"If the GOP can pry black Democrats' votes away this November, it's over."

[bertha katzenengel]

NY Times Magazine article on Michael Steele, candidate for GOP nomination to run for Senate in Maryland.

Why Is Michael Steele a Republican Candidate?"

Steele is just one of several black Republicans running in prominent races around the nation, most in Democratic-leaning states with large African-American electorates. Lynn Swann, who had a Hall of Fame career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, is the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, and Kenneth Blackwell, the secretary of state in Ohio, is likely to be the G.O.P. gubernatorial candidate in his state. Keith Butler, a minister and former city councilman in Detroit, is in a competitive race for the Republican nomination for Senate.

If the Republicans can win in a state like Maryland because they pried away some of the black vote from the Democrats, Trippi <<advising Kweisi Mfume in his bid for the Dem nomination>> said, "It will be over." Over for whom? I asked. "The Democrats," he responded. He didn't mean just in Maryland — he meant in the whole country, because the electoral math for Democrats begins with an assumption of capturing something like 90 percent of the African-American vote.

(emphasis added)

The Democrats assume a great deal. Hey, DNC: Get your thumb outta your but, start THINKING, and ACT on what is going on! MOVE!

[B Calm]

1. How many black republican senators are in the senate right now?

[bertha katzenengel]

3. I don't know. I know of only one.

Would you add a GOP seat just to get another black man in the Senate?

[fishwax]

24. I don't think there are any, are there?

I can't think of one, anyway.

[bertha katzenengel]

32. Duh. Of course not. I totally mis-read the post to which I replied.

You're right. None. I was thinking of THE one black Senator when I replied. :dunce:

[acmavm]

2. First, you tell me how much of a friend the republican party has been

to black people, and then I'll start to worry.

[kayice]

5. Isn't there people working behind the scenes on Mr. Blackwell's honesty

on voting and elections? From information that I've read, it would seem so plus it seems he is not well liked at all.

[bertha katzenengel]

7. First, you read the whole article,

then come back, and then I'll accept your sarcasm.

It's that kind of complacency that has the GOP getting people all over the country to vote against their own best interests.

[acmavm]

8. Read it. Still think that this is arrogant crap. It almost assumes that

black people aren't smart enough to understand what the party of arrogant white men think about them. Also that they weren't paying attention during Katrina. And that their poor aren't suffering horribly what with the lack of work, no health insurance, any lifeline from the feds being cut to pay for tax cuts to the rich and an immoral war.

The only blacks that the republicans let play in the sand box are the ones that are willing to shit on their own people, like Colin Powell.

Don't assume that just because someone hasn't read the whole article because they don't agree with you. That's certainly not the case.

[bertha katzenengel]

15. My bad, acmavm

[acmavm]

16. Not a thing.

[INdemo]

11. Correct

The incompetence of the Republicans to deal with the Katrina issue has spread nationwide..So there not much chance.
However the immigration issue will be thrown at the Democrats so the Republicans can hope to gain the Hispanic vote.....Thats a Karl Rove issue

[charlyvi]

51. After the draconian immigration legislation passed by

the house--building a wall, charging illegals with a felony, etc.--somehow I don't think Hispanics are going Republican.

[aden_nak]

4. Bush's approval rating amongst black voters is in the single digits.

So, yeah, good luck with that. However, just because the GOP isn't likely to pick those votes up doesn't mean that the Democrats actually get them. The Democrats have routinely lost large percentages of votes that they could have easily had to either apathy or disinterest because rather than courting their base, they were off courting moderates instead. If the DNC would like to know why it keeps losing elections, maybe it needs to spend a little less time worrying about the people it has to fight the GOP for and pay some damn attention to the people that want to vote for them, but just need a reason.

[Botany]

6. or stop 'em from voting.

[bertha katzenengel]

34. Jesus H. Christ.

If that graphic is true, it is astounding. It's certainly a stark illustration of what has happened when * has run for prez.

Fuckers.

[Botany]

41. Yep it is true.

I live in Ohio .... he won by massive cheating ..... you are looking @ the 100,000 vote difference
of bush over Kerry in Ohio.

+ this http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2489123

[EST]

9. If they can, it should be.

People who have darker skins are perfectly capable of figuring things out and are not possessions of either party, to be traded, pried off, stuck to, or anything else.
People who see no moral or ethical issue with lying, stealing, racism, greed, stupidity, manipulation, cruelty, on and on, will naturally gravitate to the right wing nuttery faction, no matter skin color, and we do not need them.
People of integrity, tolerance, compassion, and towering ethics are coming this way.

