Posted on 07/12/2004 7:15:55 AM PDT by nypokerface
Shamin Rutledge grew up with Democratic values. But six years ago, she began to feel a conflict between the party's positions on abortion and homosexual rights and her personal values.
"The party just wasn't heading in a direction I was comfortable with," she said.
So she became a Republican.
Her decision placed her on the road less traveled by African-Americans, who overwhelmingly vote and identify with the Democratic Party. In the 2000 presidential election, for example, Al Gore received 90 percent of the African-American vote.
Despite the loyalty, political scientists and community members alike say there is increasing dissatisfaction among African-Americans with the Democratic Party. More are identifying themselves as independents or Republicans.
Where they're going
In 2002, 63 percent of African-Americans identified themselves as Democrats, down from 74 percent in 2000, said David Bositis, senior political analyst with the Joint Center for Political Studies in Washington, D.C. The center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that researches policy concerns of importance to African-Americans and other minority groups.
Ten percent of African-Americans identified themselves as Republican, an increase from 4 percent in 2000. The number identifying themselves as independent also rose, to 24 percent in 2002 from 20 percent in 2000. A third of those were ages 18 to 25.
Eugene Anderson, a former state senator and Democrat, became an independent nearly five years ago when he started taking political science classes at Wichita State University.
"I want to look at things from a perspective of not having any loyalty to either party," he said.
'The lesser of two evils'
The Pew Center, an independent public policy and political issues research group, found that the percentage of black Democrats who say "people like me don't have any say about what the government does" increased to 58 percent in 2002 from 34 percent in 1999.
The organization found that white Democrats' views were more stable.
"There is a lot of dissatisfaction among blacks with the Democratic Party," said Ron Walters, a Wichita native and a political scientist with the University of Maryland.
"The problem is they don't have much of an alternative and so what happens, generally, is they choose the lesser of two evils, which is the Democratic Party."
The Republican Party can stress hard work and conservative values but it hasn't been able to fight the perception that it is run by white, Southern racists, said Bositis of the Joint Center.
"The Republican vote is very much a white vote," he said.
Tied to civil rights
The Republican Party was founded upon anti-slavery ideals in 1854.
It is the party of President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing all slaves in the states that broke away from the Union.
In 1870, Hiram Revels became the first African-American appointed to the United States Senate and Joseph Rainey became the first African-American appointed to the House of Representatives.
Both were Republicans.
But it was the Democratic Party that eventually became known for pushing the civil rights agenda for African-Americans.
The economic and civil rights efforts of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1930s and the legislation passed during the Civil Rights Movement prompted African-Americans to change their political affiliation.
The tie has become psychological, Bositis said, and remains to this day.
Seeking their vote
With more than 15 million registered African-American voters in the 2000 election, the demographic is not one to overlook, political scientists said.
"One of the top priorities in my administration is to reach out to the African-American community and try to build lines of communication," said Mark Kahrs, Sedgwick County Republican Party chairman. "We are slowly doing that."
Although the Sedgwick County election office does not track local voter information by race, Kahrs said the number of minority participants in the Republican Party is growing.
"We're building it up at the grassroots level," he said.
Rutledge said she felt like she was all by herself when she changed her affiliation to Republican six years ago.
Then she learned that the Sedgwick County Republican Party helped launch a Wichita Black Republican Council in September 2003. Now she is among 40 participants.
Godwin Opara is a member of the council and a longtime Republican.
Opara said he feels more comfortable with the Republican Party, which he says values the family.
"The Democrats are taking the black vote for granted," said Opara, owner of Transtecs Corp., which manufactures airplane parts. "Nobody is going to take my vote for granted."
But Lottie Shackelford, the vice chairwoman for the Democratic National Committee, said it is the Democrats who push policy issues -- education, jobs and health care -- that more accurately reflect African-American needs. "We are fighting for them each and every day."
Jason Dilts, executive director of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party, echoes that.
"Even though African-Americans and Hispanics do vote for Democrats a lot, we want to make it very clear that their issues are very important with us. They are what this party is all about."
He also points to what he calls examples of solid African-American Democratic leadership: state Sen. Donald Betts Jr. and House Reps. Oletha Faust-Goudeau and Ruby Gilbert.
"They are all very popular and are working hard in engaging the community," Dilts said.
