Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean spoke to the DNC’s African American Leadership summit and said that no longer could the party sit back and wait until 3 weeks before the election to ask minorities for their vote.
“In many ways, the Democratic Party hasn’t moved itself out of the ’60s and ’70s,” Dean said…
[…]
“If we don’t get smart about having folks on the ticket that look like the people whose votes were asking for, in meaningful positions of authority, then we’re not going to win. And the party that gets to do that first is the party that’s going to win,” Dean said.
Dead on, Mr. Dean. While the Republican Party is running candidates like Michael Steele, the Democrats are doing little more than paying lip service, if that, to the black community. The increase in the number of blacks who vote Republican is no accident. It is a concerted effort on the part of the Republican party, giving a voice as well as a seat at the table to blacks and other minorities. The number of black Republicans being elected continues to increase. As more and more of the black leadership becomes Republican, so will the rank and file.
Here we are seeing the effect of the inroads made by the Republicans in the black community. George Allen toured HU with the Republican president of the university, William Harvey. Creigh Deeds lost the Attorney General race by a very small number of votes, while the black pastor of a very large church here in Norfolk endorsed his Republican opponent, Bob McDonnell.
As it turns out, Mr. Dean, I had the pleasure of spending some time with a cousin of mine from Maryland. She’s the kind of voter any party would be proud to have as a member: well educated, intelligent and upper middle class. Guess what? She’s a registered Republican and plans to vote for Steele in November. When I questioned her about why she had changed her registration, it was almost as if she had read your statement above. She said she was tired of the party not providing her with a good black candidate to support. Sound familiar?
Let me be very clear: I have tremendous respect for the true conservatives within the Republican party. As an economic conservative myself, I agree with many of those principles. But true conservatives are not running that party today. So in its current incarnation, I do not believe that the Republican party serves the best interests of black Americans.
At the same time, I question the Democratic party’s commitment to the black community. Somehow, it seems that everyone thinks the “black community” is a monolithic group that has similar concerns. In my opinion, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The tie that binds the black community is that we are all black. Outside of that, our concerns vary, based on our own circumstances. Both parties seem to recognize this in whites, but ignore this when dealing with the black community.
Treating the black community as an afterthought is dangerous ground for the Democratic party and puts the relationship between the two in serious danger. Don’t just talk about it, Mr. Dean. Do something.
Technorati Tags: Dean, Democrats, Black voters
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
skep – I don’t think the 50-state strategy had anything to do with the Webb campaign.
I agree with Peter: you’re overstating the case. The Republicans have made a token effort to recruit conservative African American candidates, and have increased their numbers slightly. However, they are still vastly dwarfed by the number of African American Democrats. I honestly don’t think the lack of African American candidates is really as big of an issue as you make it out to be as to why voting concerns are changing.
The reality is that African American values are both diverging and coming out of alignment with any simple Democratic platform or the easy identification as Republicans being the enemy of miniorities, which if you want to make the case that it still is, you at least have to admit that it is far more indirectly so than ever before. You have a base in a party when there are a bunch of solid issues that makes things very easy for you as a party: you push those things, and that’s that. The Republican party has always had it far far easier than the Democrats: you find out what your average white male wants, and you stick pretty close to that.
The Democrats, on the other hand, have never had a simple target voter. They have to please the desires of all sorts of different groups all at once. This isn’t a problem someone can realize and poof, the solution is easy. EVERYONE knows that this is the problem, and there really ISN’T a great solution.
