Anywho, given that this “rap” is essentially the modern movement conservative platform, never again do I want to hear about how conservatives and libertarians outside movement conservatism are really just a bunch of Ivy League elitists with no experience in the real world. Because clearly that’s exactly what these two are.

His ability to attract young people and urban folks with a message of personal empowerment and community involvement was one factor for the paper refering to him as such. I actualy reffer to myself as a Hip Hop Republican, I live in an urban area, my neighbors are all minorties and the term makes sencse to me. There is an actual movement movement online of Urban and Inner-City Republicans & Libertarians.

I think we may be missing the bigger point that is finding alternate ways to getting our message to an often hostile enviroment to conservatives and Republicans. In his, article “The Blueprint for Urban Conservatism?” Brandon Brice, a Harlem resident and self-described “Hip- Hop Republican,” noted that the economic power of Hip Hop culture has created more African-American entrepreneurs than any other industry in America, which gives partial credence to our adoption of the name.

The mission of the Urban Republican movement is to highlight and provide solutions for real issues; health care affordability, fiscal responsibility, solutions to better inner city schools and job creation. Let us think about the trends of economic activity in urban America.

According to The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, only 10.3 percent (learners included) of 18-25 year old blacks actually identify with the Party. The Republican Party’s best prospect for improving their African American support was through the younger cohort.Further, the study went on to say that, the alienation of young African Americans from the GOP does not mean they oppose Republican principles. A sizable proportion of these young voters-between one third and one-half-are sympathetic to Republican Party issue positions.

As such, The Center’s 2002 national survey actually suggested that the GOP might expect to be more successful appealing to younger African Americans than older because according to studies “25 percent of this population are self-described conservatives, and 66.4 percent support school vouchers for public, private, or parochial schools. On the issue of Social Security which is a signature issue of the Democratic Party, 61.2 percent of young blacks believe they will get back less from Social Security than what they pay into Social Security, and a substantial 79.3 percent favor partial privatization of Social Security”. On the values front, the study says, “a majority (52.9 percent) of these young African Americans attend church at least once a week.

Check out there social networking group http://hiphoprepublicans.ning.com/.

My friend Reggie Jones, who’s in the entertainment biz and drums with some funk groups, gives talks on college campuses on the theme of “How Hip-Hop Beat the Welfare State.” His point was that early rap and hip-hop had a very entrepreneurial spirit (he wasn’t talking about bling), quite free-market and libertarian-ish. He was not, however, suggesting that rappers were conservatives or that conservatives should start rapping.