Posted on 07/09/2004 10:17:41 AM PDT by BushisTheMan
The long-standing alliance between Ohio's black community and the Democratic party is falling apart in this key battleground state.
More black voters are allying themselves with the Republican party, polls are showing. Clergymen at prominent black churches in Cleveland told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that they are determined that Democrats no longer take their support for granted. "We can't be bound to any party," Rev. C. Jay Matthews of Mount Sinai Baptist Church, president of United Pastors in Mission told the Plain Dealer. GOP national chairman Ed Gillespie told a luncheon at the Cleveland's Urban League that there are signs that more black Americans are open to the GOP, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Gillespie cited studies that have shown that 35 percent of blacks ages 18 to 25 identify themselves as independent, and that from 2000 to 2002, the percentage of blacks describing themselves as Democrats dropped 11 percent, while the GOP gained 6 percent. Moreover, the paper reported that their statewide poll in May found 15 percent of blacks supported Bush, 73 percent support Kerry and 3 percent support Ralph Nader. Nine percent of black voters surveyed said they were undecided.
Exit polls showed Bush received 9 percent of the black vote in Ohio in 2000. Several clergymen told the newspaper that issues such as Bush's support of faith-based initiatives that give religious groups money to provide social services and his opposition to same-sex marriages are attracting black voters. The Rev. Darrell Scott of New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights told the Plain Dealer that a younger generation of blacks who do not have the same emotional ties with the Kennedy-Johnson era of progress on civil rights no longer will automatically vote Democratic. "We're able to make our own decision," he said. "We'll go either way." Scott told the newspaper that he admires the President for standing firm on abortion and same-sex marriages, even if it costs him votes. But the pastor emphasized that he is just as wary of Republican political promises as those of Democrats. "During the last election, a lot of black clergy became persuaded by the Republican Party because there was a great deal of talk about faith-based initiatives. In the four years since, I haven't seen a great deal of faith-based activity. . . . Who in Cleveland has received some?" Scott asked. "Election-speak is one thing. Reality is another," Scott said. "It's election time again." Noting Gillespie's visit to a black Baptist church in Cleveland's Mount Pleasant neighborhood on Thursday the Rev. Marvin McMickle told the Plain Dealer "I'm paying attention to the folks who are paying attention to me. It is going to be much more of a two-party environment as long as the Republican Party gives us some issues we can consider in good conscience." Boxing promoter Don King, whose hometown is Cleveland, accompanied Gillespie on his visit.
The Plain Dealer reported that King said that while Republicans in the past have alienated the black community with apathy and prejudice, Bush is different.
It is particularly significant that the president has placed highly qualified black men and women in positions of power, such as secretary of state and national security adviser. If the poll showing 15 percent of Ohio's black voters support Bush is on target, that could tip the scales come November.
Experts told the Plain Dealer that even a small increase over the 8 or 9 percent who voted for Bush in 2000 could be critical in battleground states such as Ohio.
Edward Brooke, Massachusetts, a few Presidents ago.
If he got 1 out of ten in 2000, but looks to get 3 out of ten (10!) this will be a blowout.
Nice catch, I have a habit of typing while I'm talking on the phone or to the staff here, now and then it causes the error you pointed out.
Understood. :=) I do the same.
A 30% figure would be great but I think that might be a bit much to hope for. Even 20% would be very significant. Anything higher would be terrific.
I thought I was forgetting one (I said I wasn't sure). He's the one.
Strange how we get these random statewide R's from Mass, but are outnumbered like 45-7 in the State Senate, but we've had the Governor's mansion for a long time, and occasionally have R senators etc.
Weird.
Many blacks don't seem to equate queers with their struggle - but the dimwits are trying to spin it in that direction.
The first black Senators and Reps were all Republicans, see below... I also recall but can't find a Washington Post article mentioning that occasionally white Republicans were lynched with blacks to get us to stop helping them run for office.
"Seventeen Blacks were elected to serve in the U. S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate. Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels from Mississippi were the first Blacks to be elected to the U. S. senate. Bruce served a full term, while Revels only served a year and a half. All of these elected officials were Republicans. As a matter of fact, 80% of the Republican voters in the South were Black men."
http://www.csusm.edu/Black_Excellence/documents/pg-r-reconstruction.html
Thank you most kindly for the ping :-)
BUMP for later read. Thunderstorms a gathering at the moment.
With all my heart, I hope it's true that at least some inroads are being made. I know this administration has tried harder than any administration in my lifetime to do substantive, practical outreach on the ground in black communities. I yearn for a fresh start between African-Americans and the Republican Party not for political calculus, but because Leftism is so damaging to all people.
My tagline until the election:
A vote for Kerry-Edwards is a vote for Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Jacques Chirac, the UN, and Hollyweirdos like Michael Moore and Whoopie Goldberg. A vote not cast, or a vote cast for a minority party, is a vote for Kerry-Edwards (unless youre a liberal/Leftist wholl vote for Nader, the Greens, or stay home.)
Black Americans finally breaking out of the political plantation mentality. This is great news.
Spot on!
Raggy! RUT RO!
bump
WOW!
If this trend holds,
it's all but over.
JFK made one phone call -- to Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Birmingham jail -- and it set black Americans' political loyalties for a generation. Other then the sponsorship of civil rights legislation (which was not small thing), the Democrat Party has historically been the biggest barrier to black opportunity in the nation.
To plagiarize John Leguizamo:
Blacks voting for Democrats is like roaches voting for Raid. It's suicide.
Not really. Many black leaders -- mainly black pastors -- took offense to this comparison, and were very vocal. One black pastor in Georgia went so far to say that if the KKK were to come out against gay marriage, he'd ride with them on that issue. I kid you not! That is serious trouble for the Demwads.
Frederick Douglass Bump.
Agreed! All the Democrats offer is institutionalized victimization. Civil rights legislation in the 60s was significant and substantive, but over the past 30 years, what the Democrats have offered black America is bondage to a cancerous ideology.
Is there any chance of giving Bill Cosby some prime time at the GOP convention? His recent comments are exactly what the GOP should stand for.
I agree, she will be.
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