Posted on 10/24/2004 3:36:49 PM PDT by plushaye
The Rev. O'Neal Dozier recently spent a weekend knocking on doors in West Palm Beach's black community canvassing votes for President Bush.
"The results were very mixed," said Dozier, pastor of Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach. "At one house they'd tell you, `I'm not interested. I'm going to vote for Kerry.' But at the next house, they would sit and listen."
Dozier, who was appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush to Broward County's judicial nominating committee in 2001, said his pitch might emphasize the Republican Party's abolitionist roots. If the family regarded themselves as Christians, he would focus on the president's opposition to homosexual marriage and abortion.
Either way, Dozier is among a growing group of black leaders trying to bring African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans into the Republican fold.
Black Republicans are a demographic group often ridiculed by other African-Americans, who sometimes portray them as "sellouts." The late Buddy Watts, the father of former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts, once said, "A black person voting for a Republican makes about as much sense as a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders."
But in this age of White House faith-based initiatives and a growing black middle class, many blacks no longer view black Republicans as self-haters.
"Black people have gotten past the whole voodoo thing with black Republicans," said Michael Brady, co-chairman of the president's re-election committee in Palm Beach County.
Encouraged by polls that show young black entrepreneurs are more independent politically, Republicans are aggressively courting black voters; older blacks are trickling away from the Democratic Party because they say Democrats have taken their vote for granted.
"I looked at all the issues Democrats are fighting for, and I saw no good ideas," said Ron Smith, 36, a Lauderhill management consultant. "Too many African-Americans vote for Democrats just because we always have.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
That's a good sign.
Bump.
Seems like a trend around most of the country. Most polls have shown Bush doubling to tripling his support among blacks compared to 2000. If the numbers are true, Kerry is toast.
Sounds like RNC incomptence.
Very true.
From the Miami Herald/St Petersburg poll internals that showed the Bush-Kerry tie in FL:
'"Nearly one in five African-Americans back Bush. The margin of error for this usually overwhelmingly Democratic voting bloc is 10 percentage points, but if that level of support holds, it would more than double the president's performance with black voters four years ago.
"If Bush can garner 20 percent of the African-American vote in this country, he will be re-elected. I just don't think it's going to happen, though," Schroth [pollster] said. '
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.
Surely a fair number of blacks must realise how the Democrats use them and take their support for granted. The Democrats have held them down for 50 years. Some of them are waking up to the fact that Democrats see them as dependent children who can only make it in this world with the help of the white liberal.
I know Ron Smith - am on a board with him - and he is a good guy who has his head screwed on right. I wish the black community had many more leaders like him!
The great canard is that the enslaving and Jim Crow Democrats all became Republicans. But those who say things like that have no problem with Senators Byrd or Fritz the anti-Semite Hollings, or Rep Moran. It's all a smokescreen to smear Republicans.
Ping
Me too. Times are changing but change takes time. Hang in there.
They all became GOP because the rats went commie
Has nothing to do with the black vote, obviously.
It's about time.
"Too many African-Americans vote for Democrats just because we always have."
i think this is true of many union folks. however, intelligent people when shown facts and hard data they at least consider voting differently. while it could be better, i think that bush has done a decent job of getting facts on the table to counter the emotional "big gov't can fix it" message that dem's seem so well at pushing.
I was actually on a message board arguing with a college student about which party was the party of Abolition. Of course, this lefty just KNEW it was the Dems. I told her she was dead wrong and she called me a partisan, closeminded hack.
I asked her why she did not believe me and she said because her teacher told her what really happened during the Civil War. Damn, it's like talking physics to a five year old, LOL!
LBJ was a real bastard and pushed the Congress mercilessly and I'm sure that he went out of his way to get the Civil Rights act passed. Even then, he got about 62% of the Dems and over 90% of the GOP.
For people who live in the real world, the GOP did EVERYTHING for minorities EXCEPT affirmitave action. Bull Connor was a friggin' dem. All the racist BS done on the South was Dem backed. Hell, we fought a WAR with the Dems to end slavery.
Yet somehow the GOP is racist. Academia and the Media Matrix can burn in hell as far as I'm concerned!
True, true. I know the reason I am not a Democrat - and I'm not from the South - has nothing to do with race issues. I wish more blacks were Republican, but I also wish more whites were too.
I have a very good black friend who is a dyed in the wool Democrat. Many years ago I asked him what party Lincoln was in and he said the Democrat party. I even bet him he was wrong. These things aren't based on a study of history.
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