BOOKER RISING - Lana Hampton on A Moral Dilemma
By Molotov
The BlackConservative.net webmaster is encouraged by Bush's increased black support, but argues that blacks need to vote our convictions and with informed decisiveness: "The interesting, and disappointing, fact was that though both white and black Evangelicals follow the same doctrine, whites apparently took their faith to the polls while the majority of blacks seemed to have left theirs at home. Seventy eight percent of Evangelical whites voted for Bush. There was also a strong correlation between frequent church attendance and votes for Bush. Most blacks oppose abortion and gay marriage, yet those beliefs are not reflected in the 89% of blacks who voted for Kerry, a pro-choice candidate."
We disagree that most black voters left their faith at home. The difference lies in whether the emphasis is on personal values vs. social values. White evangelicals place heavy emphasis on the former, black evangelicals on the latter. Both are valid ways to cast a ballot. If a candidate is able to combine the two, watch out! And when Republicans have to go back 40 years to outline positive relations with black voters - as Hampton does in the piece - that's problematic.
Clarence Page on Values and Bush's Increased Black Vote
By Molotov
The liberal Chicago Tribune columnist argues that Dubya's black vote was a drop in the bucket amid his national flood, but a big hole for the Democratic Party in a slew of states where Bush doubled or even tripled his black support. To Democrats, he says: "First, you've got to stop letting the other party do a better job of defining your 'moral values' than you do of defining theirs. You're not likely to win over many hard-core liberal haters, but you can win back many of the persuadable, middle-of-the-road independents..." |
