Posted on 06/08/2005 12:36:07 AM PDT by CanukBlue
Hi, this is my first thread here at FR; I hope I can make my first post here very informative and thoughtful for everyone.
My question is directed at all the Americans on this board (I invite everyone to take part in the discussion), but more specifically towards black Americans. It’s something that has been bothering for a long and it’s a simple question, why do blacks overwhelmingly vote Democrat? This isn’t simply a partisan question or something is meant to be cynical to liberals its a legitimate question, because from the research I’ve done between each part and race relations. The information I’ve gathered and found just doesn’t seem to give any reason why such an "ethnic group" like mine should vote this way, its almost illogical. Below ill explain why in a couple of points
1. The Republican Party was formed MAINLY because to stop the expansion of slavery in the United States, and guess who was supporting the system of slavery at that time? You guessed it; it was the democrats.
2. A Republican ended slavery and what did he pay for it? Civil war and his life...
3. During the whole segregation days it was democrats who were overwhelmingly segregationist. Does anyone even remember the term "Dixiecrat"?
4. The civil rights act which was the pivotal document that ended state sanctioned racism only passed because the overwhelming support it got from the Republicans who at the time a minority in both houses. Here is a passage from online encyclopedia wikipedia.com
"Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen pushed the bill through Congress. The bill divided both political parties and engendered a long-term change in the demographics of both. Johnson realized that supporting this bill would mean losing the South's overwhelming Democratic Party majority (which did happen, with some exceptions). Although they were a minority party in both houses of Congress, Republicans voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Act, enabling its passage. One notable exception was senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, who voted against the bill, remarking "you can't legislate morality"."
5. In the current Republican presidency we have seen the most amounts of blacks and other minorities in High-ranking positions ever. Were noting about token positions here, we are talking about actual power here i.e. NSA, Secretary of State, Homeland Security.
With all this fact that is only a book away from an average American, why isn't that black Americans have this voting trend. This isn’t information that subject to interpretation or is on the eye of the beholder, its simple raw fact.
You may find this shocking coming from a Canadian, I’ve found myself allot of times knowing more American history than the average American. I’ve been conservative for a while now and I’ve come to this political alignment relatively by myself, even while most who surround have polar-opposite views.
I welcome all Americans on this forum to reply freely to this post because I’m dying to know your opinions and views on this.
You ask a good question... in a nutshell?
1- better salesmanship
2- tradition
3- the politics of Fear
Particularly the latter- think about your own fair country and the ADSCAM scandal... the Left up there is clinging to power by peddling variants of "sure, we are rotten, corrupt, even criminal, but those crazy right-wingers will take stuff away from you if you foolishly grant them power... better stick with the Devil You Know..."
Most black people I know-- and I grew up on an island off the Georgia coast that was about one-third black-- are extremely conservative in their personal lives... but most still vote Democrat.
Why? Because years ago- generations, really- Democrats used to at least make nod at "being for the little guy." They still make such claims today, of course, but are really the party of Limosine Liberals, wafting from one upscale cocktail party to another while ignoring the people who actually make this country work.
because from the research I’ve done
thanks for the replies, it seems to me like theres an image problem that is baseless just like the problem the Federal Conservative Part has here. Many people in the sp called "black community" act like sheeps and flock to these sheppards who call themselves black leaders. All they do is sell there flock to the Democratic party and here in Canada the Liberal Party. Im starting to believe that a great percentage of poeple dont vote consciously but to what others tell them too.
This may answer some of your questions. It is a complex issue:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/blackconservatism.htm
This is an area that I have thought about a lot. It looks like some of the answers given already on this thread are similar to the ones you might find in that link.
Welcome to FR!
Reasons Black Votes Democrat
Martin Luther King was democrat
Most every American Baptist preacher since King has steered the congregants toward liberalism (excessive government givewaways to "minorities" including women)
Libs need Blacks which comprise about 25% of Democrat Vote.
Libs must keep blacks poor and uneducated in order to stay "needy" so that in turn the libs will offer more bennies.