Raymond Davis Sr., a longtime Democrat, said the party stands for working people like him.
"The Democratic Party is for all instead of just one group," he said. But people should vote out of principle and not out of party affiliation, he added.
Nationwide, the Democratic National Committee is working through African-American churches, fraternities, sororities and community organizations to register people to vote.
The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, is aggressively targeting African-American independents and reaching the larger community through a nationwide tour spreading Republican ideals.
"We are working to make them willing to look at the Republican Party," said Tara Wall, press secretary for outreach for the committee. "And we will welcome them with open arms."
Awesome!
I wonder if the group that was once called the Mainstream Coalition knows about this. Oh, wait. They're only upset when Bush does this. Never mind.
"Eugene Anderson, a former state senator and Democrat, became an independent nearly five years ago when he started taking political science classes at Wichita State University. "
I don't know this man at all and have no opinion of him, but does anyone see the irony in this statement? Wouldn't you want to take the poli sci classes BEFORE you become a State Senator????
Call me crazy..
The fragmentation of the black vote along class lines is a natural, normal, inevitable thing. But a generational thing. Jews, after all, still have visions of Cossacks and Black Hundreds and storm troopers and KKK and still fear conservatives and Christians.
Blacks, on a personal level, get along better with red zone whites than with blue zone secular liberals. That is why white southerners have been the successful Democratic candidates.
The emergence of sodomites as the new civil rights cause has disgusted blacks and propelled this development. Mark my words. An unexpected drop in black support from Gore levels will cost Kerry this election.
Interesting...
So9
Those that want to think of themselves as Americans rather than African-Americans are welcomed.
There's no such thing as "African-American" needs, unless you actually think of them as "different", as the left does.
Sounds like a place where they treat inflamation of the bosa in joints.
Two weeks back, a friend told me that he had heard on the "Beltway Boys" that Kerry was doing only 74/13 over W with Blacks. I'd settle for those numbers and leave the table if I waS sure THEY WOULD HOLD.
Did anyone get the name of that poll? Did anyone else hear them mention it?
Read my post.
I knew it last spring. Your heard it here first.
(Humble bows. Humble bows to standing ovation.)
If this bears up, it has a huge impact on the coming election. Consider this: about one in six voters is black. If an additional 6% of the black electorate votes Republican, then Republican vote will increase, on average, one percent of the electorate nationwide.
If you look at states where Bush lost by less than one percent, that includes four states (Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin) representing 30 electoral votes. Other states that were close, such as Florida, become tilted more heavily to the Republicans.
Bottom line - if those voting patterns are being correctly surveyed, and if there is not a countervailing loss by Bush (which right now doesn't look likely) then the election looks very strong for Bush.
The Democrat to Republican shift identified in the article only amounts to a measly 6 percent!
Considering that we're at the beginning of the 21st century and in the midst of a world war, the fact that so many blacks STILL remain unchanged in their allegiance to Democrats in such overwhelming numbers absolutely boggles the mind!
...we should never forget how strong the sting of exclusion or second-class citizenry is (why do you think Thomas Nast represented the GOP with the elephant?). Even the original Constitution of the US, while clearly a statement of liberty and individual rights, made an exclusion for slaves, denying them full citizenship. Clarence Thomas called this "the fundamental contradiction" of the Constitution. Even by mid-20th century, almost a century after slavery was abolished, Southern politicans evoked "states' rights" in defense of segregation. Why do you think Whittaker Chambers was a communist in the 30s? He was an idealist, and he saw the essential hypocrisy of how blacks, "the most God-fearing and man-despised people in history," were treated in the US.
We must be aware of this history, and be willing to talk about it openly. Democrats talk about it in defense of their policies, thereby gaining the support of blacks. We must continually reinforce the choice that voters have - between moving closer to the ideal of a color-blind society, or traveling further down the road of race-conscious politics. Though we are conservatives, we must be ceaselessly radical in breaking down the barriers to equal protection before the law.
ping
The pictures and brief bios of civil rights leaders (but only presumed democrats) are posted in every African-American community school room, church and library as icons promoting black history and pride. What we Republicans need is to do some promotion so that every black child knows that there are role models that are Republican. Leave no child behind in the Democrat brainwashing machine.
Such as? The New Deal coalition included the segregationist Solid South and Roosevelt didn't mess with Jim Crow.
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