This story has a number of implications. Barack Obama is endorsing the white Cardin (D) over the black Steele (R) and telling black voters to vote on issues, not race.
The first important aspect is that Obama finally broke and played the race card: “Listen, I think it’s great that the Republican Party has discovered black people.” Excuse me? The Republican Party was, uh, founded as part of the anti-slavery movement (remember that dude Abraham Lincoln?). And more Republicans than Democrats supported civil rights legislation in the ’60s. Re-discovered, maybe, but not discovered.
Obama has, heretofore, been known as a racial reconciler – someone who, as Shelby Steele put it, doesn’t rub white people’s noses in racial guilt. That’s over now. Before I argued he was likeable but too liberal; now he’s making steps toward the Jesse Jackson crowd.
The other question is, why do blacks vote for Democrats in such large numbers? Many argue that Democratic policies have destroyed black families, and that blacks are socially conservative. I agree on both counts.
But (A) blacks’ stated policy goals (affirmative action, poverty programs) are consistent with the Democrats if harmful to themselves and (B) they tend to vote on those policy goals, not on their social conservatism. Republican inroads, including Steele’s, are great, but I’m not sure how successful they can be in the long run.
Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.
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