It’s no surprise that black Americans used to be Republicans. The GOP is, after all, the party of Lincoln and slavery abolition. For more than half a century, however, blacks have given approximately 90 percent of their support to Democrats every election. What’s more, laments a black writer and speaker, “Democrats are guilt tripping us into voting.”
“Heavy on Emotion”
As that man, LeRon L. Barton, writes at Newsweek:
How many African Americans have heard this before—”If you don’t vote, your ancestors fought in vain”, or “If you don’t vote Democrat, then you are letting a racist win.” This has been a message that has resonated through our community for years. But it is the type of message that is troubling. One without substance, but heavy on emotion. A talking point that is not meant to inform, but to shame.
… When I turned 18 years old, voting was not suggested, it was expected. I remember the voter outreach being one of information, how these laws and legislation would impact you. [Canvass] workers and politicians did not use rappers or actors to reach Black folks. There was no, “The ancestors would be [ashamed] of you if you didn’t vote”, but motivating us with data and facts. For some reason, that has all changed.
I saw the shift during the second President George Bush’s candidacy. I watched and read how the outreach towards African American men and women went from providing reasons why we should vote Democrat to “Republicans are going to destroy this country. Black people have to vote for the Democrats.” The message I received was that if you didn’t participate in the election process, then you are worse than the people who voted Republican.
Barton proceeds to offer many other examples as well. He certainly provides much to unpack, too.
A New Phenomenon?
First, based on other information he provided, Barton appears to come from a family that emphasized civics. But he also may be projecting his mindset onto others and idealizing the past.
While our political discourse certainly has degraded, when was this time in which Democrats were “motivating us with data and facts”? It certainly wasn’t when Democratic president Lyndon Johnson reportedly said in the 1960s, “I’ll have those n*****s voting Democratic for 200 years.” He was talking about buying votes with big-government measures.
It also wasn’t when sometime Democratic presidential candidate and activist Jesse Jackson led marchers at Stanford in 1987 in a chant of “Hey hey, ho ho, Western Civ has got to go.” He was a demagogue playing on emotion.
Note here that Barton just turned 46 (Happy Birthday, pal!), meaning he was a child in the ’80s and into the ’90s; I’m older than he is and, despite having a sort of photographic memory, don’t recall these data- and facts-based Democratic appeals.
Not Just Blacks
Moreover, while Barton is correct about the demagoguery having worsened, it isn’t just the black community that’s targeted with it; it’s a societal problem. Consider that just this week, commentator Bill O’Reilly mentioned that a recent appearance he made on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is noteworthy because it’s contrary to today’s norm whereby leftists simply refuse to book conservative guests. They’ve stopped trying to change minds with arguments and instead rely on censorship and manipulating hearts with artifice and anger.
Thus is a primary tactic now seen from the Left best described as bullying. Name-calling becomes ever more vicious, with pejoratives such as “racist,” “fascist,” “Nazi,” “Hitler,” “white supremacist,” and “threat to democracy” hurled continually. It all has the tone of a politics-oriented, sociopathic 13-year-old school bully.
Then there’s the matter of “If you don’t vote, your ancestors fought in vain.” In reality, since no one could vote for virtually all of history, we all had ancestors who “fought” for suffrage rights. But here’s the truth:
If you cast an uninformed vote, your ancestors fought in vain.
In fact, most voters should not vote. As I explained in 2008:
Most of us agree that having an educated populace is a prerequisite for a sound democratic republic. We also know that not everyone is well-educated. Thus, it cannot be a good thing for everyone to vote.
… And one needn’t be disenchanted with universal suffrage to agree. It’s one thing to have one man, one vote; it’s quite another to have one man, one obligation to vote. Yet we still hear that it’s our “civic duty” to go to the polls. Well, no, actually, it’s a civic duty to make ourselves worthy to do so.
This “vote first, ask questions later” idea reaches the very nadir of inanity when it manifests itself in get-out-the-vote drives, which can quite correctly be defined as an effort to rally the idiot vote disguised as a noble exercise in democracy. Yet whether the call to the polls is organized or incidental, I would always make the same point: If people don’t have the initiative to get out and vote without prodding, it follows that they don’t have the greater initiative necessary to inform themselves on the issues; thus, they shouldn’t vote.
… This is no minor point. When people don’t vote, it’s for the same reason why they don’t repair cars, fly planes or perform brain surgery.
They’re not interested in those things.
This matters because, “generally speaking, interest is a prerequisite for competency,” I continued.
In reality, our attitude toward voting isn’t serious. It’s analogous to saying “that if everyone flies a jumbo jet, air travel will somehow be better,” I later added, or “that if everyone performs brain surgery, medical care will somehow improve. Why? Well . . . participation is the answer!”
Anyone can participate — only a wise, informed voter can be sure he’s not participating in the destruction of his country. So, “First, do no harm.”