Blacks must be owned by libs even if it means giving up traditional black values of matrimony, monogamy, family etc in order to be recipients of lib promises no matter how lying and outlandish those promises are.
For the most part, Republicans see their "rights" as coming from God, or Natural Law or someplace external to government.
Democrats see their "rights" as coming from the government.
Consider how we view the great compromise and the civil war. The great compromise was government institutionalizing slavery for a temporary period of disputable length. Republicans thus view slavery as coming from the government. My Amish/Mennonite ancestors harbored run-away slaves and debated whether joining the state militia to free the slaves was consistent with their pacifist ways. Many pacifists converted to Weslyen Methodist, Nazarene, etc when they switched to violence to fight slavery.
These Republicans see the civil war as private citizen abolitionists volunteering to fight slavery.
In contrast, many Black Democrats do not see private citizens volunteering to fight slavery. Their history books teach that private ownership of slaves was CAPITALISM and that THE GOVERNMENT FREED THE SLAVES.
Prior to the New Deal of the 30's most Blacks were Republican and held the common Republican view of government being the problem and private citizen action being the solution. The shift started with the New Deal and increased with the War on Poverty of the 60's. Thru what was taught in the schools and appeared in the media, Blacks came to believe that the government was the solution and private citizens and capitalism were the problem.
The War on Poverty cinched that belief. Prior to the War on Poverty, the Black Church dominated the community. It held a strong belief in personal salvation and a personal relationship with God. Coming out of that religous belief were church members who supported each other through private charity and private advice. More Blacks came from private/church colleges than from public colleges, etc. The Black church was the means of social control in the neighborhood. It set the standards of what to be proud of and what to be ashamed of. It was the safety net, the employment agency.
The war on poverty destroyed the Black church. It used Urban Renewal and Public Housing to first wipe out the community around a Black church building so that the only people attending that church were former residents who commuted. This destroyed the financial base of the church and made them vulnerable to bribes. Urban renewal built a new community in which the Black Church was either blocked from involvement, or more often bribed into supporting the secular agenda.
The movie Preacher's Wife with Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington is Hollywoodized but does contain a significant element of truth about many Black churches in Chicago.
Government became the saftey net. Charity came from the government, not the church members. Finding a new job came from the government agency, not the Church members. That job itself was most often with the government itself or a non-profit dependent on government grants, rather than in the private sector.
Many examples could be given. But bottom line, many Blacks from seeing the Dixiecrat government as the problem to seeing the WelfareState government as the solution and private citizens/capitalism as the problem. In effect they now relate as if the Dixiecrat government was that mean slavemaster Simon Legree and the Northern Democrat government is the good slavemaster who treats his people well. This good master provides food and cloting and housing and never beats them unless they try to leave this nice plantation.
Thus, when a Clarence Thomas leaves the plantation, he is punished for being ungrateful to the master who treated him so well and allowed him to get a college education.
At a local GOP dinner (mostly white suburban), I was sitting with a couple other precinct captains. Only one empty chair was left at our table. I saw a fellow precinct captain friend of mine, who happened to be Black, walk in. I waved him over to our table. He came over and asked the man beside the empty chair if that chair was taken. The man took the chair and propped it up on its front two legs against the table, indicating it was taken. Later, the man commented, "I have to work beside them all day (IRS) and I'll be dammed if I have to eat with them." That attitude is to a large extent, the Republican image, even though it is only a small percentage of Republicans.
Most of the other chairs were taken. Walking around looking for a seat, my Black friend struck up a conversation with the Committeewoman and ended up sitting at her table as the Committeeman was on the stage running the program.
Other similar Republican examples can be given. In discussing immigration, one Republican friend (a dark skinned Italian) said "we should accept people who look like us." Blacks might think, "Damn, if they won't let in a brown Mexican they sure won't welcome a Black like me."
