This is as wrong as Medved's attempts to cover for the Jewish vote, blacks used to be republicans, and they switched in a single election to the democrat party, the instant and permanent switch was made in 1936.
Jews have never been republican, or conservative, they are not captives, they are well represented among the leaders and members and even the intellectual creators of the left and it's movements and organizations.
“blacks used to be republicans, and they switched in a single election to the democrat party” (1936)
Maybe it is time to update the question.
What would make Jews conservatives?
Such political shifts happen - in fact they are constantly happening at different speeds among different demographics.
So what factors do you think would be most influential, in swinging this particularly influential demographic?
I went looking to see why analysts think blacks changed their party affiliation, and here are some theories:
- “Bread and butter” issues during the Great Depression. The New Deal was effectively sold.
- Leadership arose within the Black community - i.e. Arthur Mitchell and Adam Clayton Powell.
- Outreach. High profile public and symbolic gestures by Eleanor Roosevelt supporting Blacks and rejecting rascism.
-Recruiting and organizing in the black community (Communists had been organizing the Black community for 20 years prior, and were prominent in the Roosevelt coalition). Mass migration of Blacks from the South to Northern cities occurred because of the Depression (greatly accelerated by New Deal policies which rapidly displaced cotton), where Democrat Party machines incorporated them as they had other waves of immigrants.
Even with those factors and the dramatic realignment, 25-40% of Blacks continued to vote Republican, until the second major realignment in 1964, when Johnson supported the Civil Rights Act, and Goldwater opposed it (based on States Rights infringements). From 1964 on, we have seen Blacks become consistently the most solidly Democrat demographic - 85 to 95% for Democratic Presidential candidate ever since.