Republicans and Race
Real Clear Politics decides to blast the Democrats as the party of racial division:
The dirty little truth in 2002 is the Democratic Party is the party of racial divisiveness in America today. In state after state, the only way the Democrats can compete is to lie and radicalize the black community into going out and voting 90% against Republicans. It almost worked for Gore. It did work for them in Senate races in Missouri and Michigan in 2000. It may work for them in Maryland this year and in other races. But it won’t work forever
Cute. Very cute. Let’s look at the article that started this whine.
Talent is a bit better than the average Misery Republican. He does take an interest in inner-city manners and has been open to issues of black small businesses. But you would never know that from this race. His courting of African-Americans has relied on scaring African-Americans and lying to them. The Social Security ad is one of the most egregious examples. Another is that the non-prosecution in the Jack-In-the-Box Shooting was due solely to Bob McCollough and Buzz Westfall. Federal officials also did not act as it was a joint operation. Judis mention this in his article. I think Bob McCollough is a horrible prosecutor, but given he has no opposition, it would seem the Republican’s don’t have much to complain about with him. Frankly, I’ll sign him up for the Republican Party if he likes.
The claim is also made that Francis Slay is responsible for redistricting out Sharon Tyus and was a black-white issue misses that the African-American alderman split on the issue. The claim that Gephardt took black voters from Clay? Nope, sorry, the original move was by Clay trying to move into South City. He was cooperating with Republicans in the Missouri legislature to screw Gephardt.
What do any of these have to do with attracting voters to the Republican positions? Not much, they are attempts to scare black voters away from Democrats. The voucher ads mentioned don’t aim to attract black voters to the GOP, but to not vote because white Democrats are cynically manipulating them. How do I know they aren’t meant to attract black voters? The GOP has no serious effort in north Saint Louis. Well, unless you view Michael Chance (second from left) as a serious effort.
In 1998, to the credit of Kit Bond, the GOP made inroads into north city and African-American votes. How did Kit do it? Well, Jeremiah Jay did the hard work and pissed off black voters. Then Bond came in and used relationships he had on housing and other issues and courted African-American voters on issues that matter to them. One of them was Ronnie White. Black voters wanted him confirmed to the federal bench and Bond listened and made a half promise to make sure White got consideration. Did White get consideration? Yes, John Ashcroft torpedoed him and Kit Bond went along. Credit to Kit didn’t last long.
Was this an act of Democrats ‘scaring’ black voters? It is hard to imagine how. The act of voting against Ronnie White has radicalized African-Americans in Missouri more than anything Democrats could ever do. Indeed, the act brought about a reproachment with African-Americans and Jeremiah Jay. Moderates such as James Buford, head of the St Louis Urban League, turned with a vengeance and went after Ashcroft and any other Republican. Buford is especially interesting because Buford had worked with Ashcroft in the past and pushed African-Americans to not only ally themselves with the Democratic Party. Some have referred to him as a registered Republican, but that seems to not be the case. He responds to that question by saying he supported some Republicans, but had never been a Republican–nor a Democrat. I believe it is now safe to say he is a Democrat. Ultimately, the Missouri Republicans lied to black voters and black voters aren’t biting again.
Kit Bond makes clearly loaded references to ‘them’ when referring to voter fraud in the City of Saint Louis. One can play all the little word games they like, but the question is what do black people hear when he says ‘them’? They hear black people. And if Kit Bond would take the time to check his mouth and honestly talk with African-Americans he would know that. Instead, he rants and screams and does everything but bang his shoe on the podium and scream, “We will crush you!” What does that produce? Votes for Democrats. That ain’t Democrats scaring black people, that is a GOP US Senator scaring black people. Arguments over vote fraud can be made without referring to ‘them’, but he continually uses it. Either he is race baiting or he is too ignorant of how his word choice plays to know better. If he is race baiting, why should African-Americans vote for him? If he isn’t, why should they vote for him?
So how are Democrats in Missouri scaring black voters? By pointing out Jim Talent’s views? By competing for black votes while Republicans largely ignore them?
Finally, isn’t it a bit paternalistic to claim that over 90% of African-American voters are so gullible or stupid that they fall for these, ahem, lies? Here’s a clue. If you want to attract a group of voters, take positions they support. There are positions Republicans can take to attract black voters. School vouchers is one of them and another is that many black voters are quite socially conservative. Why aren’t these issues being pushed in black communities? Because the Republicans don’t compete in black communities. Listening to black radio in town, it is pretty clear that Republicans are avoiding telling African-Americans what they would do, and instead focusing on what Democrats have supposedly done.
The Republican Party has a problem attracting black voters. Latinos vote Democratic by wide margins, but nothing like African-Americans. If the Republicans want to simply cede those votes to Democrats that is truly unfortunate. I would much rather see Republicans challenge Democrats for those votes and overall, African-Americans would be better represented. But Republicans don’t seem interested in building a base of African-American voters. In fact, Republicans as a whole seem unable to talk to black voters. Let’s take the quote from Real Clear Politics. Insinuating that black voters are easily manipulated and are stupid is not an effective strategy at attracting black voters.
I’ve had it with whiny twerps from the GOP complaining that blacks can’t figure out what is in their best interest. The Democrats get their votes because they go after them. If the Republicans want ’em, go into the neighborhoods and campaign for those votes. The Democrats wicked strategy towards African-Americans is to pay attention to them. Spend some time in black neighborhoods and get to know black folks and you might find some success. If that is too much to ask, stop whining and suck it up. Or even better, when you act like you care, lie to black voters again–the Dems could use the turnout boost.
(double posted given national and Missouri content)