Ken’s Take: The article excerpted below got me thinking.
There’s been increasing talk recently about how blacks are provably suffering disproportionately in the current economic environment. The facts are unshakably true.
Even the Congressional Black Caucus has risen to the cause and chastised Pres. Obama for largely ignoring their plight.
Not new news.
The article below observes that “black interests often have to take a back-seat to the interests of labor, environmentalists, immigration advocates, and so on — even among those elected to represent African Americans!”
Obama’s response: Stop whining, stop complaining … kick off your slippers, put on your shoes … and walk to get me re-elected.
Then, along comes Herman Cain – dishing one-liners that cut to the core … pitching his story of self-reliance, hard work, and earned success … and, arguing that blacks can accrue political power by splitting their votes across parties, rather than voting as a bloc.
It’ll be interesting to see if his vision resonates among African-Americans.
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Excerpted from Weekly Standard: Herman Cain Could Be a Game Changer
If Herman Cain could get some African Americans to give the GOP a look, there would be a real potential not only for the party to do better nationwide, but also for African Americans to leverage their voting strength more effectively.
African Americans do not enjoy robust two party competition for their votes, and accordingly their interests are often poorly served.
- White conservatives overwhelmingly vote Republican, but black conservatives do not.
- White moderates usually split their votes between the two parties, according to the study, but black moderates do not.
In many respects this state of affairs is bad for African Americans, because it limits the power of the black vote itself, and so a lot of black interests are just plain overlooked.
For instance, school choice would essentially be a transfer of resources and power directly to poor black families, who would be major beneficiaries of such a program.
However, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers would be losers in the deal, so it is a non-starter on the Democratic side of the aisle.
Additionally, liberal immigration policies do not hurt educated whites, whose skills basically price them out of competition with most immigrants.
If anything, upper income whites are helped because a glut of workers enables companies to keep costs, and therefore prices, down.
Instead, African American workers – who often find themselves in competition with immigrants – would be harmed.
But the Democratic party as a whole would be helped thanks to a flood of new immigrant voters, so it unabashedly advocates loose policies.
Black interests often have to take a back-seat to the interests of labor, environmentalists, immigration advocates, and so on — even among those elected to represent African Americans!
Tags: Black vote, earned success, Herman Cain, sel-reliance
The Homa Files 
October 3, 2011 at 1:05 pm |
I can only speak for myself, but I don’t find any of these arguments persuasive:
1) Spreading the black vote would dilute it and make it even less powerful.
2) School choice is a joke. Until you make fundamental changes in the homelife and long term opportunities afforded to the poor (not just minorities) their individual school will be meaningless.
3) Issues like “Supreme Court Activism” and the backlash against affirmative action, and the general yearaning for “the way things used to be” do not sell well in the African American community. The old days were not good for us. We are not nostalgic for Reagan.