Bush's Black Voter Court Shakes Democrats

BlackNews.com ^ | July 22, 2005 | Earl Ofari Hutchinson

[NickatNite2003]

Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman told the recent NAACP convention that he'd pull out all stops to woo black voters to the GOP tent. A few hundred miles away his boss was busy touting his program for jobs, minority business, and homeownership at the Indianapolis Black Expo. Bush and Mehlman got a listen at both places, and they should have. Blacks have gotten precious little in return for their blind loyalty to the Democratic Party. The black poor are more numerous. They live in crime and violence plagued neighborhoods. Their children attend miserably failing public schools. Public services in their communities are abominable.

Increased black GOP voter support will give blacks greater leverage in the Republican Party to promote their interests. That in turn will force the Democrats to fight harder for those interests. The GOP has reshaped the black agenda to challenge the agenda of black Democrats and mainstream civil rights groups.

But Bush and Mehlman's black voter onslaught has nothing to do with political altruism. The GOP is playing for national and state dominance for years to come and even the most marginal bump up in the black vote for the party in key battleground states would assure that dominance. There are slight rumblings of a shift. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington D.C. based black political research institute, found that between 2000 and 2004 the percent of blacks that registered Democrat dropped 11 percent. One in three young (under age 35) blacks said they were independents. The percent of blacks registered as Republican tripled. The not insignificant Republican increase and the Democratic slide among blacks have had major political consequences.

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

The percenage of blacks becoming more conservative is due to a gut check on their future. If they want security for their families from the kooks and perverts and criminals, they become more conservative as they get frustrated with the spinning wheel of liberal activist judges.

If they want more freedom, they eventually recognize that the Democrats prefer to keep them shackled andd chained to a welfare system in order to win blocks of votes from the uninformed and easily swayed.

The member that posted that comment is painting with a false broad stroke. It is easier for blacks to become more conservative who grew up in middle-income or better neighborhoods and had good parents and attended good schools. However, we see many of the most well known national figures who grew up in poor neighborhoods and bad siituations but had a deep desire for success and that pointed them to conservatism.

The key is education; lacking that, a personal desire to be aware and informed. Those that have possess those attributes have a greater chance of seeing the Democratic party for what it is--raving lunatics who desire power, not as a party that desires the good for the nation.

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

The percentage of blacks becoming more conservative is due to a gut check on their future. If they want security for their families from the kooks and perverts and criminals, they become more conservative as they get frustrated with the spinning wheel of liberal activist judges.

If they want more freedom, they eventually recognize that the Democrats prefer to keep them shackled andd chained to a welfare system in order to win blocks of votes from the uninformed and easily swayed.

The member that posted that comment is painting with a false broad stroke. It is easier for blacks to become more conservative who grew up in middle-income or better neighborhoods and had good parents and attended good schools. However, we see many of the most well known national figures who grew up in poor neighborhoods and bad siituations but had a deep desire for success and that pointed them to conservatism.

The key is education; lacking that, a personal desire to be aware and informed. Those that possess those attributes have a greater chance of seeing the Democratic party for what it is--raving lunatics who desire power, not as a party that desires the good for the nation.

Finally, it is possible that the "shift" mentioned in this article of blacks away from blind Democratic registering is one reason Hillary Clinton is pulling this phoney "I am a centrist" and trying to act like a non-Marxist. She knows that in order to win, she will have to appeal to easily swayed whites even more, now that there are fewer "easily swayed blacks" since they are starting to recognize the Democratic party abandoned blacks long ago, simply using blacks as pawns and tools to gain power.

[JockoManning]

Thanks for posting this.

[Tribune7]

If blacks voted according to their values the Democratic Party would die. That they don't is due to the data they receive from sources they trust reinforced by old media and entertainment stereotypes.

[Allosaurs_r_us]

have done so for the promise of relaxed prosecution, "make work" public employment, and unlimited ADC programs.

 

I thought the idea was we were promising just the opposite. If African Americans are coming to the Republican party it is certainly not for handouts. It don't work that way. Conservatives want to cut all these handouts and put some money back into the pockets of the good people of this country who take it upon their own to support themselves and their families.

 

We're not going to promise anything, except maybe you will still say "under God" when you pledge allegiance, or perhaps be able to read the Ten Commandments while waiting to renew your voter registration by providing picture ID, or pay less at the gas pump because we are pumping oil out of Anwar and keeping a few caribou warm huddling next to a warm pipeline in Alaska.

 

You might have to take responsibility to teach your children that not all can be winners. After all when you start keeping score again in soccer and T-ball one side is bound to lose. We can almost guarantee you will have a confrontation with a teacher at your local elementary or high school, when they decide it is in your child's best interest to teach them why Monty has 2 dads, rather than why Washington crossed the Delaware or who John Hancock was.

