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Earl Ofari Hutchinson

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The Plus in Romney's 0 Percent Black Vote Support

Posted: 08/27/2012 12:56 pm

The recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll registered what had to be a first ever for any candidate in any presidential election in modern times. The poll put GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's share of the black vote at zero percent. At first glance that seems about right. Romney and his VP running mate Paul Ryan have singlehandedly done what few GOP presidential tickets have done and that's actively alienate black voters. Their plans to hack up Medicare, and Medicaid, downsize Social Security, gut the threadbare corporate and financial regulations, environmental protections, and their full throated assault on abortion rights will wreak untold misery among African-Americans.

Their naked anti-government spending campaign stump broadsides to largely white suburban, rural and strongly male crowds further drive the point home that blacks are not even an after-thought in their drive to snare the White House. Their campaign approach would be enough to insure the lowest of single digit support from blacks even if their opponent isn't a popular, and history making African-American president. One would have to hark back to Ronald Reagan in his reelection bid in 1984 to find a GOP president that has ticked off African-Americans to the extent Romney-Ryan have. Even Reagan, despite the low intensity warfare he waged against civil rights organizations and black Democrats, still managed to get three percent of the black vote.

But there's more to the picture than the goose egg number that pollsters say Romney-Ryan will get. The black vote in several ways is very much a part of the GOP's strategy and tactics to win the White House. GOP presidents and presidential contenders Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr. and especially W. Bush took great pains to give the appearance that they were not overt racists, and that naked racism was not part of their appeal. This included highly orchestrated, stage managed, photo-ops with black celebrities and sports figures, a handful of key black pitch men and women on the campaign trail with them, and in the case of Bush loading up the Republican convention with a pack of show piece, African-Americans to provide entertainment and perfunctory speeches. This time it's is no different. The GOP convention in Tampa will feature former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Democratic congressman Artur Davis, and Mia Love, Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah as prime time key note convention speakers.

The next tact is to refine the ploy of voter suppression tactics that the GOP has traditionally employed, in times past, from felon bans to blatant intimidation of black and Hispanic voters at polling places. GOP governors and GOP controlled state legislators did that by drumming up a maze of rules and regulations from ending weekend voting to the rash of voter ID requirements. The aim is the same and that's to damp down the black vote total all under the guise of combating voter fraud.

Then there's the subtle racial pander. This is the GOP's standard use of code words and attack points such as tax and spend Democrats, out of control, wasteful government, and welfare freeloaders. This embeds the notion that minorities, and especially blacks, unfairly scam the system with the active connivance of Democrats and at the expense of hard-working, overtaxed blue-collar and middle class whites. The flip side of this is to continually finger point civil rights leaders and Democrats as the perpetual players of the race card whenever they voice criticism of the racist digs, taunts, and hectoring of President Obama from many Tea Party leaders and followers.

Another insidious GOP ploy with its eye on black voters is to bankroll and promote a handful of visible and vocal black conservatives to recite all the stock criticisms of Obama, civil rights leaders, and Democrats. This creates the deliberate and false impression that a substantial number of blacks don't support the Democratic Party despite the polls. Davis, for instance, plays that role well. In highly touted interviews and appearances, Davis pounds on the tired theme that the Democratic Party has betrayed blacks and that it practices a modern version of plantationism; that is perennially taking the black vote for granted, while offering no tangible programs for the black poor. His tout of Romney and Ryan's emphasis on private sector growth, school choice, and further shredding welfare, is supposedly the path to economic well-being and uplift for blacks. This line will be repeated incessantly by black GOP pitchmen and women in the run up to November 6.

The GOP's aim is not to add a digit or two to the goose egg that polls show Romney will get from black voters. It's to sow seeds of doubt, confusion, and even some hostility toward Obama among just enough blacks to keep them from the polls in the must win battle ground states, present the façade of a color blind party, and sprinkle it all with racially loaded code terms to further inflame conservative white voters. This is the plus GOP banks on among blacks despite Romney's 0 percent black voter support.


 

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The recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll registered what had to be a first ever for any candidate in any presidential election in modern times. The poll put GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's sha...
The recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll registered what had to be a first ever for any candidate in any presidential election in modern times. The poll put GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's sha...
 
 
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03:10 PM on 10/15/2012
I wonder why that is when you have stellar people in your camp saying things like...

"In his self-published 2009 book titled "Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative," state Representative Jon Hubbard of Jonesboro, Arkansas, writes that "the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise."

Yeah, I wonder why we all haven't flocked to the Romney/Ryan camp. I guess we should be idol worshiping them. NOT!

Darn it! We didn't get the memo!
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Ronaldreaganisgod
05:21 AM on 09/09/2012
deju vu I could have sworn your written this article before
MonicaR
Monica Roberts, aka the TransGriot,
10:09 AM on 08/29/2012
Racism equals prejudice plus societal power, not what clueless white people in denial about the white privilege they swim in aim at Black people who call them out on their centuries old jacked up behavior
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Bill Pilgrim
The Ten Cannots: Words to live by.
11:52 AM on 08/29/2012
. The constant failure to recognize personal responsibility ensures generations of people will continue blaming their failures on someone else.
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one1byke
Easy no Man.
07:12 AM on 09/04/2012
I hope you write that to Romney, right away.

