Any viable reasons why blacks should be overwhelmingly Democrat?

Question

I appreciate their help during the civil rights movement over 40 years ago, but what are they doing for us today?

Why do we still owe them our allegiance? It seems that the Democratic party has been hijacked by a bunch of extreme leftists who see us as helpless beings who need them.

This isn't a confrontational question, but this is Y!A, so I know a couple of answers (99.99% from liberals) will chide me for being 'ungrateful', a 'sell-out', and whatever else.

I say that blacks should look beyond the Democratic party and see what else is out there. Surely, in America today, no one should be pigeon-holed into ONE political party, right?

The 'welfare' answers are on point.

And that is extremely sad.

Answer 1

You have no idea how excited I am to see this question from you. Thank you for making my day!

Answer 2

I've worked with a lot of black people, and around the time of every election I'd hear them talking only about Democratic candidates, as if it didn't even occur to them to vote Republican. Somehow, they were all under the false impression that Democrats were "all for the little guy".

I was really hoping Condaleezza Rice would run for President. However, the ominous threat of having your life vivisected by a slimy, unprincipled press whose only motive is to produce as many tabloid headlines as possible means we will never have such a great candidate run.

Blacks should turn their backs on the Democratic party for so many reasons. The first is the smug, paternalistic way in which the Democratic party always counted on the black vote, and never made good on their promises, decade after decade.

The Democrats need victims, not winners. They want to hook people on some bloated government program like welfare, and fix the rules so it's impossible to ever leave. This is why Hillary wants national health care, so they can use it as a weapon come election time. The Democrats know that socialized medicine would be a fiasco in the U.S. With perhaps the exception of Norway, it is a disaster everywhere in the world. However, the Dems want voters to feel they have a vested interest in socialized medicine, and once it's in place, every family with children will start voting democratic, just to make sure the benefits keep growing.

When the sytem turns out to cost three times the projected amount, Democrats will scare voters with nightmarish scenarios of what the Republicans would do to fix the problem. Children will die! Old people will go blind! This is how the Democrats operate. With their old fashioned hokum and scare tactics, they should be running for office in some ignorant Banana Republic, not the U.S.

Answer 3

Agreed... the Democratic Party is the party of hand-outs... pro-welfare, medicare, Affirmative Action etc etc... there was a time when the African American community needed these things; today a great number of people (and not ALL black) continue to rely heavily on the Government and a large percentage of this group are African American, the problem is that many of these people (not all) do nothing to help themselves but merely sit and wait for their welfare checks instead of getting an education, a job etc. Because of this there is a stereotype that the African American community supports the DNC so that they will continue to keep getting Welfare and money from other social programs... While it is not true that all Blacks fit that stereotype, there are some that do... welfare isn't intended to support people or their families for their entire lives, it is intended to help people "get on their feet"...

Answer 4

Why this question when you really are making a positional statement and a call to action?

Racial discrimination in employment, education, public facilities, all contributed because Democrats have always focused on social programs to help all minorities. Blacks, as we all know, continue to be discriminated against in some parts of the country more than others.

Ignore "party politics" and look at "party performance". That's what every voter - black, white, Latino, Hispanic, whatever, should be doing. Vote out the "sweet talkers" and vote in the "doers".

Jim DeSantis

Answer 5

Good question! After the Civil War, blacks were predominantly Republican. How they came to see the Democratic party as being supportive of civil rights is beyond me; the Democrats were the ones that caused civil rights to become an issue in the first place. (Remember George Wallace?)
The real issue is not black/white, male/female, rich/poor...the real issue is for everyone to vote for the best candidate, before we wind up like Mexico or Nicaragua.

Answer 6

Until the early 20th century blacks were overwhelmingly republican. Why? Hmmmm.....what party was in power when the Civil War was won? Republicans. And while the war was actually fought over States Rights, it did free the slaves. So they backed the GOP.

Nowadays it really doesn't matter since both parties are essentially the same. I.E. they are both coroprate owned and operated. We the People have lost all power in the gov't due to the obscene amounts of $$$ given to the 2 parties in the form of bribes....err...campaign donations.

I agree with you: we should ALL be looking at other parties since the two we have are disfunctional.

Answer 7

As bad as I hate to agree with the two conservative radicals, it is welfare. Democrats care about helping the poor and a lot of them are. That being said they and a large number of whites Hispanics and everyone else takes advantage of it way too much. Most could be working but won't. That is a very large problem with the system. I think we need the social programs in place but need to figure out how to give it to those who really need it, not to those who take advantage of it.

Answer 8

Bush is: it is a family legacy issue. The old stumpers gathered the poor (race aside) with "champion of the underdog." The fact is that most still believe this to be the truth, because this is what grandpa said.

I am amazed by the people around me that are registered Dems: Abortion, welfare, gun-control, etc., they disagree with them ALL. But hold steady to the Dems, because "its always been that way."

Levi: You almost had a thumbs up from me, but you had to go a call me a racist . . . your ignorance is profound.

Answer 9

Hey, I'm a democrat, and I just wanted you to know, I didn't feel like chiding you at all for being anything like ungrateful or who knows what.

The democratic party is probably only the lesser of two evils right now, and it has less to do with race than thinking about what types of things you support or don't want to see happen. Right now, there's no reason to vote one party or the other simply because of your race...in general, because it's both parties who do one thing to all of us: screw us over.

I vote democrat typically because I agree with some cornerstones of the party, but not all. Hopefully, someday, we'll have a country where political party isn't what matters most, but that what a person says matters most.

Problem is that our two-party system has led to a disgusting array of power-hungry people intent on driving their own parties forward into the future. Big Whoop! Does anyone actually believe that the members of congress believe one or the other of only two sets of beliefs. This is ridiculous.

I think the main motivation for black voters to vote Democrat is usually only a Southern issue. Many white Republicans are admitted racists who wish we could go back in time and make the same mistakes.

If you live in the North or the West, race and party become less important.

I think more black people vote for Democrats for the same reason that women, gays, Asian-Americans, Jewish people, Native Americans, etc. also vote Democratic...the other party doesn't seem to talk about things that we care about.

I care about universal health care, even though I'm a white man, I want black women to have health care...Not only does the typical Republican write me off, they write you off, too...they write off anyone without lots of money...

I vote democrat because I see less contradiction, more fairness, less controversy, more hope, more ideas, etc., not because I'm gay or young, but because I need to believe we'll be at a point someday where you and I are totally equal, and it makes me so mad that we're still not to that point.

There are very, very few black, gay, female, etc. Republican politicians, look up the numbers. It just makes me wonder if a group of people who all look the same can really care about those of us who look different...

But, anyway, make it about the issues, of course.

Answer 10

The Democrat party has done nothing for you except keep you down. The Democrats need victims and for years the black community was a source of victims. They want to keep you there, not help you help yourself. Keep people on welfare, not encourage them to get jobs. Keep them on foodstamps, keep them in the projects.

Answer 11

*shrug* Republicans have known this for years. We simply say you can do for yourselves, but Democrats buy your vote with welfare/social programs and get 95% of the black support on election day. There's really not a lot to say.