July 21, 2004
LOW HANGING FRUIT (via David Hill, The Bronx):
Some blacks shift from Democrats (CHRISTINA M. WOODS, 7/18/04, Wichita Eagle)
Shamin Rutledge grew up with Democratic values. But six years ago, she began to feel a conflict between the party's positions on abortion and homosexual rights and her personal values."The party just wasn't heading in a direction I was comfortable with," she said.
So she became a Republican.
Her decision placed her on the road less traveled by African-Americans, who overwhelmingly vote and identify with the Democratic Party. In the 2000 presidential election, for example, Al Gore received 90 percent of the African-American vote.
Despite the loyalty, political scientists and community members alike say there is increasing dissatisfaction among African-Americans with the Democratic Party. More are identifying themselves as independents or Republicans.
In 2002, 63 percent of African-Americans identified themselves as Democrats, down from 74 percent in 2000, said David Bositis, senior political analyst with the Joint Center for Political Studies in Washington, D.C. The center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that researches policy concerns of importance to African-Americans and other minority groups.
Ten percent of African-Americans identified themselves as Republican, an increase from 4 percent in 2000. The number identifying themselves as independent also rose, to 24 percent in 2002 from 20 percent in 2000. A third of those were ages 18 to 25. [...]
The Pew Center, an independent public policy and political issues research group, found that the percentage of black Democrats who say "people like me don't have any say about what the government does" increased to 58 percent in 2002 from 34 percent in 1999.
The organization found that white Democrats' views were more stable.
"There is a lot of dissatisfaction among blacks with the Democratic Party," said Ron Walters, a Wichita, Kan., native and a political scientist with the University of Maryland.
Moral/spiritual issues and the Opportunity Society make blacks natural Republicans. Once the psychological wall--that associates the GOP with racism--breaks, the flood should move quickly. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 21, 2004 7:37 AM
That is, after all, exactly what happened in the 30's. Hopefully, for the sake of blacks, the whole lot won't just switch their allegiance to the other party again, and so will avoid being taken advantage of again. Perhaps we'll someday see some parity?
Posted by: Timothy at July 21, 2004 12:26 PMToo bad Cain didn't force the runoff in Georgia for the Senate seat. But WSJ notes two other Southern GOP Africa-Americans might win house seats. Also, I think a recent survey put Bush at 17% of the African-American vote, well above the 9% he received in 2000.
Posted by: AWW at July 21, 2004 8:08 PM