With the hard-fought presidential election heading into the final weeks, the candidates are hitting battleground states hard in an all-out effort to woo the voters. While President Bush is polling well nationally, he has still not been able to extract any more support out of the black community, which gave him only 9 percent of their votes in 2000.
This voting phenomenon is both puzzling and upsetting to me. As a black conservative (a minority in itself), I cannot fathom why virtually all blacks vote for the Democrats. Granted, like many voters, they probably walk into the polls, look for the candidate with the "D" by his name, punch it, and walk out.
However, polls and surveys of the black community have shown that it appears to be just as conservative as any Republican. Additionally, blacks are some of the most devoutly religious people in America. Their views on issues such as abortion, gay marriage, school vouchers and religion's role in society make them more fit for the Bush White House than a John Kerry rally. There just seems to be a disconnect between the brain and the ballot box.
The black exodus to the Democrats began with former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, ending a long courtship with the GOP after President Abraham Lincoln freed them from slavery. Roosevelt promised all sorts of government goodies, which were appealing at the time, but which later would have a dire effect on the black community. By becoming dependent on the Democrats, and by extension the federal government, for their daily bread, blacks were in effect fencing themselves in.
Then in the 1960s President Lyndon Johnson had the brilliant idea of a Great Society and a "War on Poverty," a colossal failure that only the U.S. government is capable of. While it was hailed as the way to end poverty, 40 years and billions, perhaps trillions of dollars later, there is nothing to show for it. Hey, Dems, what's your "exit strategy" for that war?
All this raises another question. If the Democrats keep whispering sweet nothings in the ears of the black community but fail to deliver, why do blacks continue to support them?
Enter the NAACP and the modern-day race baiters. What once was a great organization that fought for equality is now just an arm of the Democratic Party. I have personally lost all patience with and respect for the NAACP. I believe it should be renamed the NAA-L-CP: National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People. Somehow every bill the president puts forward will send blacks back into slavery, or so its president Kweisi Mfume would have you believe.
Never mind that Republicans passed the Civil Rights Act, despite dissents from Sens. Al Gore Sr. and Robert "KKK" Byrd. Tax cuts are bad because they take government money away from social programs. Mfume must be referring to those programs that pacify the black community rather than advance it.
Then we have the race baiters. You know, those guys that go around, some calling themselves "Reverends," thinking they're really cool because they can make a whole speech rhyme. While I'm sure Maya Angelou appreciates their linguistic acumen, their message is pure bile and bigotry. Annual meetings of the NAALCP wouldn't be the same without AU adjunct and NAALCP chairman Julian Bond getting things started by accusing President Bush of appealing to the "Taliban wing of American politics."
Then there is Mr. Coiffure himself, the affable "Rev." Al Sharpton, who called the president a "gang leader." This comes from a man who incited a mob in New York City that ended up killing an innocent Jew. My personal favorite is the "Most Rev." Jesse Jackson. You may remember that he was President Clinton's spiritual adviser during the uproar over Monica. Most people found it interesting that Jackson was having his own affair, one that produced a love child, at the same time. I tell you what; these guys are a gift that just keeps giving.
President Bush has appointed blacks to some of the highest positions in the government. Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Alfonso Jackson at the Department of Housing and Urban Development are the most visible examples. Unlike Clinton, who just put them somewhere in an agency, President Bush put blacks at the top. The president has spent more on government programs geared toward minorities than Clinton, and minority home and business ownership has burgeoned under Bush's watch.
Bush has also been trying to nominate blacks to the federal bench. The most notable example is Janice Rogers Brown, the first black woman to serve on the California Supreme Court. However, the Dems would have none of this, with Sen. Teddy Kennedy referring to her as a "Neanderthal." I bet Republicans would get crucified if that utterance escaped their lips. Sen. Chuckie Schumer even dared to accuse Brown of consistently voting against minorities and the poor.
What got lost in this whole process was Brown's story. She is the daughter of poor Alabama sharecroppers. After much hard work she got into college, law school and then the Supreme Court of the most populous state in the Union. I thought liberals loved sob stories like that? Oh, I forgot, since Brown didn't dispatch the NAALCP or her local Democratic Party office for help, but did it on her own, she is a threat. Bush, unlike Clinton, does not nominate individuals purely out of racial considerations. As long as they're qualified for the post, it doesn't matter what they look like.
Education, one of the perennial issues in every election, should also give the black community pause. Blacks support school voucher programs, such as in Cleveland and now Washington, D.C. However, the people that stand in the schoolhouse door every time the issue is brought up are the Democrats. Take Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana. She has no problem sending her children to private school here in the District, and she also has no problem telling D.C. families that they shouldn't have the same option. Considering D.C.'s failing school system, who would want to keep their kids in the system?
The one thing that has puzzled me in my two years here at AU is how even the openminded, tolerant students here assume I am a Democrat, just because my skin is darker. There is no difference between this present ignorance and other racist assumptions of the past, in my view. I agree with what President Bush said at his convention: "Government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives."
I hope more blacks this election cycle will realize the conservative heart within them, take the initiative in their own lives, harness the opportunities America offers, and cease to heed the marching orders of the demagogues in their midst.
