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Blacks Need to Become a Swing Vote
RCP ^ | 11/11/04 | John McWhorter

Posted on 11/11/2004 5:16:51 AM PST by truthandlife

So much for polls that had President Bush getting twice as many black votes as he did in 2000. In 2000 he got 8 percent of the black vote. This time, he got only 11 percent. Eighty-eight percent of the black vote went to John Kerry.

What's interesting is that no other racial group in America has a vote-skew anything like that. Latinos voted 53 percent for Mr. Kerry and 44 percent for Mr. Bush. Asians were 56 percent for Mr. Kerry and 44 percent for Mr. Bush.

Blacks get insulted when people say we all think alike. But then why don't we take our individuality to the voting booth?

For one thing, a great many black people associate the Republican Party with racism. This means that voting Democratic is often less about making a personal choice than voting on the basis of a group concern.

This is understandable. But it's also obsolete. It's time for the black community to start spreading its vote across the two main parties.

The Democrats have no reason to address our concerns in any real way, because we're a slam-dunk.

And that leaves black America powerless. Help comes only when someone decides to try something out of the goodness of their hearts, and then there is always the question of follow-through.

This is why groups with pull make the parties court their vote.

Not that all of us should start voting Republican -- that would just leave us with the same problem. We just need to reconsider the idea that voting Republican is automatically disloyal.

For the record, President Bush did not get my vote. I voted for John Kerry because that's what my personal take on issues and priorities led me to do. But a lot more than 11 percent of us might find that Republicans have important things to offer us as well. Faith-based initiatives come to mind, as does education reform.

About racism: Our progress will have more to do with a party's policies than how some of its members might feel about their kids marrying ours. In 1912, W.E.B. Du Bois endorsed Woodrow Wilson over Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Wilson was a bigot, as was President Roosevelt. But Du Bois was interested in whose policies would allow blacks to make the best of the worst in the real world.

The civil rights revolution was four decades ago. Even President Clinton's Dialogue on Race is a fading memory. Soon Latinos will outnumber blacks. We're in a war in Iraq. The days when helping blacks was front and center on the government's agenda are gone. We have to start playing ball the old-fashioned way.

I know some think racism is the defining experience of being black, and that this means that our voting must reflect that. But must it, if this leaves us with no purchase upon national resources for our betterment? Must it, when Latinos are no strangers to racism, and yet they split their votes?

In that light, we have to ask: Does our voting pattern really represent the diversity among us in experiences, aspirations, values? Do we really want to give in to allowing racism to define us?

Because today, if we do -- if we vote as victims rather than as individuals -- we only perpetuate our victimhood. We become the Democrats' mascots, instead of a force to be grappled with.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: blacks; blackvote; election; vote
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To: truthandlife

"Does our voting pattern really represent the diversity among us in experiences, aspirations, values? Do we really want to give in to allowing racism to define us?


>I used to be on a messageboard where the resounding response will be YES or a bunch of longwinded responses that boiled down to YES.

Because today, if we do -- if we vote as victims rather than as individuals -- we only perpetuate our victimhood. We become the Democrats' mascots, instead of a force to be grappled with.



>It amazes me how the majority of my campus voted for Kerry. I probably would have too if I hadn't discovered FR in July :-(. I mean, they didn't even try to just share info on the candidates. We had a bulletin board set up for the candidates: Kerry good, Bush bad! It was pathetic. And it was so obvious that a good bit of them were only thinking that way b/c of what's been told to them. Which is why I relished when we won and they were all down like they lost a family member.

I would say that blacks are already the mascot.. More like Old Faithful.


21 posted on 11/11/2004 6:02:56 AM PST by LDub
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To: truthandlife
All I would ask American blacks to do is to really look at each party and decide which party really does suit your desires as a race and as Americans like the rest of us also do or should do. Voting for a party just because that is what is done does a disservice to all of us. I don't mind opposite points of view in political terms but I can't stand when any of us vote without reason. I do not believe the Democratic Party fills this need and has take Blacks for granted and that is a shame. I know that Black home ownership is at an all time high. If I remember Bill Cosby correctly he said don't buy the high priced sneakers instead strive to own the company. I think it is time for people to stop leading Blacks down the wrong road to happiness and teach them why our political beliefs would serve their best interests. I would like to see us FReepers create a positive list of these reasons we could present to a respectable Black leadership. I am not sure but the Latino population will pass or has already passed the Black population as the largest minority in America. The Latinos are making this choice. I am afraid that the Black population already being taken for granted and still loyal to the Democratic Party will be left out in the cold once they no longer serve the political poker chip they once did. I am afraid this will only lead to more anger and resentment so at least give us an honest chance to welcome you to the party.
22 posted on 11/11/2004 6:03:44 AM PST by TheForceOfOne
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To: LDub
"But then why don't we take our individuality to the voting booth?" Wish I had the answer.

