Poll: S.C. blacks far from liberal
Nuanced opinions reflect views `more conservative than the general population’
AARON GOULD SHEININ (COLUMBIA) STATE
(charlotte.com) Black South Carolinians are mainly Democrats, but they’re not liberal.
African Americans in South Carolina have nuanced opinions on a variety of issues that defy attempts to categorize them as voters, a Winthrop University/SCETV poll found.
According to the poll, two-thirds of blacks surveyed said they are Democrats, and four in five plan to vote in South Carolina’s January Democratic presidential primary.
Almost six in 10 of those surveyed, however, describe their political beliefs as conservative or moderate.
In the poll, the first survey in recent memory focused exclusively on black South Carolinians, blacks say their race, faith and gender define them. But so does their nationality, and being Southern and South Carolinians.
Adolphus Belk Jr., co-director of Winthrop’s African-American Studies department and co-author of the poll released last week, isn’t surprised by the poll’s findings.
“There has long been a strand of conservative political thought that’s run through the African American community,” Belk said.
“Even though African Americans in South Carolina and the nation generally are Democrat,” said Belk, they remain social conservatives — “more conservative than the general population.”
Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon, who co-authored the poll with Belk, said the poll is important because of the role blacks have played in Southern politics.
[...]
State Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland, a pastor in Eastover, S.C., sees the poll as affirming African Americans’ independence.
“It suggests the reality that the African American community is not a monolith, that the community is made up of a wide variety of views and positions on issues,” Neal said.
Still, he added, race remains important as an issue. “Race is still a very powerful player in the minds of people,” he said. “It’s a powerful motivator.”(more…)
I think that the findings of this poll is typical of what you will see in most Black Americans, and not just in South Carolina.
I think that Rep. Neal hit the nail on the head. For years the Democratic party has included Blacks in the makeup of its party while “addressing” (and I say that lightly) things such as poverty and minimum wage (key issues within that demographic). On the other hand the Republican party has traditionally been a majority White party which until recently (I’m mainly talking about during the last Presidential election season) has made a serious attempt to include Blacks within both its leadership and spotlighting Blacks who ran under their ticket. Say something negative about the poor performance of Democratic policy on the local level in mostly Black/Hispanic districts and all they have to do is whip out the race card by pointing to the other option which is a party that has not made the window dressing of multiculturalism a priority for its national image. I call it “window dressing” because as I have pointed out many times on this site, just about all the negative issues Blacks have complained about for years have taken place under Democratically controlled jurisdictions where oftentimes the elected official is a minority. So you better believe that race is a “powerful motivator” because it has demonstrated the ability to convince a whole demographic that it is better to live under incompetent leadership (and continue to vote for it) that includes Blacks than to explore other options which oftentimes does not make multiculturalism a priority.
Another thing about Democratic candidates is that they will attend forums (churches, town hall, debate, etc.) hosted by Blacks in most cases unlike Republican candidates. This is why politicians like Hillary Clinton can get away with her sad attempt to sound like an ol’ Black woman when speaking at a Black church some months ago.
“Did Republican candidates show up to make their case?”
“Oh well, I told you they are a bunch of racists.”
This is the logic that will forever haunt the Republican party as long as they do not become a major player in the game of multiculturalism.
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