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