While I recognize there are many reasons why blacks vote in lockstep for the Dem party, I think the main reason is peer pressure. Blacks who express ideas outside the prevalent group think are either ostracized (Powell, Thomas, Sowell, and Rice) or pressured to soften or retract their statements, e.g., Cosby.

Until Blacks start voting their individual interests, they will remain as the most solid voting bloc in the country. With the New South now almost solidly Republican, it becomes even harder for the GOP to convince blacks to identify with the Republican party. In terms of resources, the GOP would be better served targetting their efforts on the largest and fastest growing minority, Hispanics.

23 posted on 11/11/2004 6:13:54 AM PST by kabar
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To: 4whatitsworth
I worked at our local precinct on election day. A black lady about 50, (a product of a government school, no doubt) asked me where she should put her mark to vote for "carrie". I showed her the spot by the "donkey". Sigh.

If Bush had his way, her grandchildren could be going to a private school by using a voucher, because our govt. school out here has gotten poor marks. And they would be able to read well and think for themselves.

24 posted on 11/11/2004 6:14:48 AM PST by Tuscaloosa Goldfinch (THANK YOU LORD FOR YOUR MERCY TO US!!)
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To: truthandlife

Here's a test,

Ask a conservative white American if he/she believes black America can turn things around within 10 years.

Next, ask the same question to a black American.

I think the response will be optimism vs. Cosby.


25 posted on 11/11/2004 6:17:15 AM PST by kipita (Rebel – the proletariat response to Aristocracy and Exploitation.)
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To: Tuscaloosa Goldfinch

the sherman anti trust act should apply to unions. One the most destructive corporations in our country.


26 posted on 11/11/2004 6:17:28 AM PST by misusu21
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To: truthandlife; dead
For the record, President Bush did not get my vote. I voted for John Kerry because that's what my personal take on issues and priorities led me to do

...sending the rest of his argument and, as far as I'm concerned, his credibility, to Hell.

If HE couldn't figure out the issues in THIS election, and shake off the Donk-chains... well, he has no argument. "Other people should ____ — which I, though having every reason to do so, did not do." Buzz off, idiot.

Not that I have an opinion.

Dan

27 posted on 11/11/2004 6:17:36 AM PST by BibChr ("...behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" [Jer. 8:9])
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To: Warrior Nurse

Let's not assume that every black person that didn't vote for Bush is brainwashed. I didn't vote for Bush and it wasn't because I wanted a handout or government cheese. After 20 years in the military and working in a fortune 500 company I've earned everything I have. My issue was security and more specifically border security. I just didn't believe that Bush would enforce the law as it relates to immigration and the border. Now just a week after his election I feel my vote has been justified. So before we all jump on the "blacks are dumb and brainwashed bandwagon" please consider that there are blacks who didn't vote for Bush for reasons other than group-think or handouts.


28 posted on 11/11/2004 6:36:36 AM PST by blaquebyrd
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To: blaquebyrd
sorry, but is a good generalization that blacks vote democrat mostly for historical reasons.
29 posted on 11/11/2004 6:38:03 AM PST by misusu21
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To: kittymyrib
Forget about them. They are a shrinking minority, thanks to prison and abortion.

I'll give you something you would soon wish to forget.


30 posted on 11/11/2004 6:43:57 AM PST by rdb3 (The Black GOP vote numbers are up, and they WILL go higher. -- rdb3 "Hip-Hop FReeper")
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To: truthandlife

I'm not buying that there were only 2% more black voters. Sorry, I just don't buy it.


31 posted on 11/11/2004 6:58:03 AM PST by McGavin999 (George Soros just learned a very expensive lesson-America can't be bought.)
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To: blaquebyrd
Well what would you call it when 90% of blacks vote for the Democratic party and not one other ethnic group votes in those kind of percentages. You and I share the same view. I have seen first hand what liberal programs have done to black Americans. From the time when I grew up in Chicago until now, I submit that the welfare state, abortion and the child support laws have done to the black family what slavery or Jim crow couldn't. It took away the black man as leader and head of the household.

