Posted on 06/14/2004 11:04:36 AM PDT by kattracks
ATLANTA (AP) -- Herman Cain is a well-to-do black businessman with a strong belief that the Democratic Party that blacks embraced during the civil rights struggle has swung too far to the left.That is why he is running for the U.S. Senate this year as a Republican.
More black Republicans are running for office in Georgia this year than ever before, and black candidates in other Southern states are also finding that declaring for the GOP is more accepted than it was just a few years ago.
It is a small shift that Republican activists say could pay big dividends if it continues.
"It doesn't mean the majority of blacks will be voting Republican anytime soon," said Atlanta GOP pollster Whit Ayres. "But if you can move the percentage of blacks who vote Republican from 5 percent to 15 percent, you will change the outcome of a lot of close Southern elections."
That may be why the Republican National Committee has an office dedicated to courting black voters and candidates, and has several blacks running in high-profile races.
In North Carolina, Winston-Salem City Councilman Vernon Robinson is running for Congress with campaign mailings likening himself to the state's arch-conservative icon: "Jesse Helms is back! And this time he's black."
In Georgia, a record 14 black Republican candidates are seeking legislative seats. Among them is Willie Talton, who is running unopposed for the House and plans to take office in January as the first black Republican lawmaker in the Georgia Legislature since Reconstruction.
Georgia's slate also includes Dylan Glenn, a young black political operative with ties to President Bush. Glenn is running for Congress.
Alabama gained its first black Republican state lawmaker since Reconstruction when Rep. Johnny Ford changed parties last year.
Two black Republicans are on the ballot in Tennessee this year. And in Florida, Rep. Jennifer Carroll of Jacksonville became that state's first female black Republican legislator when she was elected in 2003.
What is driving some blacks to abandon the party most closely associated with civil rights to join the more conservative party?
One reason given is the improving economics of black households.
In Georgia, for example, black household income still trailed that of whites in the 2000 census. But the median income in black households rose faster than that of white households over the past three decades — 655 percent to 469 percent.
"It's not just people who've already moved into the middle class, but people who are trying to move up economically who are deciding that they are better aligned with many of the Republican candidates," said Senate candidate Cain.
Another factor is that to many younger voters, the civil rights struggle is just something they have read in history books, said William Boone, a political science professor at historically black Clark Atlanta University.
"Look at the age category of these folks. Many of them are folk who are several generations removed from the civil rights movement and have a different view of what the world is all about," he said.
For some blacks, there is a sense that Democrats have taken them for granted for years.
LaRon Bennett Sr., a black businessman from Glynn County who is running as a Republican for county commission, said Democrats "used fear and intimidation to keep blacks in the party, painting the picture that, in essence, they were the only alternative. You don't have any place to go."
In the Republican Party, "there's a great willingness and eagerness to have good, solid, sound minority candidates," Bennett said.
The party's civil rights record might not be flawless, he added, "but today I think the party has changed significantly, and is changing."
For others, there is a belief the Democratic Party does not speak for blacks on some issues.
Cain, who opposes abortion, said he believes a majority of black voters take a similar view on that and other issues of family values.
Boone, the political science professor, is not ready to go that far, but said the experts are mistaken when they categorize all blacks as liberal.
"The black folk we've chatted with indicate they are against abortion. They are prepared to talk about choice, but whether they would condone abortion, the answer is no," Boone said.
Will white Republicans vote for a black candidate? And will black voters support a Republican? Georgia's July 20 primaries and the Nov. 2 general election will help provide answers.
Emory University political science professor Merle Black said he believes most blacks will continue to support Democrats.
"This activity is concentrated among a relatively small number of conservative blacks," he said. "The vast majority of African-American voters are Democrat. I haven't seen much evidence of substantial growth of black Republicanism in the state."
Bobby Kahn, Georgia's Democratic Party chairman, agreed.
Every election cycle, the Republicans "try to prove they're an inclusive party, notwithstanding the domination by white guys. But then their policies and tactics seem to contradict any effort at inclusion," he said. "This is symbolic and nothing more."
On a serious note, if they want to crack the 92-95% D numbers in Detroit and 80-85% numbers in Flint and Southfield, they need to have people with strong credibility.
That means locals. This is really the key no matter what race or ethnicity or what location. In my state rep primary, the aggies voted for their own, Fowlerville voted for their homer - at the tune of about 70%+. Yoopers vote for their own overwhelmingly.
The key is to convince enough influential people(preachers and neighboorhood elders especially) that "Candidate X" is a good guy. It starts there to build foundations at the local level, and to create cracks in a dem base where eventually a Ronald Reagan candidate can shatter. Today the Catholic vote is not exclusively dem and is about 48/52.