People of color are the Democratic party! if they go to the republican party, there is no dem party.

[WilliamPitt]

10. Never happen

Every poll I've seen has Bush pulling 2% approval within the African American community. Those polls have a margin of error of 4%, which literally means Bush' support could well by zero.

People haven't forgotten Katrina.

[bertha katzenengel]

14. Okay, Will. Let me ask you this:

Are we or are we not complacent in believing "the black vote" will always be largely with the Democratic party? Do you think that a shift of African-American voters to the GOP -- of any size -- is a little scary?

To take any one voting bloc for granted is suicide. I don't care if it's not suicide TODAY. People are going to be voting in this country when you and I are long gone. (Pray God let THAT be true.)

[WilliamPitt]

26. Absolutely

Democrats take the progressive left for granted for two reasons: 1) There aren't a vast number of us demographically, and 2) We are the most unreliable demographic in the country; one whiff of ideological impurity from a candidate and we bolt. No politician worth his salt would base a campaign or a career counting on that support. Kucinich tried it in '04 and got his ass handed to him in every primary.

The African American vote is not being taken for granted by the Democrats. Ditto the elderly vote, ditto the women's vote. If any of these three bolted the party, the Democrats would go the way of the Whigs.

It is scary to contemplate, but contemplating isn't actualizing. I do believe the AA vote is a solidly dependable Democratic base of support. That isn't taking them for granted; it is looking at numbers and trends since 1964.

[Rocknrule]

12. Ain't gonna happen

Why would black people want to be in a party that would bring back slavery if they could?

[demosincebirth]

50. Why are republican blacks...republican?

Many Blacks I know are very conservative on a lot of issues, more than a lot of us on this board, but would never vote for a republican...black, white or any other color.

[radio4progressives]

13. Anyone see the movie Bullworth?

If you haven't seen it recently, i urge all Democrats to rent the video and see it again. It has very important message which Democrats continue to ignore at our peril. Though the film was out in 1998, it is every bit as valid now as it ever was. The African American community has been taken for granted by both parties.. problem is it appears that only the GOP watched the movie, because the GOP is the only party that heeded it's lesson immediately.

Here it is 8 years after that film, two presidential election cycles and 6 congressional election cycles later, and we only managed to recruit one single candidate for Senate who is only half Black. Yes, we have some Congress Critters in the House who are obviously Black, but that isn't because anything the party apparatchiks can be credited for.

GOP chair made recruiting people of color, from African Americans to Native Americans as candidates his top priority as soon as he was made chair following the 2004 stolen election. He hit the ground running and apparently hasn't slowed down since.

An amazing blind spot our party has, and again to our peril.

[fishwax]

25. that is a great movie, and I agree with your

assessment. I don't think that it will impact this election cycle, but it certainly could in the future ...

[BlooInBloo]

31. Sigh. That really is all black people are to white folks...

Who care about the huge black middle class?

It's only the poor and the gangbangers that white folks think of when they think of black folks...

Sigh...

[bertha katzenengel]

35. Bull.

:eyes:

[fishwax]

45. huh?

not sure how you got that from my post :shrug:

[in_cog_ni_to]

17. One word....KATRINA.

The GOP can just forget it. That isn't going to happen.

[Seabiscuit]

42. BINGO!

Took the "K" word right off my tongue. :)

[Mr_Spock]

18. Remember TDS showed that black approval of R's was statistically 0%?

This is an "oh, please!" post...

[Lefty48197]

19. ...or they could just undercount Blacks in the census

and use the false numbers to deny representation to African-Americans.

[mdmc]

20. and make it hard to vote in the inner cities

rich people can always buy in to the GOP.

[linazelle]

21. Then it won't be over at all

If you look at the actual numbers of black republicans, they are so few that it won't make a big difference if a few more swing to the other side. For all of his term, that person in the White House who shall remain nameless and his on-air compadres have talked about getting the black vote. They've held up Powell as Rice as examples of their open arms policy toward blacks. But all I have seen in his contrived speech settings are a few black faces perched nearest to the cameras to give the illusion that he has black support. I'd estimate that following to be about 1% of his base--and that is not 1% of the black vote.

I see no incentive for blacks to make a huge shift now especially when Katrina still looms large. Even if they gave every man woman and child in NOLA a million dollars I don't think they would vote for rethuglicans--nor will many blacks who witnessed the damage that was done.

[w4rma]

22. Just because they are black politicians doesn't mean they'll *do* anything

to help regular black Americans.

