Friday, March 20, 2009
The age-old question
Why do African-Americans vote so overwhelmingly Democratic? Used to think the answer was traditional Democrat support for such things as affirmative action programs and welfare but this seems simplistic. I've come across many blacks who have conservative values and yet they don't vote that way in the end. It's a bit of a headscratcher and are there any polls out there that ask the question point blank? Every now and then black leaders make noises to the Democrat Party don't take us and our vote for granted but when push comes to shove...'tis a waste of time imo to woo their vote, they don't like you get in through your head and it becomes a bit stalkerish but I'm just curious about theories is all.
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Could it be the influence of people like Oprah perhaps?
ReplyDeleteIt's as good a theory as any,
ReplyDeleteThen again, they sometimes do shun Bill Cosby whenever he brings up some traditional values topics.
ReplyDeleteShelby Steele and not Michael Steele should be heading up the RNC.
ReplyDelete"Shelby Steele and not Michael Steele should be heading up the RNC."
ReplyDeleteBrilliant Z. Simply Brilliant!
Back prior to the sixties, many blacks were GOP..because the white south was Dem. This became reversed with the Nixon/Reagan 'southern strategy'.
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking, many minorities tend dem (consider the Jewish vote, for example)..it may be the perception of the GOP as the
'rich white man' party. Which raises even more questions..why would poor folks vote GOP and rich CEOs vote dem? I know a lot of folks in the scientific and medical fields that
are dem because of the influence of
creationism, G-warming, anti-education, anti-intellectual, anti-stem cell etc in some parts of the GOP. Then we have those folks who are liberal, but vote GOP strictly on gun issues. Many, if not most, computer professionals are GOP. Then we have studies indicating people are BORN onservative or liberal! You raise an interesting question, Z...all I got is more questions. :)
You know when I first read the paper that morning and saw the name Steele I was like cool!!! then I was like wait a minute, maybe it's his brother.
ReplyDeleteSo BB what you're saying is it's psychological. That's actually one of my main themes here at Stranded, that everything including politics can be psychoanalyzed and I think it's just a feeling like you might think your car mechanic is a nice guy but one eye goes one way and the other one goes the other and yet you'd think they'd be at least suspicious of the Democrat Party pushing abortion so much (oh I know they don't push it, I misspoke), black babies, welfare rolls:)
ReplyDeleteYa know, Z, you often push my button. (the one that says Weird)
ReplyDelete"..but one eye goes one way and the other one goes the other..I actually did a research project with a top end mathematician from
a DOD nuke lab. Not only did he have one eye that looked the other way, but it sort of continuously
rotated. Really nice guy until he got into multiple regressions of
quadratic polynomials of five or more unknowns....wonder if he ever worked on cars in Yonkers? :)
They largely vote Dem for one primary reason. They've been told far too long and far too often that they are victims. Granted, there were a few bright spots from the other party telling them they could be victors (Goldwater and Reagan come to mind and heck even JFK...course he'd have been a conservative Republican by today's standards no doubt) but those bright spots couldn't hold a candle to the glorious light that was liberal ideology and its infinite expansion within the halls of academia.
ReplyDeleteWonder if Soap has a profound explanation for the 75% liberal Jewish vote? The victim thing? :)
ReplyDeleteThe Jews have already been through hell. Naturally, they feel right at home then with the Democratic party.
ReplyDelete(thank you thank you...no applause necessary...thank you...)
Well I must admit I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to the history of civil rights in America, but just looking at some of the fundamental principals of conservatism and liberalism, I'll take a wild guess.
ReplyDeleteSo conservatives, are well conservative, right? So they don't like to rock the boat much. I guess the idea is that if we change too much too fast we might lose the foundation that we've built everything upon. So everything should proceed with caution. Makes sense.
Liberals are all for change. Gay marriages, long hair, drugs, whatever it is it goes.
In the 50's 60's and 70's there was the whole hippie rebellion thing where they protested the war, protested drug laws, and formed a solidarity in protest in rebellion.
Psychologically it seems clear that two groups protesting against the government would feel some kind of solidarity, even if they were fighting different things. But there was some overlap, as the hippies were fighting for social change, and it's hard to argue they haven't changed things with the loosening of our social conservatism. I think the two groups identified with each other, and there were probably more liberals marching for black civil rights than conservatives.
Since that history is behind us now (or starting to get behind us, these big historical things always seem to take time to dissipate), there will be more conservative blacks as the population recovers from the history and balances out.
At least that's my impression anyway, having never lived through it or given it any serious study. On the flip side, if there were equal numbers of conservatives and liberals marching for black civil rights, what in our culture has given me the impression that it wasn't equal?
Sorry, Soap...I gotta applaud that one...:)
ReplyDeleteNaturally, Conservipedia is not one of my in-depth references, but
ReplyDeletethey, IMO, make a fair attempt to address the problem and the reasons...
They are God fearing and church going people..It’s very simple: the GOP is full of bigots.
ReplyDeleteTime to move on people!
So is the chairman of the RNC, Steele, is he a bigot?
ReplyDeleteNah he's just a plain old moderate.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I never heard of the guy before.
ReplyDelete