For close to fifty years now the Democratic Party has had a virtual lock on the African American vote and for the life of me I fail to see how this blind loyalty has paid off in any meaningful way for Black voters. What have we gotten for all those votes?
And by the way, I use the term Black for a couple of reasons. First, I simply don’t feel like typing African American over and over and second, As a man whose skin tone is the smooth chocolate-brown of a Hershey bar, I can use any term I damn well please.
So back to my question, where are the benefits of loyalty? Have the myriad social programs aimed at lifting poor minorities out of poverty really worked the way Liberal Democrats love to say they work? The answer is no. There is no government program in existence that has or can deliver success or financial independence to a single person. There are however, many government programs that can help one survive and stay exactly where one is. For instance if you live in the projects, the government can help you remain fed, clothed, cared for medically, and living in the projects forever. But as far as getting you out of the projects and into the middle or ever upper class of society, not so much. Education, hard work and determination are needed to make that happen. Liberal Democrats don’t sell that message though, they sell the government-as-father message instead because as long as people remain dependant on government, those people can be depended on to vote for more government.
Have Democratic politicians and policies made any major improvements in the lives of those in the Black communities of Connecticut when it comes to major issues such as Crime, Housing, and Employment? The answer is no, no, and no.
What about education? Black voters especially in Connecticut’s large cities vote overwhelmingly Democrat.
Are the city schools getting better? No.
Are city schools getting more resources? No.
Are city school students graduating and going on to college in greater numbers? NO.
I like to think that if I bought a certain product for years and years and it consistently failed to deliver what it promised, eventually I’d switch to another product.
Well thankfully, there is another product it’s called the GOP, the Republican Party.
It is time for Black voters to stop buying the fictional image of a Republican Party made up of a bunch of rich, cigar-chomping white guys that hate Black people. Even if there was some truth to this image during the era of the morally reprehensible and disastrously short-sighted “Southern Strategy” that truth no longer holds.
It is also time for the Republican Party to do more to change the perception of the GOP in the Black community.
The idea of the Republican Party growing to look more like all of America is not a new one. Ronald Reagan, who narrowly lost the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 1976, realized that his party needed to broaden its base into a durable coalition that would help its members win and maintain office at the local, state, and national levels. Speaking before a gathering of conservatives in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 15, 1977, just five days before Jimmy Carter took the oath of office, Reagan emphasized this point, stating:
“The New Republican party I envision is still going to be the party of Lincoln and that means we are going to have to come to grips with what I consider to be a major failing of the party: its failure to attract the majority of black voters. It’s time black America and the New Republican party move toward each other and create a situation in which no black vote can be taken for granted.”
If the reasons stated above aren’t enough to get some Black folks looking outside of the Democratic Party, how this?
As long as Black voters remain a near-solid democratic block, Democrat politicians know that they only have to deliver a nominal amount of lip-service and not much else to issues of concern to Black voters in order to keep those votes because, they aren’t going anywhere.
As long as Republican politicians believe that “no matter what we do, Blacks won’t vote for us” then Republicans will continue to work on their base voters and largely ignore the Black voter and his or her issues. This has been the political norm for far too long.
However, if Black voters ever demonstrate a willingness to vote for either party, then suddenly both Democrats and Republicans will have to compete for the Black voter just like any other voter and those issues of concern to the Black community will be better addressed.
Hmmm…Competition breeding excellence, I’m talking like a Conservative Capitalist again.
This post quotes from a column in National Review by Kiron K. Skinner
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/259950/ronald-reagan-and-african-american-nro-staff
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