It can be done, but it takes a lot of work and more than BS measures which can backfire.
Good luck to Myrah--being gorgeous can't hurt!
Someone has yet again preemptively posted a witty pun for which I cannot claim authorship!
I shall be avenged!
Rest assured, the day where my pithy comments rule the day shall come!
I've heard good things about Myrah from couple people I know in the district.
lol
Robinson took the remark as a compliment.
You will never get older Blacks in this country to vote for anyone but the Democrat Party. They are so used to bowing to the masters of the Democrat Party that have kept them in economic bondage all these years. For goodness sakes, if it wasn't for the Republicans that voted for the Civil Rights Act, Blacks in the south would still be living under Jim Crow laws.
Younger Black are smarter, better educated, have good sense and see a world around them passing them by, not because of their color, but because, as a race, Blacks have not assimilated into general American society the same as other minority groups including latecomers, like Hispanics and Asians. Why? It was to the great political advantage of the Democrat Party to keep Blacks in their place, at the very bottom of the economic totem pole.
And....Blacks minus an enlightened leadership, followed the rantings of the Jesse Jackson's, etc. that told them "The Man, Whitey" was holding them back because they were Black! Fortunately a sea change is now under way, the outcome being that any Black, or for that matter anyone, can be all they want to be through hard work, study, strong determination and a desire to succeeed in a free society. There never was, nor will there ever be, any proof that Blacks are inferior to other races. That is just plain BS!!!
Unfortunately the Democrat Party has made a history of keeping blacks penned in by preaching racism and hate! Too bad, Black folk never really got it. However, the young Black turks are on the march, and that is good news for all blacks and more importantly, the USA! And...the Republican Party where they rightfully belong for both economic and cultural reasons! Wake up black folk and get with the program!
There was a democratic insider who was blown off by the establishment in a pivotal New York City Council race last year, who wound up running as a Republican.
Unfortunately, the seat-which had been filled by former NYPD officer James Davis-was carried by Letitia James, who pretty much wiped out whatever Democrat, Republican or Conservative Party opposition she had that election.
This guy-Tony Herbert-is a bit of gadfly and making another run this year; this time, for the state senate.
I seriously doubt that he'll emerge victorious, though stranger things have happened. Not many I'll grant you, but they have been known to occur from time to time.
I think most of the successful black Republican candidates run in districts that are solidly Republican and without a significant black population.
I've loved this conversation, but I've got business to attend to.
Doesn't that sound so cool?
All professional-like and so forth.
Anyway, I should be going.
BEWARE THE BLACK TURBAN YAZID!
-good times, D-K
I found this the other day it’s a good read.
An Open Letter to the Democratic Party
By Frances Rice
We, African American citizens of the United States, declare and assert:
Whereas in the early 1600’s 20 African men and women were landed in Virginia from a Dutch ship as slaves and from that tiny seed grew the poisoned fruit of plantation slavery which shaped the course of American development,
Whereas reconciliation and healing always begin with an apology and an effort to repay those who have been wronged,
Whereas the Democratic Party has never apologized for their horrific atrocities and racist practices committed against African Americans during the past two hundred years, nor for the residual impact that those atrocities and practices and current soft bigotry of low expectations are having on us today,
Whereas the Democratic Party fought to expand slavery and, after the Civil War, established Jim Crow Laws, Black Codes and other repressive legislation that were designed to disenfranchise African Americans,
Whereas the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, and their primary goal was to intimidate and terrorize African American voters, Republicans who moved South to protect African Americans and any other whites who supported them,
Whereas, according to leading historians (both black and white), the horrific atrocities committed against African Americans during slavery and Reconstruction were financed, sponsored, and promoted by the Democratic Party and their Ku Klux Klan supporters,
Whereas from 1870 to 1930, in an effort to deny African Americans their civil rights and to keep African Americans from voting Republican, thousands of African Americans were shot, beaten, lynched, mutilated, and burned to death by Ku Klux Klan terrorists from the Democratic Party,
Whereas Democratic Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman rejected anti-lynching laws and efforts to establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission,
Whereas the Democratic party has used racist demagoguery to deceive African Americans about the history of the Republican Party that: (a) started as the anti-slavery party in 1854, (b) fought to free African Americans from slavery, (c) designed Reconstruction, a ten-year period of unprecedented political power for African Americans, (d) passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution granting African Americans freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote, (e) passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 granting African Americans protection from the Black Codes and prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations, (f) passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 granting African Americans protection from the Jim Crow laws, (g) established Affirmative Action programs to help African Americans proper with Republican President Richard Nixon's 1969 Philadelphia Plan that set the first goals and timetables and his 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act that made Affirmative Action Programs the law of our nation, and (h) never sponsored or launched a program, passed laws, or engaged in practices that resulted in the death of millions of African Americans,
Whereas Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka (a 1954 decision by Chief Justice Earl Warren who was appointed by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower) was a landmark civil rights case that was designed to overturn the racist practices that were established by the Democratic Party,
Whereas after Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt received the vote of African Americans, he banned African American newspapers from the military shortly after taking office because he was convinced the newspapers were communists,
Whereas Democratic President John F. Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Law, opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and was later criticized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for ignoring civil rights issues.