In contrast, the Democrats have no problem being two-faced. Democrat Cook County/Chicago area sheriff Michael Sheehan and his thousands of white patronage workers are notorious for their racism. They knock door to door in the White precincts and tell the white voters, "You have to vote Democrat so us whites can keep control of the Democrat party. If we let Blacks gain control of the Democrat party we are doomed." That is the #1 pitch of Democrat precinct captains in my mostly white suburban area.
But those same white Democrat precinct captains will attend city wide events with large numbers of Black Democrats and appear totally friendly and non-racist to the Black Democrats.
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!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
As a full-blodded aryan, I would say that it is a matter of a certain amount of unease associating with a largish group that doesn't associate with you, and that works both ways. It's changing, though, as we all are getting tired of the BS.
I has a lot to do with FDR, the "New Deal" and the organizing of Northward migrating African Americans by the Urban Democratic Political Machines.
That is true too b/c the Northern Democrats tried to embrace the migrated blacks from the South.
IMHO since the sixties and the dawn of the true government welfare state, the Democrat party has wielded the sceptre of government largesse over the poorest of the black families in America. This idea that the government would take care of anyone was also promoted in the vast majority of government schools, the media, higher academia and in television and film by those who have a vested in interest in a stronger central government.
Once the spiral of "paid for poverty" began it was fed by the liberal establishment and it turned out to be voracious beast that demanded more and more from the productive citizen to feed and house the non-productive citizen. The biggest lie of the 20th century was always the liberal mantra the we haven't spent enough money on this or that program. Such programs didn't exist before the welfare state and the people who would have been dependent on them were much better off then.
A true story: A friend of mine began to volunteer at a local public golf course where a lot of kids from a nearby housing project were involved in many of the activities. Before he started he was warned by another employee that the kids wouldn't trust him at first because they had all been taught that white people just want to enslave him. Sure enough, it took him months to get them to really trust and like him.
That sort of attitude didn't exist in years gone by. I mean the years between the true end of slavery and the onset of the welfare state.
Be sure and get a copy of "The End of Racism" by Dinesh D'Souza.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-0357737-5884773
Also, you should read Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams who write extensively about the black communities that they grew up in and the black communities that exist now.
Yes, that's what I've always believed, too. MLK vowed to fight against Goldwater, who was the Republican candidate for President in 1964. Unfortunately, MLK was assassinated in early 1968, and what most people remember about his politics is that he was very much against the Republicans in 1964.
Who knows what he would have done in later elections when the choices were different, but his legacy seems to be Black loyalty to the Dem party. Or maybe that's the Goldwater legacy to the GOP.
BTW, isn't it interesting that hillary rodham was a "Goldwater girl" in 1964?
From there we move unto Johnson and the "Great Society" which devastated the inner city family, many of whom were black, removing fatherhood from the home and replacing it with the state.
That generation and the next couple were lost to conservativism forever.
But times have changed. The left had convinced black women that killing their babies was a virtue to the point where black girls abort their children at rates 4 times higher than the general population. Due to some fine conservatives like Sowell and the young turks you'll meet here at FR and elsewhere, that message is slowing getting out.
As well, those same young turks have decided that there is nothing stopping them from achieving whatever it is they want to achieve. They have left the democrats behind and joined the folks who believe in the right to life, the right to keep and bear arms, the family unit and the right to go as far as ones hard work will take them.
So basically the answer to your question is two names, the Kennedys who stood tall for the idea put forth by our founders and Johnson who utterly destroyed the self sufficiency and family unit in urban America.
A long road back but folks are getting there.
Hello CanukBlue,
I'm also a black Canadian. We Canadians have a website Called Free Dominion.
It's here
www.freedominion.ca
I don't know why blacks tend to vote for the more liberal person, there seems to be a perception created by the media that liberals are tolerant and conservatives are racist.
I agree. The Demonrats are shaking in their boots that some of today's young blacks are beginning to think for themselves and disagree with their parents and grandparents for their unquestioned support of the Demonrat Party. They seem to be leaning towards Libertarian or Conservative......good for them!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.