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 From The Desk Of
Ron Walters
Columnist Page
Friday, November 26, 2004; Page 14
It’s Not Morality; It’s the Money
Did you know that 28% of Black folks in Oklahoma voted for George Bush? Why? There has been a lot of talk about what drove this election and especially the miraculous Republican turnout edge against Democrats that was caused by the hot issue of gay marriage that stimulated the Religious Right to show up at the polls in big numbers. Well, I have my doubts about that.
The proof is that when you look at the national exit polls, of those who voted for George Bush, the top issue was “terrorism” at 86%. Those who valued “moral issues” were second, with 80%. Those who thought that the Iraq War protected them from terrorism supported Bush by 90% while those who wanted no legal recognition for same-sex couples was much less at 70% and those who supported civil unions for them was a healthy 52%. This tells me that the issues of terrorism and Iraq were the real driving issues and that the base motivation was fear.
I do not discount the moral issues altogether, since it appears that some folks, including some Black folks, did support it more than before. For example, Black support for Bush rose in the following states over the national average of 11 percent: California – 18%; Florida – 13%; New Jersey – 17%; Ohio – 16%; Pennsylvania – 16%; South Carolina – 15%; and Texas 16%. These are some important states with big Black populations and big electoral votes. So, why did this happen?
One answer is that the pre-election poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies was right. It showed a 100% increase in Black support for Bush, from 9% in 2000 to 18% this year. We know that the national average Black support for Bush was only 11%, but the reason that it increased in some states may have been due to the moral issues of gay-marriage, which was on the ballot in 11 states.
I wrote about this before the election expressing some concern that some of our ministers were ready to reduce the priority of the bread-and-butter issues of their congregations and elevate gay marriage as a voting issue in their place. In fact, a friend of mine told me that his sister’s pastor said that she would go to hell if she voted for John Kerry because of his sinful views.
I’m sure that some of this happened, but I am more concerned about those ministers -- probably in greater numbers -- who may have done radio and television ads supporting George Bush, who gave their church directories to his campaign, and who held social events to drum up voter turnout, all according to instructions prepared by the Bush campaign earlier in the year. This entry into the Black church community was paved by the faith-based programs, but it was supplemented by a dedicated plan of attack on Black churches by the Republican campaign.
Now I don’t know who received money for their assistance to the Republican Party. But I have heard that money flowed and things were done to receive it. It may all come out in the records of the Federal Election Commission, but the Republicans are so smart that it may not. In any case, we have two models working here.
One model is that the Democrats flood the Black communities with people who don’t know Blacks, asking them to register, then return to ask them to vote. Meanwhile, the ministers and other Black leaders who should be doing this work are on the sidelines of the action. Moreover, the Democratic Party and their friends raise more money than ever before, but none of it goes to a Black church program.
Then, 30 days out, the Kerry campaign panics, calls in Rev. Jesse Jackson, to try to pull out the Black vote, calls out the president of Black America, Bill Clinton (whom he knows can pull out the Black vote), and he accompanies them into Black churches asking for votes. He also invites some Black ministers to come on conference calls to talk to our Black president, Bill Clinton, but Black leaders are not allowed to speak. Regardless, the effort is very little and very late.
The other model is that Karl Rove cultivates Black preachers with money from the White House earmarked for faith-based institutions, provides foreign trips to some ministers, invites some to the White House, and when election time comes, turns them loose to support the president. And they respond with what amounts to serious Republican penetration into the heart of the institutional structure of the Black community, creating a jumping off point for successive Republican administrations to tear away the cultural fabric of our community and patch it on to their political Right wing agenda.
As we think about what happened in this election cycle and seek repair, one thing that must be understood is that the Black church infrastructure is now the subject of serious competition. And the stakes of how that turns out are awesome.
Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American Leadership Institute in the Academy of Leadership and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland-College Park. His latest book is “White Nationalism, Black Interests” (Wayne State University Press). |
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