okay, what's the alternative? I can't even imagine what hell is,
So I don't want to wish up on anybody. But
that said, I have a unique, special, respectful and very
vibrant love for my black wife and that ain't going away.
And there have been instances where I've had to push
back on people that have been surprised that I've been
more than willing to express that level of love and
respect for my soulmate, my best friend, and my gorgeous wife,
which you can be all three of those things at
the same exact time in a regular basis. And I
know that generally speaking, they're not used to Black Republicans
walking around with a sister on their arm that they're
still opening the door for. But that's also part of
the reason why I wrote a vent diagram of one
to show folks that political affiliation is not your principles,
they're not your values, they're not your way of life. Ideally,
those things project back into your partisanship, which is why
I keep saying, you know, folks, go read the book,
go listen to the book. You'll see it's much more
than just as Black Republican talking about being a Black Republican.
It's about living a certain life, trying to get back
to values that have worked for us over time, and
then saying, well, I've done these things as a Black Republican,
which is much different than saying, Hey, I'm a black Republican.
Speaker 1: Look at me, well said, remind them one last time
as we run out the clock. Here about how to
find your brand new book Event diagram of one.
Speaker 3: You can go to Barnes and Noble. You can go
to Amazon. You can order it through Target or Walmart.
You can buy it wherever books are sold. Ebook, audiobook, hardcover,
a ven diagram of one an American story by Lenny mcgallish,
or you can also go to my website Lenny mcgalisher
dot com. I will be on the Takeout with Major
Garrett this evening. I will be on MS Now with
Michael Steele, who wrote one of the co forwards of
the book. I will be on with him tomorrow night,
Friday night at seven pm Eastern four pm Pacific as well.
I'll be on with Newkingridge next week as well in
his podcast. So Dominique, I want you to I want
you to get a copy. I want you to read
it and read I'm talking.
Speaker 1: We got to leave it there though, because it's time
time to pass the mic. But thank you so much,
and I absolutely will I always appreciate that.
Speaker 3: God'll bless you.
Speaker 1: Doctor Cornell West Neoby Carter, and many many more featured
Next Hour. You don't want to miss it. I'm Dominique Diuprima.
Like my mama, the late Great Dianedaprima used to say
in her poem called Rant, the ultimate famine is the
starvation of the imagination. Until tomorrow, My KBLA delegation with
our Friedman Friday Reparations Conversation, One Love,