Further Proof that the African-American Voter is Becoming More Savvy
on October 4th, 2004 at 2:49 amJohn Kerry’s 11th-hour appointment of the Rev. Jesse Jackson as a senior campaign adviser last week has little to do with the Democratic presidential nominee wanting to address the average black voter, and more to do with assuaging Jackson’s elephantine political ambitions by using him to stop any more defections before Election Day. Although a new poll found black support for Senator Kerry has dipped precipitously since August, nevertheless, should Kerry succeed in his quest for the White House, in large measure his victory will be attributable to the millions of black voters who remain the most reliable constituency of the Democratic Party and who will stand in long lines to vote in key states such as Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, and Michigan. Yet the Kerry campaign has done little to court African-Americans. Moreover, black leadership and voters have not demanded more of Kerry’s attention. A too easily satisfied black electorate has settled for Kerry’s candidacy without question – simply because Kerry is the anti-Bush.
Beneath the flood of sorry accusations that minorities and the poor are afraid and too naive to know how the voting machine works as well as who to vote for is an emerging base of African-American voters that are too wise to allow themselves to be dumbed down into believing that they are nothing more than a bunch of ignorant field hands for the political process in this country. Benin Dakar writes about this growing trend in his article entitled: “Unrequited love is not an option”. Although Dakar says some things in this article that I disagree with (such as his reference to Bush’s African-American appointees as just “perplexing and tractable blacks”). Otherwise, the article is worth the read to anyone that who has traditionally voted a Democratic ticket, but have some problems voting for Kerry.
Dakar finishes the article with the following statement:
For me, that means giving final notice: This is the last time I will cast my vote for a Democratic presidential nominee whose single endearing quality is that he is less openly hostile toward my community than the Republicans are.
Seems to me if he sees how the Democratic party has taken advantage of the Black vote, why wait to make a statement that you are not going to take it anymore? In the end, massa still gets his vote