The reality is simply that the African American “base” will continue to diversify and split, and there isn’t a lot the Democrats can do about it. I’m not sure it even makes sense to lambaste the Democrats for it. It’s the average African American voter who is changing, and the Democrats will simply not be able to have a platform that will please everybody. As the issues that matter most change, many religiously conservative African Americans are going to find pro-life and anti-homosexual ideas more important. As the African American middle class continues to grow, economic concerns will take precedence for some. We’re not talking oceanic change anytime soon, but even small changes in enthusiasm and party allegiance are enough to tip elections.
betsbart: Part of me agrees and a larger part disagrees with your assessment of the Black voter. 1st: Republicans have made a concerted effort to recruit RELIGOUS conservative Black voters. In Maryland Gov. Erlich (R) was VERY successful in recruiting moderate Black voters (including MANY Dems) in supporting him. In the last election (at least in Maryland) it was not uncommon to hear the preacher in the Black pulpit spewing the same hate as in the Evangelical white pulpit, “If you hate homosexuality then you will vote Bush” (I attended several different churches in the months before the election and walked out of many of them.) You did not hear that in the Maryland Gubernatorial race and I believe Erlich SMASHED the Dems and nope, it was NOT because Mike Steele was Black!
2nd: You may be suprised at the number of Black woman (ESPECIALLY poor Black women) who will espouse a hatred of abortion but who themselves had one & who may/will in the future have one! They will NOT tolerate ANYONE limiting their right to choose (OUCH! Touchy subject!).
3rd: YOU DEMS SHOULD HAVE SOMEONE OTHER THEN A REPUBLICAN DEFENDING YOU! But having typed that, Dems need to do a MUCH better job promoting their position. It’s NOT pro-choice, it’s the right to choose. With an increasingly larger Black middle class with estates to leave their children, it’s NOT a death tax (great job by the Repubs naming that one!), so then what is it?
4th For Dems it seems to be about “party allegiance” and that’s why they are not talking about issues (IMHO) so they “fall back” on the Black vote… MISTAKE!! HUGE mistake! For Republicans and the white vote it’s about party allegiance, with the Black vote it APPEARS to be about the candidate (whomever that may be)! They parade out the Black candidate as if to say, “Here we are! Inclusive!” rather then saying not so much HOW they will do what they want to do (policy decisions) but what the hell the policy decisions are in the first place)!
This is getting too long but we are not a monolithic group & and MANY Black Republicans are NOT religious conservatives and we did not join the Party because of anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-christianity, pro-military (Homeland Security) ideals. We joined because we want the Federal govt to be SMALL, because we local government to be STRONG, because we want accountability in how tax dollars are spent, we want the Judiciary to INTERPRET the Constitution, the Legislative Branch to LEGISLATE not line their own “pockets” & we want them put the brakes on an increasingly probable dictatorship in the Executive Branch & boy have we been SORELY disappointed.
Oh… but that is not reason enough to vote Democrat (except in Congress to keep an eye out on the Republican President & vice-versa). It is reason enough to demand greater accountability from our Republican leaders!
It is my belief that the policies of the Republican Party are better for Blacks that the policies of the Democratic Party. Allow me to look at just a few:
1) Welfare Reform, which the Republicans pushed through after they took over in ’94, has gotten many out of the cycle of dependency that had held them down.
2) Social Security. Under the current system, Blacks receive less benefits per dollar taken from them in taxes than Whites do. Having personal accounts, into which one’s payroll deductions are deposited, would allow Blacks to recieve better returns on their money, and would allow them to pass the excess onto their heirs.
3) Immigration Reform. The majority of Republicans, execept those in the Senate and the White House, want the borders closed. The illegal immigrants are taking jobs from the unskilled Americans, many of whom are Black.
4) Minimum Wage. Increasing the minimum wage would lose even more jobs to illegals who do not have to be paid minimum wage. Other jobs would just go away, and small, inner-city businesses, often owned by Blacks, would have to close becuase they could not pay their workers the increased wages. Raising the minimum wage also increases prices, as businesses try to cover the additional expense.
5) Gun Control. The murder rate for Black victims is nine times the rate for White victims. Cun Control measures have been repeatedly shown to increase violent crime. Canada’s violent crime rate is twice as high as our. England, Scotland and Wales have the highest crime rates of any industrialized nations, not depsite their draconian gun controls, but because of them. Concealed Carry laws have caused crime rate to drop everywhere they have been passed. Allow the people to defend themselves against criminals, and the crime rates drop.
