{"id":7963,"date":"2022-05-28T16:21:27","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T16:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7963"},"modified":"2022-05-28T16:21:27","modified_gmt":"2022-05-28T16:21:27","slug":"the-catch-22-facing-black-voters-at-the-ballot-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7963","title":{"rendered":"The Catch-22 Facing Black Voters At The Ballot Box"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“The 2022 midterms are approaching and Black voters must choose between the Republican Party, which has actively worked against their interests for decades<\/a>, and the Democratic Party, which has long struggled to meaningfully address<\/a> race and racism, as well as issues important to Black voters<\/a> \u2014 such as police reform and federal voting rights legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sad thing, at least for most Black voters, is it\u2019s an easy choice. In the last 60 years or so, the Democratic Party, despite its many failures, has done far more for Black voters<\/a> than the GOP. That\u2019s why the vast majority of Black voters cast ballots for Democrats even if they aren\u2019t necessarily liberal themselves<\/a>. And therein lies the problem: Because Democratic leaders know that most Republican candidates aren\u2019t a truly viable option for Black voters, the Democratic Party doesn\u2019t have much incentive to court members of its most loyal constituency<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As former FiveThirtyEight senior reporter Farai Chideya wrote back in 2016<\/a>, Black voters are so<\/em> loyal that they\u2019re considered \u201ccaptured\u201d \u2014 a theory put forth by Paul Frymer<\/a>, a professor of politics at Princeton University, in a 1999 book titled \u201cUneasy Alliances: Race and Party Competition in America<\/a>.<\/em>\u201d In other words, they\u2019re ignored by one major party and taken for granted by the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn recent elections, there\u2019s normally some sort of conversation around what direction Latino or Asian Americans are going to swing,\u201d said Jennifer Chudy<\/a>, a professor of political science at Wellesley University. That \u201creveals the predicament Black voters are in because there\u2019s not even a curiosity surrounding what they\u2019ll do. \u2026 And I think they\u2019re unique in that way.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Black voters are \u201ccaptured\u201d not simply because most favor Democrats, but because overt appeals to themare seen as disruptive to the rest of both party\u2019s coalitions. But other voting blocs don\u2019t necessarily experience the same thing. So, for example, Republicans can court white evangelicals<\/a> because direct overtures to this group \u2014 for example, promoting anti-abortion policies, Christian values or legislation against transgender<\/a> students and athletes \u2014 won\u2019t turn off a majority of Republican voters. Certain civil rights issues that would have the greatest impact on Black voters, in contrast, are seen as too taboo to promote because being pro-Black is often conflated with being anti-white. As a result, politicians on both sides of the aisle often ignore<\/a> Black voters\u2019 concerns because they don\u2019t want to take steps that would either turn off white voters or make it seem like they\u2019re disrupting the existing racial hierarchies of power<\/a> where white people are at the top.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Catch-22 Facing Black Voters At The Ballot Box<\/a><\/blockquote>