Thoughts On Democrats And Blacks
By Margaret Snyder (07/28/03)
A talk show host recently made an interesting observation and posed an intriguing question. The observation: If there were a big company where 18% of the employees were black but there were no blacks in upper management, the Jesse Jackson crowd would be all over that company. Yet that describes the Democratic Party today. Nationally, 18% of Democratic votes come from blacks and yet there are none in positions of authority and the party does not support black candidates for high office. For example, there are currently no blacks in the Senate.
His question was: Why do black Democrats put up with this?
First, I would like to take a shot at explaining why the Democratic Party does not promote blacks. Here are three reasons:
1. Blacks are useful (essential, actually) to the Democrats as a voting block and all the Democrats need to do to keep them is to vilify Republicans and conservative policy. They do not need to promote blacks and they do not even need to do anything to improve their lot.
2. The Democratic leadership as a matter of policy views blacks as victims. When you think of someone as a victim, it is hard to think of him as a leader, except of other victims.
3. The Democratic Party assumes that the only issue that could matter to a black person is race. So the only blacks to whom they pay any attention at all are those who are only interested in race. Such single-issue politicians are useful for justifying Democrats as the “party of the downtrodden” but are not suitable for leadership positions or high national office.
Contrast this with the Republican Party, which persists in seeing blacks as individuals with other interesting facets besides race: Colin Powell with his distinguished military career, Condi Rice with her brilliant scholarly one.
It comes down to this: Democrats operate from a negative caricature-like stereotype of blacks. Republicans do not operate from a stereotype.
Now the question: Why do black Democrats put up with this? Well, I can only guess. But my guess would be along the lines of, “What choice do they have?” Of course, I think they would be much better off choosing conservative policies, but given that black Democrats, along with white Democrats and every other color of Democrat, fail to see that such policies would work to their great long-term benefit, they are left with no choice but to take whatever crumbs the Democrats want to give them.
My own question is why has the liberal black Democratic anti-Republican rhetoric become so hysterical and shrill? Julian Bond, Chairman of the NAACP, assures his members that Republicans want to re-institute the Confederacy and are enemies of democracy; his audience cheers. The vilest name-calling is reserved for conservative blacks who dare to point out how race preferences have damaged blacks by cheapening the accomplishments of blacks; by discouraging black young people from putting forth their best effort; by sending bright young people to Ivy League and other prestigious schools whether or not they are equipped to succeed; by perpetuating negative stereotypes; by providing cover for liberals who refuse to address real problems such as the state of public education in the inner cities.
I can only hope the shrill hysteria arises from the despair of the intellectually and morally bankrupt, aware that their game is soon up.
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