Fewer Black Republicans?
October 25, 2006
First and foremost, I want people to vote. I am less concerned about what party or person that they vote than I am with people voting in the first place.
With that said, the L.A. Times says that Black and Latin people are re-evaluating whether or not they should vote Republican. The only reason that this is a story is because a number Black people voted Republican for the first time in 2004. This was because they were sold on a series of lies, including but not limited to these two:
Faith-Based Initiatives would finance programs by Black churches/in Black neighborhoods
This recently published book by David Kuo, former special assistant to the G. W. Bush from 2001 to 2003, deputy director of the White House office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, talks about how much of a joke that office was, and why he resigned from it.
Republicans don’t like same-sex marriage or abortion either
This is a different kind of lie. Republicans may not actually not like same-sex marriage or abortion. The problem here is that they tried to turn Black voters into single-issue voters. What is a single-issue voter? It’s a person who votes based on one thing and one thing alone. The ’single issues’ in 2004 were abortion and same-sex marriage. Why is that problematic? It’s problematic because those seeking power can use whatever your issue is to get you to vote against your own best interests on other issues. This not only happens on issues like abortion, but it is also a problem for people who’s issue is the so-called war on terror.
In voting, and in life, it is important to understand why we do the things we do. In order to do this, we have to step back and look at all of our motivations, decisions, and actions. The last thing I want to see is people doing things because they were deceived into doing them. I feel that this is what happened in 2004, and I don’t want to see that again.
Categories
Voting
Politics
Black Issues
Republican
Abortion
Same-Sex Marriage
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