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.
"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?
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.
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.
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.
the sherman anti trust act should apply to unions. One the most destructive corporations in our country.
...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
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.
I'll give you something you would soon wish to forget.
I'm not buying that there were only 2% more black voters. Sorry, I just don't buy it.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
But an increase in black Republican votership this year isn't enough to warrant the continued work? Please. Spare me.
I truly doubt the author's sincerity.
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.
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.
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