Tuesday, August 17th, 2004

Republicans and the Black Vote

Here’s some cross-posting with Funkdigital, who weighs in on Republicans and the Black Vote.

Funkdigi got me thinking:

The Republican strategy is based on alienating the Black vote. It’s how they realigned the Democrats in the south under Nixon and it’s how they continue to keep Southern and interior states literally in the red. There’s a lot more to be said about this, and I’ll try to do it here over the coming months.

(By the way, Thomas Frank’s new book goes part of the way toward describing how this gets done. But, I’m afraid due to Frank’s blindspot on race he doesn’t get the whole story. Chain Reaction by the Edsalls does a much better job but it’s outdated now by over a decade–more in future posts…)

That said, I was stunned in 2000 at how diverse the Republican convention tried to be. Not just because Chaka Khan and Brian McKnight were featured performers (hope they got PAID), but sending Colin Powell out to defend affirmative action in front of a hostile hall was pretty bold. No doubt we’ll see the same rainbow effect from the dais in Madison Square Garden in two weeks.

But all THAT said, the Reeps did nothing to actively court the Black vote in 2000, and on the ground, they did a lot to disenfranchise it. They still are, esp. in the South. But aside from Florida, we mostly won’t hear about it because the “battleground states” are mainly in the Rust Belt or the Sun Belt…more on this too in future posts…

posted by Jeff Chang @ 5:22 pm | 1 Comment

One Response to “Republicans and the Black Vote”

Oliver says:

August 18, 2004 at 10:30 pm

I think it’s easier to disenfranchise black voters than it is to get their vote. GOP are gangster like that.

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