 

No, if Blacks are migrating to the conservative side it is more than likely because of the moral bankruptcy of the left. You can only run our great country and everything she stands for into the ground for so long before true Americans begin to wake up! The lunacy of the left is driving people of all races to the right. They are sick and tired of seeing bloviating Senators preach how caring and understanding they are only to see the opposite happen when a person of color, or of minority standing, get vilified upon reaching the pinnacle of their careers and recieve appointment as a high ranking official.

 

We are not going to promise anything, except that tomorrow you will still be speaking English, and "Omar" and the rest of the fanatics with their turbans wound to tight will still be running for their lives everywhere in the free world. And just in case you must protect yourself when one of these morons of jihad slips through threatens you or your family, we will make sure you can still pull that 44 magnum out and send him to meet the 52 virgin sheep.

 

[CFC__VRWC]

A few percent here and a few percent there, add up to Republican victories, and to placing some good conservative blacks in high elected offices.

The single most critical factor in getting Dims elected for the past 30-40 years has been the 90+ percent of the black vote that goes to them. That's been their bread and butter. Start chipping into that, even just to the point where the Dims are taking 80-85 percent, and they're finished as a national power. They're nothing more than what their leadership is - a fringe group of shrill, hysterical, guilt-ridden white trust-fund babies.

[JockoManning]

Excerpt:

'Bush and Mehlman ... strategy is to resurrect the part of its past in which Republicans championed black rights. The difference this time is that Republicans have radically redefined the fight for black rights. It's not for affirmative action, and more entitlement and welfare programs. It's pro-business, and homeownership, pro-Social Security privatization, and pro traditional family values. That appeals to young, upwardly mobile blacks.

'The rare times that Republicans have made any real effort to attract blacks, put money into a black Republican candidate's campaign and delivered on their promise to pump more resources into health care, education, minority business, and education programs, they've dented the Democrat's lock on the black vote and even managed to win a few key state offices, most notably in Maryland and Ohio. In 2006, a slew of high profile blacks will bid for Senate and governor seats in Pennsylvania and Ohio, two perennial crucial battleground states.'

[ken21]

you're correct.

there are luddites on this forum that want to destroy the republicans from wooing the hispanic vote, too.

[Eva]

Interesting article. The Republican Party has no where to go but up, when it comes to attracting Black voters. It can't get much worse. The problem is reaching the Black voters when they are so enmired in pop culture, that the message that they can do better is not getting through.

[LucyJo]

"Republicans have radically redefined the fight for black rights. It's not for affirmative action, and more entitlement and welfare programs. It's pro-business, and homeownership, pro-Social Security privatization, and pro traditional family values. That appeals to young, upwardly mobile blacks."

It will be a wonderful day when enough eyes are opened to the fact that these issues are not "black rights" issues or "white rights" issues, but American citizens' issues. They appeal to anyone who wants a better life and is willing to participate in achieving it.

[Brian Allen]

<< To: the_rightside

Perhaps you may want to read the rest of the story. >>

Perhaps I may do, too.

So here it is!




Bush's Black Voter Court Shakes Democrats

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, BlackNews.com Columnist



Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman told the recent NAACP convention that he'd pull out all stops to woo black voters to the GOP tent. A few hundred miles away his boss was busy touting his program for jobs, minority business, and homeownership at the Indianapolis Black Expo. Bush and Mehlman got a listen at both places, and they should have. Blacks have gotten precious little in return for their blind loyalty to the Democratic Party. The black poor are more numerous. They live in crime and violence plagued neighborhoods. Their children attend miserably failing public schools. Public services in their communities are abominable.

Increased black GOP voter support will give blacks greater leverage in the Republican Party to promote their interests. That in turn will force the Democrats to fight harder for those interests. The GOP has reshaped the black agenda to challenge the agenda of black Democrats and mainstream civil rights groups.

But Bush and Mehlman's black voter onslaught has nothing to do with political altruism. The GOP is playing for national and state dominance for years to come and even the most marginal bump up in the black vote for the party in key battleground states would assure that dominance. There are slight rumblings of a shift. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington D.C. based black political research institute, found that between 2000 and 2004 the percent of blacks that registered Democrat dropped 11 percent. One in three young (under age 35) blacks said they were independents. The percent of blacks registered as Republican tripled. The not insignificant Republican increase and the Democratic slide among blacks have had major political consequences.

In Florida, a record black vote turnout in Democratic precincts in 2000 nearly tipped the election to Al Gore. In 2004 it was exactly the reverse. A tepid black Democratic turnout, combined with the 13 percent of the black votes Bush received, which was double what he got in 2000, helped him win Florida outright and avoid a repeat of the election debacle of 2000. Republican gains among blacks were even more dramatic in Ohio. Bush garnered nearly 20 percent of the black vote there. To put that in perspective, if Bush had gotten the same proportion of the black vote in the state in 2004 as he did in 2000, his margin of victory over Democratic presidential contender John Kerry would have narrowed from 118,000 votes to 25,000 votes. Given the large number of provisional ballots filed in Ohio, the Democrats almost certainly would have challenged the election certification. It would have been Florida 2000 all over again.

