So President Bush managed to garner 11 percent of the “black vote”, up from 8 percent from four years ago. My opinion? I think it’s a good sign. While Bush didn’t need black voters to win this election, I’m sure he appreciates it nonetheless.
I’m not really excited about it or interested in trying to convince blacks to vote for Republicans. I wrote on the blog a few months ago that doing so just doesn’t appeal to me anymore. Perhaps running this blog and dealing with irate black liberals has jaded me on the process. All that nonsensical tripe about voter disenfranchisement! Downright embarrassing.
I’ll direct you to an op-ed written by Stefani Carter, a law and graduate student at Harvard. She takes a somewhat subdued approach in this USAToday piece:
President Bush won four more years after an election marked by serious divisions, real choices and record turnout. The president and first lady likely have a long thank-you list to compile. Unfortunately, blacks — who gave Bush just 11% of their votes — won’t make that list.As a young black person, I long for the day when conservative policymakers like Bush will be able to make true inroads in the African-American community. Democrats have long taken the black vote for granted, talking the good talk, yet failing to offer meaningful reform in their communities.
While I certainly understand her concern, I’m more interested in the 11 percent. I know all about the 89 percent. I was once part of a group that really believes liberal policies are in the best interest of blacks even though I saw the destruction with my eyes every day. Carter continues:
Take Booker T. Washington. He described a conservative as one who owned his own land and raised his own crops. His definition of conservatism asserted that all people, blacks included, could stand on their own two feet. But today, people don’t think of Washington when they think of a conservative. They think of Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond, unconventional conservatives who antagonized the black community.
She is correct. Black liberals perceive Republicans as the party of racist white men. But do they drill through the surface to get to policy, such as school choice and tax breaks and less government regulation of small businesses?
No. They see bigoted whites and token blacks. We now have a black Secretary of State, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and National Security Advisor. That’s nothing to sneeze at. There’s even talk of Clarence Thomas being nominated to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but because these folks have “betrayed their people” they don’t count toward black advancement.
Carter reminds me of myself two years ago when I began writing about these issues. She concludes:
You don’t lose your blackness, or reject it, when you vote conservative. You simply believe that liberal policies have failed people too often.
This simple statement sums up many of my frustrations in dealing with Democrat-voting blacks. Most don’t even want to hear you out. All they want is a person, not ideas, to attack.
I don’t want to be a pessimist, but I hold out little hope that blacks will actual vote according to conservative leanings I know some of them have. You’d be hard-pressed to find a black person who doesn’t think black kids in inner cities should have the opportunity to escape their desolate schools (academically and physically), for example, but will they vote for the Republican offering a way of escape? I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Why won’t they vote for the politician advocating self-improvement? Look, don’t ask me. I don’t know and at this point, I almost don’t care.
I will do my part on this blog and through other writing to articulate why conservative policies are better for America, but at this point I’m more focused on people’s spiritual condition.
Addendum: The mention of Jesse Helms triggered a memory. When I was working on the Hill for a Democratic senator about six years ago, I attended two Bible studies. One was held every Friday at lunch time by former Senate chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie. The another, hosted by a Senate staffer for a small group, was held every Tuesday at noon in Jesse Helms’s office. I thought that was important to note.
Addendum II: FYI, I’m not giving up on politics. This blog will continue to offer political commentary from a Christian worldview.
Update: Blacks Bond Over Bush (reg. may be req.):
Talk about shattering stereotypes.Two middle-age African American women in a Camden hair salon just realized they’re both Republicans.
Normally, Stephanie Holmes and Neicy Tribbett talk about everything as Stephanie works an auburn weave into Neicy’s formerly blond hair.
But this fall, each kept quiet about her conservative conversion.
That is, until I showed up at the beauty shop Friday to ask about God and government.
“I didn’t know you voted for Bush,” Neicy gasps.
“I didn’t know you did, either,” Stephanie says with a giggle.
“I’ve never, ever done anything like this before,” she adds. “And I’m 42.”
Praise the Lord, and the President….
Stephanie realized how appalling her decision seemed to other African Americans the day she mentioned it to a friend while shopping at Pathmark.
“People stopped in their tracks,” she said. “They looked at me like I was crazy.”
I can relate to “the look.” The ones I get are usually tinged with a good helping of disgust. I don’t care. Their loss is my gain!
Update II: Do you remember when Republican Trent Lott was forced out of leadership for saying something sort of stupid (given our PC culture) about Republican Strom Thurmond, but Democrat Chris Dodd got a pass for saying something really stupid about former KKK Democrat Robert Byrd?
I wrote Two Old Men, Two Different Standards in April.
Update III (11/9): Michelle Malkin on the “Hispanic vote.”
Non-blogging Barbra Streisand tries to sound patriotic by quoting Thomas Jefferson, a dead white slave-owning male.
Update IV: There’s a controversial law review article out or on its way about race preferences in law school admissions. Power Line and Discriminations blogged about it, and the article’s author will be guest-blogging on Volokh Conspiracy.
Michael King: “One other point that [Star] Parker makes that I wholeheartedly agree with is that the GOP must maintain an open line of communication with blacks.”
Here’s another inane “Jim Crow” voter intimidation article.
