Will Democratic Party Write off Black Vote in 2008?

By

Dr. Sherman N. Miller

If the Democrats have no clear winner by their convention, they have the option to write off a minority voter group. However, throwing Senator Barack Obama out might signal to African American voters that their mainstream legitimacy is an illusion in the eyes of the Democratic Party leadership. This action may force Black Americans to seriously consider voting for a Republican candidate for the first time in roughly a half century.

E.J. Dionne, Jr. reported in an August 2, 1987 article, “G.O.P. PONDERS AN APPEAL TO MINORITIES” seen in February 6, 2008 The New York Times Week in Review on how the late President Richard M. Nixon (Republican) got about 30 percent of the black vote in 1960.  “As recently as 1960, Richard M. Nixon won about a third of the black vote against John F. Kennedy. And in the 1970's, William E. Brock 3d, the Secretary of Labor who was then Republican National Committee Chairman, invested a great deal of energy and some money in winning back black voters who left after Senator Barry Goldwater's 1964 Presidential campaign.”

Of course the Democratic leadership can write off Senator Obama for Senator Clinton in a delegate dead heat from the campaign trail. With an Obama exodus, the Democratic leadership now can counterbalance African American vote loses with Hispanic votes in Electoral Vote rich big states (California, New York, Texas, and Florida) by assuming blacks disdain with the Republican Party is too high for African Americans to do anything other than stay home.

The Republican Party might recognize that all votes count equally, so it is now time to make a serious appeal to get black votes. Barry Goldwater’s legacy probably suggests that the Republican Party is a white’s only bastion with an unwritten sign of persona non grata to African Americans. However, the real challenge for the Republican leadership is how to reposition the African American perception away from conservatism being equated to white racism to where the party is viewed as a big tent opened to all people. Conservatism is live and well in African American communities across the nation, thus it is up to the Republican leadership to showcase it.

The Republican leadership needs to bring forth their black political operatives with credibility in the African American community and not parade black conservative zealots that conjurer up black disdain for these black zealots appear to be working against the interest of Black America. Surely, there are moderate black Republicans who can be out front with the Republican Presidential hopeful.