[gizmo1979]

23. "Mr Bush I'm still waiting for my mule"

Reverend Al's quote from the democratic convention.Since then we can see all that the repukes have done for the blacks.Didn't lift a finger when they were dying in the streets of New Orleans,won't pass the voters reform,Bush still hasn't met with the NAACP.Last I checked Bushs approval with blacks was single digits.There is no way in hell they will get the black vote there only hope is to prevent them from voting through voter ID bills.They will not vote for Uncle Tom either.They see through people much better than you give them credit for.They are not stupid.

[Marr]

27. Yes, and if I shit gold, I'd be a millionaire.

It's fun to play "if".

[WinkyDink]

28. Thanks for the "Joke of the Day"! 'Preesheeate it!

[Kerrytravelers]

29. I think this assumes that Black people are too dumb to vote with their

brains. It also assumes that Black people will vote for color before their own self-interests. People were not blind to katrina. They are not blind to the historical injustices to be found in education, employment and society. They also know when they are being set up.

I feel sorry for the likes of Michael Steel, Lynn Swann, and Keith Butler because they are allowing themselves to be used and are forgetting who they are and the betterment of their own. They are siding with an administration that blocked many Black people from voting and has increased the divisions in this country- including the division of color and of class.

I hardly think the Democratic party has to worry. Maybe I'm incorrect with this assumption.

[Trailrider1951]

30. "If the GOP can pry black Democrats' votes away this November, it's over."

Hehehehe.......when donkeys fly!

[Gabi Hayes]

33. if Trippi isn't a republican plant, he may as well be

he's really really pathetic

check it out:

Joe Trippi Death Watch

Right now Howard Dean and his top advisors are huddled in Burlington to “retool” his campaign. Politus is now taking bets on the demotion/dumping of Joe Trippi, the feckless hack who engineered Dean’s two crashing failures in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Trippi and Dean are made for each other, since Trippi has a history of working for fiery, insurgent politicians whose campaigns go down in flames. (read Jerry Brown and Ralph Nader) But Trippi’s performance this time is beyond incompetent; it almost looks like sabotage. A month ago Dean was virtually unstoppable and today he is dog shit, meekly “retooling.” He raised over $40 million last year, but this morning the WSJ reported he is down to his last 5 mil. What a reversal of fortune.

For Dean, the reason for all that cannot be that he is a poor candidate and his appeal is limited to one in five Democrats. No, the blame must be laid somewhere else. Joe Trippi is living on borrowed time as Dean's campaign manager…

UPDATE: That didn't take long. Trippi is out of the Dean campaign, replaced by Roy Neel, Al Gore's former senatorial chief of staff. For the last several years Neel has been a lobbyist! I think Dean's message just got even more muddled. C'ya, Stubby!
http://politus.blogspot.com/2004_01_25_politus_archive.html

[bertha katzenengel]

37. I don't know anything about him. But if as you say he is pathetic,

I am not real happy to hear he's advising my candidate.

I've heard his name before -- that is all.

I'll do some surfing, but meantime, got any good links you can post up in a flash? (Not asking you to do my research)

[Gabi Hayes]

39. I just edited the above link, for one, admittedly biased angle on him

I've read some other stuff about him, as well as listened/talked to him on a radio show a year or so ago, and he was delusional, if not mendacious about republican/media complicity in dems' treatment during the campaign

I was stunned to hear him say the dems' problem was in getting the correct message out, rather than media control by only a handful of corporations, ALL with direct ties to radical Repuke interests.

after hearing that show, I realized why Dean's campaign took such a nosedive

[napi21]

40. I still blame Trippi's lack of ability for the Dean loss!

Every time I listened to him, even during the Dean campaign, he sounded like an idiot! IF it was his idea to raise $$ on the net, I'll give him that, but I think he never warned Howard about the major pitfalls he could encounter in a National campaign...maybe becaue he was too damn dumb to know them himself.

Remember, he also was a major handler for McGovern!

[Seabiscuit]

43. And who but Trippi shoved Dean out on stage for the "scream" speech?

[bertha katzenengel]

53. Joe Trippi told Howard Dean, "be excited - be exuberant?"

I LOVED the "scream" speech. I hated what the media and the right did with it, but god, what a great speech, what a great show of enthusiasm and love of country, love of the process, of ganas!

Joe Trippi told Dean to do that? I don't get it.

[sendero]

36. Ha ha..

... I hope they stick with that strategy because it is going NOWHERE!

