The Black Republican

Lost years ago as a casualty in the political correctness wars and relegated by popular culture to the status of a footnote on many calendars, the significance of today has been banished from the ranks of honored civic holidays. We are told it's just as important to honor all our nation's leaders - or at best we can only provide a single Monday in February to mark the birth of President Washington and his greatest successor. But in this age when we're constantly told how important and patriotic it is to dissent, we at The Black Republican have decided we'll jump on that bandwagon in true conservative fashion: by standing athwart history, yelling Stop.

So please take a moment to stop and reflect on the meaning of February 12th. Today marks the 197th anniversary of the birth of our nation's 16th and greatest president, the original "Black Republican" himself, Abraham Lincoln. To mark this occasion, my contributors and I have decided that henceforth on this date we will honor the memory of President Lincoln with the awarding of an honor designating one person as The Black Republican of the Year.

As anyone who has followed this site will know, there are certain qualities we recognize as exemplifying The Black Republican. First and foremost, such a person is an American who stands squarely behind the Union "brought forth on this continent, a new nation," and who, "under God", fights to keep our States together. He respects our Constitution "of the people, by the people, for the people", its system of checks and balances, and its delegation of powers. Lastly, The Black Republican respects the Liberty hallowed by our forefathers and protected by our soldiers, that "all men are created equal".

Unfortunately, in this age so far removed from the Black Republicans of Lincoln's day, it is difficult to find someone who fully identifies with all these principles in the same manner that we express them. And yet it is not so hard to find men and women of good will and firm resolve who have touched on one or more of these aspects in such a consequential way that their efforts deserve recognition. Therefore, our choice "will not be judged by the color of their skin" or by their religion, or even by their ideology or party affiliation, but "by the content of their character," and the worthiness of their participation in civic life during the past calendar year. It goes without saying that the honor is not intended to deny or disparage the accomplishments or meaningful contributions of anyone not named, and is simply the expression of our sincere thanks to someone we believe deserves recognition in the great tradition of the Republic.

So, without further ado, we award The Black Republican of the Year for 2005 to Senator Joseph Lieberman.

Despite the rhetoric he used when he joined the Democratic campaign in 2000 as the Vice-Presidential nominee, Senator Lieberman has been - especially since the terrorist attacks of 2001 - a firm voice of strength in America. This, more than anything, has set him apart in such a stark contrast to the rest of his party as to earn him the distinction we confer today. As the primary piece of evidence, we need only look back to the last month of the year. While the rest of Washington D.C. churned and broiled following the call by Rep. John Murtha to pull our troops out of Iraq, Senator Lieberman stepped forward to renounce that position and proclaim, "Our Troops Must Stay."

It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al Qaeda foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern. The terrorists are intent on stopping this by instigating a civil war to produce the chaos that will allow Iraq to replace Afghanistan as the base for their fanatical war-making. We are fighting on the side of the 27 million because the outcome of this war is critically important to the security and freedom of America. If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East, which has long been a major American national and economic security priority....

Every time the 27 million Iraqis have been given the chance since Saddam was overthrown, they have voted for self-government and hope over the violence and hatred the 10,000 terrorists offer them.

If that stand in favor of our troops and their mission - against the overwhelming majority of his Democratic colleagues - were not significant and courageous enough, it was not the only one taken last year by the Senator from Connecticut. Earlier in the year, he joined with 13 other self-proclaimed "moderates" from both parties as part of the "Gang of 14", which stopped the intemperate (we'd call unconstitutional) filibustering of President Bush's appointments to the federal bench, freeing such distinguished jurists as Janice Rogers Brown to finally take their place on the Circuit Courts of Appeal. In September, he took a similar stand on the side of sanity in supporting Chief Justice Roberts' nomination.

Indeed, the good Senator has taken such a departure from the radicalism of the Left in the past year, he is now being targeted for defeat in the primaries by his own party. In a stand as honorable as Democrat Governor Andrew Johnson's acceptance of the VP slot on the pro-Union ticket alongside Lincoln, Lieberman has suggested he will run as an independent if he loses the primary.

For all these reasons - and despite the many issues where we disagree - Senator Lieberman displays qualities that have earned him our respect as The Black Republican of the Year for 2005. As a token of our respect, I will endeavor to contact the Senator's office so I can send him something from our CafePress shop. Considering his precarious political position, I won't be offended if he doesn't accept.

[Editor: It should be noted that when we decided back in December to establish this tradition, I thought it only appropriate that we should look back on our first two years of publication and name those people we would have named for 2003 and 2004, so there would be a more complete accounting from the start of the site. There was a little disagreement on the propriety and selection of those honorees, given so much time to second-guess hindsight, but I will be backdating these first two awards when time permits.]