He does play the blame game quite a bit.
06:35 AM on 08/30/2012
Yes--and "clueless white people" lobbing code-worded slurs exist within, and are empowered by, a racist social context. Their speech, and the opinions they express thereby, is privileged by the racist social structure.
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blackraisin
Life, Liberty, Property.
01:31 AM on 08/28/2012
I hope you don't actually believe this, because its nonsense.
10:43 PM on 08/27/2012
How much did the Democrats PAY for black people?


It's evident that a lot of black people are property of the Democratic party.

But look at black people condtion, it's terrible.

Democrats got some good slaves
09:45 PM on 08/30/2012
Thank you for proving what a lot of people say about the Republican party. I want everyone who was considering the voting for Romney to see what you are getting into.

The Republican party claims to have family values. Is that part of your family values? Look long and hard at this person's statements and then your won't have to wonder why people who really value and respect others would run the opposite way.
This is an example of what's wrong with society. Did you just say something hateful because your self esteem hit rock bottom today or does it just live in the basement? This is a classic case of what happens when hate gets in front of a computer.
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bonncaruso
06:09 PM on 08/27/2012
That what you reap, so shall you sew.
02:16 PM on 08/28/2012
did you mean sow?
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GroveGal10
chillin' on Biscayne Bay
04:13 PM on 08/27/2012
If I was an African American, I would be so angry that nothing could stop me from voting. I'd drag my family, friends and everyone I knew down to the polls in droves. My prediction is we'll see that happen as should ever culture disenfranchised through prejudice ought to do.
03:36 PM on 08/27/2012
Why hasn't Obama told the people of New Orleans and gulf states to evacuate the region?

George Bush did
05:47 PM on 08/27/2012
Tflack4 Romey so call wants the black folk vote why don't he tell the people of New Orleans to evacuate. Afterall his convention is in the zone. Stop trying to make president Obama prove hisself when you know good and darn well that you will continue to come up with more of the same lame questiosn... prove it. show me, why haven't you. Here's something for you.

CHANGE is a process, not an EVENT.
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hruss1125
Life Long Learner
09:48 PM on 08/27/2012
Love it
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BRight Black
DNC: Razzle Dazzle 'em - Chicago
01:38 AM on 08/28/2012
Obama is using us. The democrat party is using us. They don't support our churches, or belief in God, they want our daughters aborting their babies for convenience. They have done nothing to help our inner cities, schools, or get us job availability. They just keep throwing money in our cities and we don't ever see it in the places we need it. We are only talked about during an election. They take our vote for granted but never honor our culture and our ambition to open businesses and survive in business. Obama has been partying in the white house while people starve and scrounge outside the gates.
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lionzion
I WILL BREAK YOU
05:58 PM on 08/27/2012
Hurricane Katrina was a category 4 storm. Whats the category of Isaac?
03:04 PM on 08/27/2012
Romney and the republicans will wear this as a badge of honor and hope that it even gets them more white votes even though they are already at record levels with this voting bloc. Their entire campaign of denigration against Obama has been racially charged from the start and because it has been so successful even a lousy candidate like Mitt Romney could win or steal this election.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
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02:30 PM on 08/27/2012
"The GOP's aim is not to add a digit or two to the goose egg that polls show Romney will get from black voters. It's to sow seeds of doubt, confusion, and even some hostility toward Obama among just enough blacks to keep them from the polls in the must win battle ground states, present the façade of a color blind party, and sprinkle it all with racially loaded code terms to further inflame conservative white voters."

The question I believe Black Democrats should be able to answer is why does this sowing division between Obama (or any Democratic candidate) and the majority of AAs work?

Most AAs can see the difference between the love letters the GOPTea send to hard working whites and the hail mail working class blacks receive. Why can 3 to 15% of AAs not see it for what it is or are so indifferent to the racial animus they don't personally care?

The GOP rarely talks about what they have on offer in terms of active government or substantial protection.
12:35 PM on 08/27/2012
The fact that blacks show zero percent for Romney is a terribly sad commentary on American society. Romney has a sterling record on racial issues. How else could he have been elected in Massachusetts?

This poll shows blacks vote on race above all other factors. They have become the true racists in American society today. Whites showed four years ago they they are willing to consider and support a black man based on his policies and issues. Blacks are not willing to consider a white candidate in that light.

Martin Luther King's dream that his children and grandchildren would would judge and be judged based on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin is utterly repudiated by today's black community.

The supreme irony is how many blacks are willing to vote against their own best interest just to have an incompetent black man wrecking their economic opportunity.
05:49 PM on 08/27/2012
Micoz the fact is that Romey lied when he went down south and told people that he love chessy grits. Chessy grits played out long ago with some of us. How lame and stupid.

Obama 2012

CHANGE is a process, not an EVENT.
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02:51 PM on 08/29/2012
Sad you vote for someone just because of race.
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lionzion
I WILL BREAK YOU
06:01 PM on 08/27/2012
Blah, blah, blacks are racist, yea, yeah.. They voted for 200 years- take away years from voter intimidation and voter suppressions by the states and ku klux klan- for white candidates from both parties. Yes, black are racist...