Trying to predict anything in politics is at best a crap shoot. One of the more interesting and unpredictable phenomena in American politics though is the lopsided number of African-Americans who claim allegiance to the Democratic Party. Many of these good folks seem to vote democratic because it's expected, and they don't seem to question why or examine the logical alternative. Some credit Theodore Roosevelt or more recently, John F. Kennedy, as being the singular inspirations for these tendencies.
Most major elections see one or another black leader admonish their followers not to allow the Democrats take them for granted without obtaining some political favor. The Republicans are usually only mentioned as a bargaining chip, but never as a realistic alternative. Why that mindset exists, again is not logical, but one of those unpredictable political phenomena.
Perhaps it is the image that the Republicans are the party of the rich and the ones who don't care about the best interests of the not so rich. A recent poll by the “Wall Street Journal,” shows that people who earn more than $100,000 per year, now favor a Democrat in the White house in 2008, 48% to 41%, and prefer a Democratically lead Congress 45% to 42%. The Democrats are the new party of the rich, according to the Heritage Foundation, because the Democrats control a majority of the wealthiest Congressional Districts in the country.
Most high visibility black leaders owe much of their reputations to the Democrats, such as the Rev. Jessie Jackson or the Rev. Al Sharpton, two of the more vocal and influential. These men, and others like them, rose to prominence through the civil rights movements of the "60s and "70s, continuing the struggle after the Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated, and then made their own reputations in later years.
The facts are that the foundations of racism in the South were created by or sustained by Democrats like Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus, or Alabama Governor George Wallace in the late "50"s and "60"s, several of whom later recanted for their racist ways. For generations it was called the “Solid South” because of the almost absolute control the democrats exerted over state, county and local political organizations, excluding blacks from participating and even voting.
So which political party is the logical alternative for African-American voters? Again, let's look at history, at the guy who started it all, a Republican President Abraham Lincoln. His Emancipation Proclamation contributed to the start of a highly destructive Civil War that was necessary to wrench control of human lives (slaves), away from those early power brokers. Debate continues as to the main cause of the Civil War, but it was a Republican whose policies included freedom for African-Americans, and whose forces finally won the war at great personal loss.
School desegregation in the South, and the beginning of equal educational opportunity was set in motion in the1950's, when Republican Dwight Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to escort black students integrating previously all white schools. This action eventually ended the “separate but equal” fallacy which kept blacks in perpetual intellectual poverty with inferior educational opportunities and facilities.
One of the most influential government programs to the development of a black middle-class today was the implementation of Affirmative Action. Whether you agree with its' premises or not, this policy implemented by Republican President Richard M. Nixon's administration, is probably the single most influential cause of the rise of a black professional and middle class. Nixon appointee, Arthur Fletcher, former Secretary of State of the State of Washington, was asked to establish a government program which would help the most black people qualify for high paying career positions, Many otherwise qualified blacks were provided with scholarships to first rate colleges and universities to overcome the effects of generations of institutional racism. After schooling/training, positions were opened and in some cases quotas established to be filled by minority employees, and the increase in a black middle class continue to this day due in large part to the impetus of this program.
These days it is difficult to find people who will credit Affirmative Action for helping them succeed, and still fewer who will credit or even acknowledge that the Republicans are responsible for the opportunities that resulted in their upward mobility. Which of the major parties has created the most substantial programs to raise the fortunes and promote the welfare of Afro-Americans? I would hate to disturb anyone's well found prejudices.
