Dems are letting the GOP split the religious black community
You don't see a lack of Dem politicians running to the churches come election time, looking good at photo ops and asking that folks of color turn out to fight the good fight at the polls.
But there is a not-so-quiet movement out there to unravel the coalition of color that Dems solidly rely upon. The GOP is masterfully creating a schism in the religious black (and I'd add Hispanic) community over gay rights by spreading patently false information and preying on fear and ignorance.
Where are the Dems and progressives on this? Where is the counter campaign?
Some black churches are doing what they can to keep black voters motivated. Turnout was strong in support of Kerry, but there were warning signs, with the state amendments to ban gay marriage passing so easily, that many people of color voted Kerry and for those amendments.
There are black churches out there that are not only increasingly, stridently homophobic, but they are also politically and publicly associating the left with moral decline.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, homophobic bigot pastor, Patrick Wooden, Sr. of Raleigh's Upper Room Church gives it just as good as Falwell when it comes to demonizing the left.
Then we've got the Washington Post printing an advertorial targeted at the religious black community to incite homophobia with disinformation.
This is dangerous on so many levels (including a public health one, if you're driving fearful queer blacks underground with the spread of HIV what it is). The publication is full of "information" such as:
-- sexual orientation has no genetic basis
-- gays die at the age of 41.
-- that you can become an ex-gay
Dr. Derek Grier, pastor of Grace Christian Church and editor of the homophobic rag, BothSides, and the man behind the "junk science," Paul Cameron.
Where has been the outcry by mainstream Dem talking heads about any of this GOP "strategy" as they watch their loyal base split apart? Folks will stay at home, or worse, gravitate to the enemy because Dems can't make the sale.
<crickets chirping>
And, in the meantime, the Dems are letting the likes of Falwell plan new coalition to recruit 10 million new evangelical voters for 2006 and 2008. Do you think that he and others of his ilk won't gain some traction with religious minority voters? They're working on a timetable, where is the Left?
The Dems obsession over courting the "NASCAR circuit" voters makes me sick. They've lost an election and are looking to recapture a hunk of the Jerry Falwell crowd? This while they let their most loyal base of voters be courted with this GOP-endorsed crap?
What in the hell happened to Dem backbone?
There a diary up at Daily Kos on this as well -- Dems letting the GOP split religious black community.
3 Comments:
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That's why Al Sharpton was heroic during the primaries, and even more so at the convention. When he bellowed that his vote was not for sale, I wanted to kiss him. Even with all his baggage, he is a valuable resource, because he seems to be THE ONLY DEMOCRAT with even a modicum of national name recognition that is acknowledging what's happening in the black and Hispanic communities.
By Shakespeare's Sister, at 2:18 PM
Something else that has concerned me is the GOP's new mantra toward the black community in particular, which basically amounts to, "What have the Dems done for you lately?" The reason it concerns me is that they're right, or close to it. We Lefties all know that the GOP care even less (if that's possible) about poor blacks than they about poor whites, but the Dems haven't done much lately to earn blacks' votes, and a vote *should* be earned, not taken for granted. "We won't treat you as bad as the other guys," isn't much of a promise. -
Considering I take Al Sharpton with a grain of salt (having lived in NYC during the Tawana Brawley nonsense), he did redeem himself with that statement of truth about his vote.
By Pam, at 2:25 PM
The GOP is right -- the Dems do take people of color for granted. And it's why the GOP is going to take the Hispanic vote over to that side. Read the Freepers and that is their goal. If they take enough blacks along in the religious wave, then Dems will be permanently politically marginalized. For all I hate about the GOP's tactics, they know how to spin things to their advantage while the Dems hand-wring, finger-point and wimp out. -
Actually, Pam, I think of this as being less a deliberate wedging than simply the right taking advantage of the fact that liberal Democrats and black Americans quite often have very little in common, and in fact hold important things that the other quite often abhors.
By North Dallas Thirty, at 10:52 PM
Take a look at Americablog. Most of the loudest "progressives" there sneeringly deride religion as "superstition" and "ignorance". How well do you think that would play in the black community, where the church has traditionally been one of the most important, if not THE most important, social institution?
However, I see this less as being a matter of the right doing it than I do simply a consciousness developing among black Americans that their slavish devotion to the Democratic Party has actually done very little to help them, and in ways, has hurt them.
Pam :: permalink
