24) "I’ve been to dozens of Tea Party rallies. I’ve given at least a half a dozen or more speeches. I have not yet to find the first racist comment or the first person who approaches me from a racist perspective. I will speak very clearly here. Racism is a part of a lot of things in our country. Good people are the predominant fact of our country. I simply don’t get it. There are good people and bad people in all organizations fundamentally; however, when you look at the basis of the Tea Party it has nothing to do with race. It has to do with an economic recovery. It has to do with limiting the role of our government in our lives. It has to do with free markets. How do you fight that? The only way you fight that is to create an emotional distraction called racism. It doesn’t have to be real. It can be rhetoric but it gets the media focusing on something other than the truth of why the Tea Party is resonating so well with the average person." -- Tim Scott
23) "Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot." -- Clarence Thomas
22) "They say African Americans. I say black people. I’ve only been to Africa once. I’ve been in America all my life!" -- Herman Cain
21) "As the old saying goes, 'money is power' and the more money the government takes, the more power it has over individuals." -- Angela McGlowan
20) "The government is not your salvation. The government is not your road to prosperity. Hard work, education will take you far beyond what any government program can ever promise." -- Mia Love
19) "Liberals worry that what's best for the individual might not be better for the public at large. But that philosophy assumes something vicious about each and every one of us. It assumes we only care about ourselves." -- Allen West
18) "Self esteem comes from achievements. Not from lax standards and false praise." -- Condi Rice
17) "If I have learned one thing from life, it is that race is the engine that drives the political Left. When all else fails, that segment of America goes to the default position of using race to achieve its objectives. In the courtrooms, on college campuses, and, most especially, in our politics, race is a central theme. Where it does not naturally rise to the surface, there are those who will manufacture and amplify it." -- Ward Connerly
16) "There is a simple maxim that I use to express this situation, 'when tolerance becomes a one way street, it leads to cultural suicide.'" -- Allen West
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15) "Toure, I’ve seen hate up close. I know what it looks like. I’ve felt its hands on my skin, seen the look in its eyes, felt the burn of its words. It is deliberate and it is real. Racism is not disliking our black President because of his socialist leanings. Racism is the scar I carried near my lip for decades after one particularly harsh punch in the mouth from a kid screaming 'N*GGER!' at me while swinging away. Racism is that guy in the diner, the hoses and dogs turned on folks from my grandparents’ generation just looking to drink at a decent water fountain. When you accuse a person of racism, THAT is the legacy of hate you are laying at their feet. It’s every bit as heinous as accusing someone of being a child molester arbitrarily. When you accuse Mitt Romney and other conservatives like me of being racist based on no other proof besides the fact that we vehemently disagree with this President and his policies, you dilute the history and experiences of people like me. You cheapen that word – n*gger. You rob it of its true horror – a horror we should never forget or take for granted. Not only that, Toure; but you cheapen yourself. You make it clear to blacks like me that you, indeed have no clue in hell what real racism is or where it can be found." -- Kira Davis
14) "The right to do something doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do." -- Michael Steele
13) "If you are explaining, you are losing." -- J.C. Watts
12) “When caring for your neighbor becomes a compulsory obligation imposed by government instead of voluntary, charity turns to confiscation and freedom to achieve to involuntary servitude. To liberals, compassion seems to be defined by how many people are dependent on the government; to conservatives, it’s defined by how many people no longer need help. One promotes dependence, the other freedom, responsibility and achievement.” -- Star Parker
11) “Since the social victim has been oppressed by society, he comes to feel that his individual life will be improved more by changes in society than by his own initiative. Without realizing it, he makes society rather than himself the agent of change. The power he finds in his victimization may lead him to collective action against society, but it also encourages passivity within the sphere of his personal life.” -- Shelby Steele
10) "Good motives aside, white condescension does more damage than good. White condescension says to a black child, 'The rules used by other ethnic groups don’t apply to you. Forget about work hard, get an education, posses good values. No, for you, we’ll alter the rules by lowering the standards and expecting less.’ Expect less, get less.” -- Larry Elder
9) "I don't believe in quotas. America was founded on a philosophy of individual rights, not group rights." -- Clarence Thomas
8) "The best way to help your neighbor is not to live off your neighbor." -- AlfonZo Rachel
7) "They said that I had sold out and (am an) Uncle Tom. And I said well, they deserve to have that view. But I have my thoughts. And I think they're race-hustling poverty pimps." -- J.C. Watts
6) "The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling." -- Thomas Sowell
5) "It’s often said that the Democrats fight 'for the little guy.' That’s true: liberals fight to make sure the little guy stays little! Think about it. What if all the little guys were to prosper and become big guys? Then what? Who would liberals pretend to fight for? If the bamboozlers fight for anything, it’s to ensure that the little guy stays angry at those nasty conservatives who are holding him down." -- Angela McGlowan
4) "We might think of dollars as being 'certificates of performance.' The better I serve my fellow man, and the higher the value he places on that service, the more certificates of performance he gives me. The more certificates I earn, the greater my claim on the goods my fellow man produces. That’s the morality of the market. In order for one to have a claim on what his fellow man produces, he must first serve him." -- Walter Williams
3) "We've become a culture where earning money doesn't entitle you to it, but wanting it does. That is the essence of redistribution." -- Ken Blackwell
2) "Here’s Williams’ roadmap out of poverty: Complete high school; get a job, any kind of a job; get married before having children; and be a law-abiding citizen. Among both black and white Americans so described, the poverty rate is in the single digits." -- Walter Williams
1) "Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions — and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large." -- Thomas Sowell
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