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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MJ who wrote (57205)	12/30/2008 5:21:44 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	2 Recommendations Respond to of 224750

Boston Herald: ‘Spread the wealth’ keeps blacks voting blue By Star Parker Sunday, December 28, 2008 What does Caroline Kennedy have in common with black America? If your answer is not much, I’d tend to agree with you. When I think of Caroline, I think of Manhattan and Park Avenue, not the Bronx and Brooklyn. But there is something that Caroline and black America do have in common - the Democratic Party. According to exit polls from November’s election, Barack Obama captured the vote of America’s richest and America’s poorest. Some 52 percent of those with incomes more than $200,000 voted for Obama and more than 60 percent of those earning under $30,000 did. Our wealthiest senator, John Kerry of Massachusetts, is a Democrat, as is our wealthiest House member, Jane Harman of California. The nation’s two wealthiest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are both, by all indication, Democrats. What political aspirations can black Americans, whose median income lags the nation’s, share with these multimillionaires and billionaires? There is little common ground regarding values. Church attendance correlates reliably over time with party affiliation, and this remained true in the last election. Those who attend church frequently vote Republican. Those who don’t, vote Democratic. Except blacks. Blacks, in fact, have the highest church attendance in the country. Some 76 percent of black Democrats attend church at least monthly, while 67 percent of Republicans do and 50 percent of white Democrats do. A recent Gallup poll shows blacks more aligned with Republicans than Democrats on social issues - less accepting of homosexuality, abortion and sexual promiscuity. On energy and environmental issues, blacks poll more closely with conservatives than with liberals. It’s because these are pocketbook issues. Working blacks have little interest in paying the higher taxes and bearing the higher costs that will result from chasing global warming windmills and displacing cheap hydrocarbon energy with exotic government-subsidized alternatives. Lower energy costs also put blacks on the side of offshore drilling for oil and gas. How about education? Wealthy liberals, despite having their own kids in private schools, oppose school choice. When blacks are given the opportunity to pull their child out of a failing public school and send him or her to a church school or another alternative they are grateful. So where’s the common ground? Income redistribution. A recent Zogby poll shows 80 percent of Democrats, 90 percent of liberals, and 76 percent of blacks support taxing the wealthy to give money back to low-income Americans. Despite everything else, blacks vote to stay on the liberal plantation. Pop psychologists would call the relationship between wealthy liberals and blacks co-dependence. Republicans are wrong if they think they’ll win blacks on social issues alone. They need to help blacks understand that limited government provides the economic mobility and opportunity they need and that the welfare, redistribution state does the opposite. They must help blacks gain self-confidence that they can enjoy the benefits that only come from freedom. So far they have not done this. news.bostonherald.com