A Conservative’s Viewpoint - Why Do Blacks Vote Democrat?

Article by Bob Steinburg
- Edenton, North Carolina: Cradle of the Colony

Now that the 2007 elections are history, all eyes are focusing on November 2008 when Americans will elect a new president, members of the House and selected Senate seats in Congress. In North Carolina voters will also select a governor, council of state, state legislators, county commissioners and fill various local seats.

A heavy voter turnout is anticipated as we possibly choose whether to elect both the first female U. S. president and North Carolina’s first female governor. It’s too early to say who the candidates will actually be, but one thing is certain: black Americans will vote overwhelmingly Democrat.

Since Democrats errantly claimed full credit for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, blacks have supported them. The fact more Republicans voted for passage than Democrats is seldom told. Black Americans bought in and have been paying the price ever since.

Blacks generally have socially conservative views, tending to be religious with traditional views on homosexuality and abortion. The Democrat Party is pro-choice and favors expanding gay rights.

Blacks favor school vouchers which could provide their children an escape from failing schools. Democrats and the National Education Association (NEA) are opposed to vouchers.

Parents want the chance for their children to succeed, to have an opportunity to trade poverty for a chance at the American dream: economic freedom and upward mobility that is limited only by individual initiative. Why then do blacks continue to vote for the Democratic Party, whose platforms and policies are contrary to black values and which dampen those hopes and dreams?

One reason is welfare. This program has been abused in a way that has created generations of dependency for blacks and whites held hostage by government handouts. You keep folks down long enough and they need you. And if they need you, you control them - even their votes.

Another reason is Democrats use Republican opposition to affirmative action to discredit and label them as racists and bigots. Designed, they say, to fight “white racism” affirmative action actually denies equal opportunity to all Americans – including blacks. In a global economy, corporations doing business here have to not only compete for increased market share, but for the skilled and brightest minds available. Race and gender quotas negatively impact that effort, placing America at a disadvantage, denying our nation its full economic potential.

Republicans have been at the forefront politically of protecting civil rights since before the Civil War. They also support faith-based programs. But Democratic politicians and many black leaders ignore and distort these truths. This ultimately hurts blacks, severely impeding their access to many economic opportunities.

Reginald Jones of Empowerment Television’s “Grass Roots Live” is a Republican African -- American who says “Our leadership (black leaders) teaches our young people to be dependent on government.” He goes on to say that race should never be an excuse for failure and “as a son of God I was entitled to success but it would not be given to me. I would have to fight for it.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. and senior were Republicans. So was George Washington Carver. Why? From it’s founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party the Republicans have stood for civil rights and freedoms for black Americans. Who was standing in the “white” school house doors preventing black students from entering? Who passed the Jim Crow laws? Who started the Ku Klux Klan? Who fought to prevent the passage of every civil rights law from the 1860’s thru the 1960’s? Hint: It wasn’t Republicans.

Republicans not only proclaimed slaves freed through Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, but proposed the 13th amendment (officially abolishing slavery), the 14th amendment (granting citizenship to all born here), and the 15th amendment (the right to vote) to the U. S. Constitution. In addition they passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

Republicans also gave bi-partisan support to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 1968 Civil Rights Act, the Equal Opportunity Act of 1972, the Comprehensive Employment Training Act of 1973, Voting Rights Act of Amendment of 1982, Civil Rights Act of 1983 and the Federal Contract Compliance and the Workforce Development Act of 1988.

For more than 153 years Republicans have been fighting for black Americans, yet blacks continue to reject them at the polls. It’s time for black America to hear the truth about the Republican Party – and the Democratic Party. And if they listen, the November 6th 2008 election results could indeed be historic.

This is a pretty good summary of the problem with the black community voting against their own long term interests for a party that insists on their remaining dependent on their socialist handouts. The Democrat Party is a socialist party. Socialism is a failed system. However the fact that welfare is the basic premise of socialism is ignored. Democrats talk about welfare rather than socialism because "socialism" like the word "liberal" has a bad connotation. Not using the word does not mean the damage is not done . . . to our society and the people it traps into second class citizenship.

Opportunity is the key to the American dream. However opportunity is not easy street. It requires the individual to take advantage of that opportunity and work their way upward. Saying "don't work, we will give it to you" hides the long term consequences of limiting opportunity. That is why socialism always fails. It limits individual opportunity.