I’m sorry this was so long, but it needed saying.
Anyone – of any color – who has been alive and awake for the past 6 years that could vote for a republicon – of any color – deserves exactly what they get. I’m sorry too that this is what our country has come to.
Jack – I’m not going to address those points one by one in this post, because this is not a policy debate. Let’s just say that you show a tremendous bias in your responses, making broad assumptions that just aren’t true. I’ll take them up later.
To those who think I overstate the case: Exhibit A
Hmm – Jeffrey Wilson is a low-income housing project that I last visited some 25 years ago accompanied by two armed guards.
Exhibit B
I look forward to it.
Vivian-
You have struck a chord, sister. Many of us are sick of the Dems taking Black voters for granted, yet, we can’t bring ourselves to go over to the other side. American politics lacks choice. Let’s see if Mr. Dean is going to practice what he’s preached.
Jack’s comments are incredibly offensive. Good Lord. I don’t even have the words for how frikkin ridiculous they are.
And I should have also said that yes, Vivian, you nailed it. I love your blog.
Outraged,
Perhaps you and Vivian could get together to point out the errors of my ways. I certainly did not mean for anything to be offensive. I am sorry that I offended you. If you can tell me what it was that offended you, and why it offended you, I’ll be better able to avoid giving offense in the future.
Thanks.
-Jack
I am surprised that no one has mentioned education. Blacks are the victims of failing public education, more than any other group. Too long the democrats have promised to do something in schools for Black students. More and more money is spent, with no improvement in Black schools. If any students desperately need vouchers, it’s poor Black kids. Yet democrats continue to care more about ‘schools’ (meaning teachers and administrators) than they do about individual students. The wants of teachers and administrators come before the needs of poor, Black, students.
Republicans support freeing black kids so that they have choice in schools. Democrats opposed ANY school choice and are happy to keep black kids trapped in failing schools. They are adamently opposed to giving those kids a chance at a real education, their only way out of poverty.
Outraged – I will be addressing Jack’s (and Jane’s) points. I’ll try to explain why they are offensive and hope you will come back and chime in. Look for it in the next few days.
Jane, As a Black former kid who was educated in the public school system I think fellow Republicans have it wrong! Public schools are a failure, not because of the amount of money put into them, but because the lack of so many OTHER supports systems. If I ran my business the way the government runs public schools (or other public/private partnerships) then I would have gone bankrupt LONG ago!
So the answer is NOT put more money into them, nor is the answer re-direct that money to give Black kids a chance in private schools. PERHAPS the answer is to make public schools have the same/close to the same standards that exist in private schools. On the other hand, one poster above pointed out more Black children have greater access to higher education then ever before. One TV show said it best, “Public schools should be shrines of education! They should be bastions of pride that goes beyond sports and extra-cirricular activities!”
Jack, I’m sorry that while what you say makes sense (to me) it is not a realistic expectation #2: That may be true but it doesn’t matter. We poor Blacks do not trust the gov’t enough to believe they won’t take that money from us (by flat out stealing it, paying higher taxes on it, redirecting it based on governmental needs). They might not but we don’t trust them not to! #3: Standard Repub arguement that we don’t believe. Immigrants are not “taking” our jobs, white people don’t give us the opportunity to show we can excel. #4: Min. wage: Increasing it means I can feed my family. It does NOT mean immigrants will take my job. Increasing it means I can pay for meds, not have to pick & choose. Increasing it means I can take care of my immediate needs. Each time it was increased in the past did NOT cause the end of the world and in fact, the economy increased! #5: Gun control doesn’t mean anything to me. It is about white people who want to make ANOTHER law that will put me in jail for YEARS. It’s not about auto/semi-automatic weapons, it’s about the federal gov’t getting involved in my state/local gov’t area of responsibility. Whatever the cause of the increase in the murder rate among Blacks, gun control will NOT fix that!