Whereas Democratic President John F. Kennedy authorized the FBI (supervised by his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy) to investigate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on suspicion of being a communist,
Whereas Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, made a 14-hour filibuster speech in the Senate in June 1964 in an unsuccessful effort to block passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and was heralded in April 2004 by Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd as a senator who would have been a great leader during the Civil War,
Whereas when the 1964 Civil Rights Act came up for vote, Senator Al Gore, Sr. and the rest of the Southern Democrats voted against the bill,
Whereas in the House of Representatives only 61 percent of the Democrats voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act as compared to 80 percent of Republicans, and in the Senate only 69 percent of the Democrats voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, compared to 82 percent of the Republicans,
Whereas Democratic President Bill Clinton sent troops to Europe to protect the citizens of Bosnia and Kosovo while allowing an estimated 800,000 black Rwandans to be massacred in Africa, vetoed the welfare reform law twice before signing it, and refused to comply with a court order to have shipping companies develop an Affirmative Action Plan,
Whereas Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore created harmful racial division when he falsely claimed that the 2000 presidential election was “stolen” from him and that African Americans in Florida were disenfranchised, even though a second recount of Florida votes by the “Miami Herald” and a consortium of major news organizations confirmed that he lost the election, and a ruling by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission declared that African Americans were not denied the right to vote,
Whereas the Democratic Party's soft bigotry of low expectations and social promotions have consigned African Americans to economic bondage and created a culture of dependency on government social programs,
Whereas the Democratic Party's use of deception and fear to block welfare reform, the faith-based initiative and school choice that would help African Americans prosper is consistent with the Democratic Party's heritage of racism that included sanctioning of slavery and kukluxery, a perversion of moral sentiment among leaders of the Democratic Party whose racist legacy bode ill until this generation of African Americans,
Now, therefore, for the above and other documented atrocities and accumulated wrongs inflicted upon African Americans, we demand a formal written apology and other appropriate remuneration from the leadership of the Democratic party.
Same here. Cain has the most impressive and straightforward commercials that I've seen in a very long time. In 60 seconds, Herman Cain speaks more bluntly than most politicans can do in 60 minutes. (unintentional pun!)
Yes, it's on the level. I live in Winston-Salem and have heard his radio adds several times. He also said that the only difference between him and Jesse Helms was that he had "a good suntan".
Lots of Freepers really like his "in your face" attitude. After having heard his "in your face" ads repeatedly, I have developed a serious distaste for him, although I agree with most of his political positions. I firmly believe that if my husband, a conservative WASP male, said some of the things Mr. Robinson has said, he would be labelled a racist, bigot, homophobe, you name it.
We don't live in the 5th District. My congress-critter is Mel Watt (D). This man can't speak in complete sentences. It's embarrassing.
BTTT
How right you are! Not ONE Southern Democrat voted for the Civil Rights Bill, but that little annoying fact always seems to get lost.
Another way in which the GOP could appeal to black voters would be to to offer serious immigration reform; i.e reduce legal immigration and end illegal immigration. This would actually help with both blacks and whites, and any possible loss of support from Hispanics would be more than offset by the other two groups. Then again, the percentage of Hispanics in favor of such reform is generally about the same or greater than the percentage of them that vote for the GOP anyway, so there may be no loss at all.
Of course the current GOP would never do this. It makes to much sense.
Ooh! Ooh! I know why you haven't noticed!
...It's because you're more than likely a tenured, liberal DemocRAT professor at my college!
Bobby Kahn, Georgia's Democratic Party chairman, agreed.
Every election cycle, the Republicans "try to prove they're an inclusive party, notwithstanding the domination by white guys. But then their policies and tactics seem to contradict any effort at inclusion," he said. "This is symbolic and nothing more."
Right, way to play the race card, idiot. The fact of the matter is that the RATs support Affirmative Action, which puts minorities nicely in their place by stating that they need a quota system to receive education.
Game over, good try though Georgia RATs.
Ridiculous! Some Blacks ARE Republicans, and why not???
Reaching out=explaining one's positions clearly.
Who are the "superconservatives"? I'm still trying to figure out who the "neocons" are. LOL(humor)
What about Reggie White?
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