Posted on 10/23/2004 10:40:27 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
According to two polls released over the week just passed, President Bush has picked up significant ground among black voters. A New York Times poll showed black support for the president at 17 percent. A poll of larger scope done by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, an organization specializing in studying black issues, showed 18 percent black support for Bush. Although black support at this level for Bush/ Cheney is still low, it nevertheless represents a doubling of the 8 percent of the black vote that the Republican ticket received in 2000.
In a race that seems to be shaping up as a neck and neck horserace, it can make all the difference for the president to pick up an additional 9 percent of the black vote.
Although some have expressed surprise that the president is notably picking up new support among black voters, those who have been reading my columns over the last several months will be less astonished by these results. I have been writing that traditionally Democratic voters in the black church going community are becoming disillusioned with the Democratic Party and that, in particular, the gay marriage issue has become a focal point of that disillusionment.
The results of the Joint Center poll, which was an extensive survey of current black political attitudes, bear out my observations. Support for Kerry among black Christian conservatives is now 49 percent, 20 points lower than the 69 percent that Al Gore received from this group in 2000. Bush's support among this same group, now at 36 percent, is more than triple what he received in 2000.
The black community is by and large a religious community. When surveyed, blacks respond at higher rates than whites that religion plays a "very important" role in their life.
The interesting reality over recent years has been that blacks have not taken their faith with them into the voting booth as do whites. Regular church attendance has been a reliable predictor of voting behavior among whites, with church goers disproportionately voting Republican. Among blacks this has not been the case.
The gay marriage issue may very well be the tip of the iceberg of change among the black electorate. Gay marriage, and claims equating the gay movement to the civil rights movement, has been a wake-up call. Black pastors and their congregants are waking up to the fact that the liberal agenda that they have been supporting all these years does not liberate but denigrates, dehumanizes, and enslaves. They are beginning to see the liberal agenda, the welfare state agenda, as a moral problem, undermining the dignity and responsibility that makes men and women free.
This disrespect for personal dignity, the treatment of human beings as objects to manipulate that so characterizes the liberal left, is what was at work in John Kerry's comment about Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter in the last debate with Bush. Kerry's dragging Mary Cheney and her private life before tens of millions of viewers who tuned in to hear a debate between candidates for president, goes beyond being an isolated incident of poor taste. When examined carefully, the remark and Kerry's behavior tells us about this man and gives a sense why black Christians are so uncomfortable with him.
Although liberals are allegedly the sensitive ones, those who really care about people, once Kerry sensed that he could pick up political points by using Mary Cheney to advance his personal political interests, he didn't hesitate for a second. It reminds me of Bill Clinton's observation that he took advantage of Monica Lewinsky because he could. John Kerry took advantage of Mary Cheney because he could. The only thing that stood between his violation of this young woman's dignity and privacy was his own integrity, judgment, and respect for others. The "I feel your pain" liberals of the Kerry/ Clinton ilk are con-men of the worse sort, for whom others are simply means to their own ends.
These slick operators translate their basic attitude toward others into political behavior by grabbing power by selling a bill of goods to those who are down and out that government can solve all their problems. Rather than telling the truth, that even in the worst economic environment, it is only through personal responsibility that people can pull themselves up, these con men view others' misfortune as an opportunity for their own political gain.
The substance of Kerry's remarks was as revealing as his behavior. Kerry knows zero about Mary Cheney's personal struggles. However, he used her to claim that there is no choice in homosexual behavior. So, in one swoop Kerry threw thousands of years of religious tradition and teaching into the garbage. We're all victims now. And, of course, from a black perspective, John Kerry will argue that an individual's sexual behavior is as pre-determined as his or her race. So, indeed sexual behavior should fall into the realm of civil rights.
Blacks are picking up on all this. This is what these new polling results are telling us. View this as a trend.
Star Parker is president of CURE, Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education (www.urbancure.org) and author of the recently published book, "Uncle Sam's Plantation."
© 2004 Scripps Howard News Service.
All Rights Reserved.
That's gonna leave a mark.
The problem is, the democrats never seem to go to Black churches except during the election cycle.
Technically, no politican is supposed to "campaign" from a pulpit, as that would risk the tax status of the churches.
There are a host of interracial family members who post regularly on FR.
I'm one of them. A Southern whiteboy/Indian married to a half-Japanese/half white California girl.
Totally agree with you that it's just not that big an issue anymore.
As near as we can figure, Tonto Junior carries the blood of the Choctaw Indian tribe, Japan, Netherlands, England, and Scotland. Maybe some French, but I refuse to acknowledge it.
Star Parker is awesome. I read her book. She gets it, and can have a powerful voice among blacks.
I am cerain that it is here. I used to work with a lot of blacks and a lot of queers and while the blacks were tolerant, they certainly didn't think it was acceptable for them to be allowed to marry and were very vocal about it.
You of course are angry and unable to get the point, my problem isn't with minorities, it is with white liberal politicians who go before minority churches, only at election time and pander to them. I say the same thing to republicans that do it. If minorities like that sort of thing, then fine, they have the right. But, all the minorities that I know, granted most are republican conservatives, feel the same has I do. I guess that is what makes this country great, we are allowed to disagree.
By the way, who said you didn't work for what you have, not I. That comment misses the point. I am glad you have an education and a job/career. But those things were provided by your hard work, not some white guy standing in the pulpit of a black church making promises they can't keep. Which of course is my main point.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Current active military members will not re-enlist when their time is up. That will create shortages in all services, thus requiring a draft just to "stay even" with our current levels (even without reasons 1-4 you mention above).
When Kerry, Clinton, Gore, et.al visit(ed) black churches, their speeches from pulpits were reported and replayed numerous times by TV outlets. On the other hand, media yells "separation of church and state" when Bush (or other conservatives) attempt to speak at churches or private/secular schools.
IMHO, it's not about skin color. It's about partisan media bias.
Why? Why would you support a party that has shown nothing but contempt for you? Why would you support a party that treats you as if you're too d**n stupid to accomplish anything without their help? Why would you support a party whose only regard for you is as a useful political tool? Why would you support a party who think you're so weak and spineless that you can't exercise your right to vote without being intimidated by people who try to keep the elections honest and above board? Why would you support a party who treats you as if you have no capacity to think for yourself or form your own opinions? Why would you support a party who did, and continues to do, everything in its power to assure that you remain an "oppressed" minority?
Thought y'all might find this interesting.
Read post #15.
Part of it, I imagine, is the "crying wolf" factor. The NAACP and the Democrats last time went around openly saying that if Bush won, he would "bring back slavery."
In fact, when he got in, Bush appointed African Americans to two of the three most powerful positions in the government, something no Democrat had ever come close to doing.
The point is, reality has a way of making Democratic promises sound hollow, and more and more people are coming to understand this.
Pray for W and Our Troops
http://www.thehopeconnection.org/welcome.htm
I got to hear the head of this group, Bishop Harry R. Jackson (no relation to Jesse)
say that he's voting for Dubya, even if not in agreement with Dubya on all points.
(I guess he can say this aloud as a private individual without causing IRS problems).
He's also co-authored a book about African-American churches with George Barna,
the guru on Christian demographics.
I think a lot of blacks being career military has an effect, too.
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