If a 90% vote over the past 4 decades isn't an example of group-think I don't know what is. Did you listen to urban radio during the campaigns? Tom Joyner called the President a racist on several occasions.

32 posted on 11/11/2004 6:58:34 AM PST by Warrior Nurse (Black & white liberals practice intellectual apartheid when in comes to black conservatives!)
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To: kittymyrib
Blacks in general will not figure it out. They are "victims" and intend to stay that way. Even this "enlightened" author voted for Kerry, so why is he in a position to give advice to others? Forget about them. They are a shrinking minority, thanks to prison and abortion.

Yep. An vote increase of 50% over 2000 doesn't mean anything.

Thanks to your "reasoned analysis," we can safely say that the efforts of black conservatives and those others who work to reach black America are wasting our collective time, effort and energy.

Then again, to hear you tell it, we ought to be in prison. The whole lot of us.

After all, to hear you tell it, the black middle class doesn't exist. People like me, my family, my friends and all my neighbors are an oxymoron.

Well, you know what? Bite me. People like you with your blind, moronic view are the reason that blacks who very well might consider coming across to the conservative side of the fence don't. Your attitude tells those more thoughtful and well-reasoned blacks "We don't want you. We don't give a sh*t about you. We'd rather you just wait our tables, 'birth our babies,' clean our floors, and take out our trash. We'd rather you just say 'Yassuh' and 'Nosuh,' and otherwise keep your damn mouths shut."

Well you know what else? I don't budge. I'm moving forward. You can either lead, follow or get outta the way. 'Cause if you stay in my way, I'll plow right on over you. And as big a head of steam as I've got, you'll get trampled. Hard.

You aren't satisfied with an increase in GOP votership from 8% to nearly 12% this time. You wouldn't be satisfied if ALL of black America voted Republican. And quiet as it's kept, with your attitude, no one cares, least of all me.

Keep your damn sheet to yourself.

33 posted on 11/11/2004 7:05:37 AM PST by mhking
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To: McGavin999; Warrior Nurse
I'm not buying that there were only 2% more black voters. Sorry, I just don't buy it.

I've said on FR repeatedly that if we can get to 10% that I'd be exstatic. At 11.5-12%, I'm turning cartwheels. If we find the numbers are even higher (as they are in some states - here in Georgia it was closer to 16% for example) nationally, I don't know what I'll do...

34 posted on 11/11/2004 7:07:39 AM PST by mhking
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To: Warrior Nurse
Some of our black brother's and sisters are mind numbed robots. Blacks also have the prototypical case of the Helsinki syndrome.

Agreed. But the outreach is working.

As I've said, we must crawl before we can walk. I think we're crawling along pretty damn good as opposed to the backward slide we've been dealing with for years.

35 posted on 11/11/2004 7:09:10 AM PST by mhking
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To: 4whatitsworth
They are content sitting on the front porch of there pink house and hoping uncle sam will feed them and as long as they keep having babies in my state of mississippi the gov will indeed keep feeding them. It is sad but true and you may say this is a racist statment and well may be but it is the truth from my eyes in the south.

Look beyond your porch, and you'll find more than you bargained for.

Then again, I guess the gains this year "aren't enough" for you.

And of course, the work to maintain those gains and increase them is too hard for you.

36 posted on 11/11/2004 7:11:01 AM PST by mhking
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To: FormerACLUmember
The "hispanic community" is ALREADY reaping the benefits of their massive swing to Republican votes (40-50%) in the form of the new Attorney General.

But an increase in black Republican votership this year isn't enough to warrant the continued work? Please. Spare me.

37 posted on 11/11/2004 7:12:05 AM PST by mhking
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To: truthandlife
The correct time to publish this article is 4 months before a Presidential election, not four years before the next one.

I truly doubt the author's sincerity.

38 posted on 11/11/2004 7:14:15 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: kittymyrib

I don't think it's just brain washing. A huge number of blacks hold patronage jobs in the big cities, especially Washington, DC. This is a very tangible, highly visible benefit conferred on Uncle Tom blacks by their Democratic liberal masters.


39 posted on 11/11/2004 7:17:36 AM PST by wotan
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To: mhking

My understanding is that 90% of the black vote went for the 'rat party. I agree with you that there is clearly a need for more Republican outreach to the black voters, but there is a clear deep psychological enslavement problem with this voting bloc.


40 posted on 11/11/2004 7:17:53 AM PST by FormerACLUmember (Free Republic is 21st Century Samizdat)
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