[Yollam]

38. LOL. Yeah, that will happen.

It's true that the democratic party takes black votes for granted too much. (But then again they also take progressive votes for granted and totally forsake our wishes) but the GOP? Let's see. What has the GOP done of note for black Americans in the last year or 2?

Oh yeah! They let thousands of them drown in filth!

I'm sure African Americans will be thronging to the polls to let the republicans know how much they appreciated that.

[Kerrytravelers]

44. And, as if letting them drown in filth wasn't bad enough... adding insult

to injury the inJustice Department (that's what Mr kt calls them) is now suppressing the vote by not accommodating those who were displaced from their homes.

Yep. I can really see the gop taking away Black votes. :eyes:

[progressivebydesign]

48. yes, apparently only Iraqis in America are allowed satellite voting.

How messed up is that?? Wonder how many millions WE paid to have Iraqis voting from satellite locations in America during their last election. Yet.. Americans who were displaced by Katrina are given nothing to vote in their hometown. the media refuses to talk about these things.

[progressivebydesign]

49. I don't agree that the Dems take them for granted.

I know that the phrase is tossed around with regularity, but really.. what does that mean? The Democrats are the ones fighting for health care, education, decent jobs, good environment, civil rights, etc. etc. etc. What exactly does a black voter require beyond those things, that every other voter would consider worthwhile? Seriously, I ask that with sincerity. I haven't found a concrete answer to how the Dems are taking black voters for granted.

[Yollam]

52. Dems are fighting?

Wow. I hadn't noticed.

To me it seems that most of them have been putting up token resistance to a GOP onslaught for a long time more than "fighting".

They tell us they're fighting, and occasionally put on a little show to make us believe it, but still NAFTA passes, still no raise in the Minimum wage in a decade, still no national health care etc. etc. etc.

As for issues specific to black voters, "What have they done for them lately?"

[progressivebydesign]

46. How INSULTING to blacks!

I'm so tired of people assuming that all someone has to do is be black in order for blacks to vote for them. Doesn't that sound pretty freakin' paternizing? Oh.. our candidate is black, therefore all blacks will vote for him. that's an insult to blacks that they'd choose someone just because of their skin color.

[BlooInBloo]

54. Didn't you hear?

Black people don't do anything because it's right.

Oh - and they're reverse-racists too.



Sounds like a lotta projection to me.... but whatever... I guess DUers are still better than the alternatives....

[KingFlorez]

47. How do they figure that?

There is no reason for that to happen, nothing has changed to swing votes for Republicans. That 2% number for Bush really shows this isn't going to happen.

[blue neen]

55. Lynn Swann has not yet spoken to a large African -American audience

here in PA. He also is against raising the minimum wage.

Once black voters find out where he stands on the issues (which at this point is a total mystery), they will not be inclined to vote for Mr. Swann. He is against the best interests of ALL Pennsylvanians.

JMHO.

[bobbieinok]

56. "African American Republican Leadership Council" with no blacks

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58238-2003Jan29?language=printer




washingtonpost.com
Below the Beltway

By Gene Weingarten

Sunday, February 2, 2003; Page W05


I feel sorry for African American Republicans. They've never had it real good, but it seems worse for them now than ever, given the retirement of J.C. Watts, their last remaining member of Congress.

So I was heartened when I happened on a Web site last month run by a group called the African American Republican Leadership Council.

....

"The African American Republican Leadership Council," I said, "does not appear to feature African Americans."

....

...Beneath his name were the names of the group's official 15-person Advisory Panel. It includes noted conservatives Paul Weyrich, Sean Hannity, Grover Norquist and Gary Bauer, all of whom are as white as a mashed potato and marshmallow sandwich on Wonder Bread. In fact, all but two of the 15 members of the Advisory Panel of the African American Republican Leadership Council are white.

....

But how can you work toward getting more black leaders if the public face of your group seems to consist largely of white people? Is this any way to get black Republicans in Congress?

"What do we need black Republicans in Congress for?"

I did not expect that answer.

"That doesn't mean that agendas beneficial to African Americans are not going to get passed. I have a nice working relationship with Sen. Lott and the speaker." Much of the funding for his group, Kevin said, comes from "little old white ladies in Nebraska."

Kevin said the AARLC was happy with the results of the November elections, and the Web site confirmed it: "AARLC Candidates Sweep in November Elections," it said. So I checked the victorious AARLC candidates for Congress and governorships: They are all white.

more....

Gene Weingarten's e-mail address is [e-mail].