GOP gains among black voters are no accident and are not due to happenstance. In August 2000, embattled GOP strategist Karl Rove told Washington Post national political writer Tom Edsall that the Republicans must reject "the use of such issues as affirmative action, and 'welfare queens' that past GOP candidates had employed in a calculated bid to polarize the electorate and put together a predominantly white majority." Mehlman repeated a variation on the line at the NAACP convention when he tendered his and the GOP's mea culpa for snubbing blacks in past years.

Bush and Mehlman aim to bury the sorry episode in Republican history when it blatantly pandered to racists and states righters, ultra conservative kooks and loonies, and hopelessly alienated black voters. Their strategy is to resurrect the part of its past in which Republicans championed black rights. The difference this time is that Republicans have radically redefined the fight for black rights. It's not for affirmative action, and more entitlement and welfare programs. It's pro-business, and homeownership, pro-Social Security privatization, and pro traditional family values. That appeals to young, upwardly mobile blacks.

The rare times that Republicans have made any real effort to attract blacks, put money into a black Republican candidate's campaign and delivered on their promise to pump more resources into health care, education, minority business, and education programs, they've dented the Democrat's lock on the black vote and even managed to win a few key state offices, most notably in Maryland and Ohio. In 2006, a slew of high profile blacks will bid for Senate and governor seats in Pennsylvania and Ohio, two perennial crucial battleground states.

The spectacular emergence of the black evangelicals as a potent political force also has been a boon to the GOP, and a nightmare for Democrats. If Republicans play their anti-gay marriage, and anti-abortion cards right, and Bush delivers on his African AIDS funding initiative, they'll get even more black evangelical votes in the 2006 elections.

The fear and loathing many blacks still have of Bush's policies for now guarantee the Democrats a winning hand in the hard fought game for black voters. But Republicans think they can do something that was unthinkable a scant four years, and that's break the Democrat's stranglehold on the black vote. Bush and Mehlman may be on to something.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is columnist for BlackNews.com, a leading political analyst and social issues commentator. He is also the author of The Crisis in Black and Black (Middle Passage Press).


PRESS CONTACT: Earl Ofari Hutchinson, 323-296-6331, hutchinsonreport@aol.com

[bray]

He just highlighted the Great Society by LBJ is all. When Blacks move away from the Ghetto either physically or mentally they move towards the GOP and that is what is happening. Middle class Blacks are the fastest growing group in America.

Every Black vote that comes our way means the Rats have to manufacture 2 votes somewhere else. Problem is, this is happening across the spectrum.

Pray for W and Our Troops

[mhking]

He just highlighted the Great Society by LBJ is all.

No he didn't. He insulted each and every black Republican.

From his comments, he doesn't give two cents for any black conservative. From his comments, each and every one of us is of no use, nor of any consequence.

He's got his agenda, and that much is painfully obvious.

Make no mistake: I know there are mouth-breathing racists on our side. And I'll make my displeasure know about each and every one of 'em. And if any come in spittin' distance, then I'm comin' after them. Hard.

[DuckFan4ever]

Hey a$$hole, why don't you take your racist statements somewhere where they will be appreciated, like with David Duke? Don't get your racist slime on the GOP. We've worked too hard to have bigots like you bring us down.

[bray]

You should be insulted because that is exactly how the Dems have treated you for 30 years. By making Blacks slaves to the gummit, you were assumed unable to think or become productive members of society. That is why they built the projects, took the Father out of the house and put abortion clinics on the corner. He was far less racist than that.

Some believe enslaving Blacks to socialism was by good intentions. My belief is that there was some serious Klansmen who were and did destroy the culture and ensure they stayed second class citizens. Thank God you are one that woke up. Millions are waking up with you it's just that you are a pioneer in your community.

Pray for W and Our Troops

[painter]

Just offer them relaxed prosecution for drugs, lots of make work public employment, and reinstate unlimited ADC payments. They be votin' for the GOP every time.

Of course. In your mind, we can't think for ourselves. We can't come to a logical conclusion.

I think he was trying to be sarcastic.

[painter]

Your post is RIGHT on!!This should a letter to the editor in every news paper in the country.

By the way I love your tag line!:)

[Alia]

No, if Blacks are migrating to the conservative side it is more than likely because of the moral bankruptcy of the left.

Well said.

[painter]

promise to pump more resources into health care, education, minority business, and education programs.

HUH?

Throw MORE money at them?That is what the democrats have been doing the last 40yrs.