Posted on 03/13/2005 8:24:24 PM PST by Zivasmate
A courtship worth watching Conservatives come calling, and blacks may be listening this time By Dan Gilgoff
What has new Republican Party Chair Ken Mehlman learned so far in his fledgling campaign to woo African-American voters? "Folks who don't necessarily agree with you appreciate that you're out there making the case," he tells U.S. News . In the past month, Mehlman has hosted town hall meetings with black audiences in Maryland and New Jersey, sat for a PBS television interview with African-American talk-show host Tavis Smiley, and traveled to Atlanta's Martin Luther King Jr. Center. "It's about building relationships," says Mehlman, the high-octane former campaign manager who helped engineer President Bush's victory last fall. "I don't go out and lecture. I listen and learn."
Mehlman has his work cut out. Blacks have long been the Democrats' most dependable voting bloc, backing John Kerry over Bush by nearly 9 to 1. "Republicans . . . are a group who opposed the civil rights movement and who African-Americans trust least," says David Bositis, political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The GOP is "talking optimistically about something on which there's been no success in 40 years."
But at the moment, Mehlman isn't the only optimist. Black conservatives--and disaffected black Democrats--are preparing a major push to convince African-Americans, first, that they've been taken for granted by Democrats and, second, that the Republican Party might be worth another look, especially if the GOP more directly addresses issues of concern to blacks. It's an effort that Republicans have made before--but this time, partisans on both sides believe it could pay real dividends.
The initiatives have sprung in part from President Bush's modest gains among black voters. Though Bush garnered just 11 percent of the black vote last year, that was a 2-point jump from 2000. And in some key states, Bush made bigger gains: from 9 to 16 percent in Ohio and from 7 to 13 percent in Florida. With most African-Americans identifying as churchgoers, some pastors say a new emphasis on "family values," especially opposition to same-sex marriage, is responsible for the shift. Bishop Harry Jackson, a Maryland pastor and registered Democrat, who voted against Bush in 2000 but supported him last year, is leading an effort called the "Black Contract With America on Moral Values." The contract includes pledges to "protect marriages" and "eliminate abortion." Jackson is circulating the document among black clergy through a series of six summits across the country. Jackson hopes to collect a million signatures and says he's in preliminary talks with the White House: "We're dating, and there's tremendous attraction, but we're not married yet."
A conservative black group, the Mayflower Compact Coalition, will also begin collecting signatures next week for its "21st Century Mayflower Compact," a nine-point agenda for black America that includes support for school choice and private Social Security accounts. "We recognize the achievements of the civil rights movement," says Oliver Kellman, the group's chairman. "But we need a civil responsibilities movement." Advised in part by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's consulting firm, Mayflower is planning town hall meetings in up to 20 states--with the emphasis on battlegrounds where black support for Republicans could make a difference, like Pennsylvania and Michigan. The group will publicize the events via black media and churches, being careful to "push this as an issue-driven initiative, not a party-type initiative," says Kellman.
Warning. That may be a challenge, given the players involved. But Mehlman's efforts, at least, were lent credibility in a recent column by black Democratic strategist Donna Brazile. "Democrats should stop ignoring that Republicans are going after their most loyal base," Brazile tells U.S. News, adding that Democrats "are in the Stone Age when it comes to African-American outreach."
Republicans face their own obstacles. Jackson, who is pro-affirmative action and wants to reform "three strikes" sentencing laws, says turning black churchgoers into conservative "values" voters can happen only if the Christian right and the GOP take up issues of importance to blacks that have long been the province of Democrats. "Republicans think morality is only the life and marriage issue," says former Republican Rep. J. C. Watts, who is black. "But racism is a moral issue. So is being able to eat and have a roof over your head."
For now, these new outreach efforts are in their infancy; the Mayflower group won't have office space till next month. But analysts agree that the GOP needs only modest gains to make a big difference. "For us, 20 percent [of the black vote] would be the death knell of the Democrats," says Phyllis Berry Myers, a Mayflower founder. It doesn't sound like an outsize goal. For Democrats, that's a sobering thought.
Yo are so right, last election we got 11% of the African American vote. If that numbers get up to much over %15 the rats a sunk.
The 'old' black leadership--Jackson,Mfume,Sharpton,etc.---is out of touch with today's blacks.
Today, blacks have more in common with the Republican party than they do with the Democrats.
They just haven't realized it yet.
Let's hope they get the message by the 2006 elections.
What? Look at the Civil Rights act of 1964 and who voted for it. You'll find that the Republicans voted for it overwhelmingly. It was the DemocRATS that were much less supportive. The Republicans have been consistent. They have supported equal opportunity. It is the DemocRATS who changed. They changed from supporting white supremacy and Jim Crow to supportting "affirmative action" which everyone knows is a code word for quotas.
Problem is that once blacks start coming to the Republicans, rest assured many Republican whites will bail.
This is a big, fat, stinking lie. Republicans in Congress supported the major civil-rights legislation of the 50's and 60's, proportionally greater than did the Democrats. The Southern Democrats were the ones who were trying to keep the black man down.
It was only in the 70's and 80's, when the desperate Democrats over-compensated with racial preference rules, that the traditional Republican sympathy for the causes of black America cooled.
I am glad to see us making this effort. We don;t need to bring every black person back to the party of Lincoln, but 25% or so would be nice, and make life hell for the Donks.
-ccm
"Problem is that once blacks start coming to the Republicans, rest assured many Republican whites will bail."
Let me be the first to say, that is the stupidest thing I've heard since I heard how they had one middle aged woman guarding the shiv packing rapist in Georgia.
Ah, poor naive soul
Disagree. the Republican Party is willing to accept any ethnic group, as long as we don't " buy them" like the Demorats.There might be a few southerners who might be unfavorable to recruiting Blacks to the Republican Party, but that's such a small number, that even in the South, the net gain would be positive. The main thing is that we retain our conservative principles, as we seek those of any group who identify with our principles. Doing this successfully will probably sink the Demorat Party.
I strongly doubt that.
Actually, the fact that the Pubbies have done so well in the South is the most amazing thing ever. Remember reconstruction and all that! And even if the "Southern Strategy" did start out as a racist thing, history has a way of blowing strategy away, now it is a values thing. Even Nixon could not have forseen abortion on demand, gay marriage, etc. becoming the BIG ISSUES they are today.
I suspect, sir, that my tag line might apply to you....
American male black conservative Republican BUMP
Good retort...
Zarf is producing Clueless Barf.
The Democrats were the racist party.
Then the became the party of reverse-racism and ethnic victimhood.
We are the party of Lincoln. Any blacks, whites, or others who believe in free enterprise, moral values and a strong America are more than welcome to join the party of Lincoln.
Not true.
Bostis shows his bias with crap like this (and yes, I know that the Joint Center is a left wing nut house), and his presence with this statement negates anything else he might have to offer to the conversation.
Black conservative ping
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
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ping
I disagree with that thinking - Republicans are the most 'color blind' of the lot. Racism can only flourish when people continue to make color of skin an object; it is the person under that skin that counts. Too much is made of this for selfish reasons, it is the integrity, honesty, the quality of the person, that defines competency, capability and potential, not color. We need to stop this hyphenated nonsense that divides rather than assimilates. If someone’s genealogy is needed, it will be asked for.
By the way, I just spent a little time learning about Mauritius, sounds like a lovely island. Did the recent tsunamis effect you?
What a pantload! Read Wayne Perryman's book and anyone can know the truth.
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