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2014-11-10 Home Front: Politix
The Death of the Southern White Democrat Hurts African-Americans the Most
[NEWREPUBLIC] Not long after the polls closed on Tuesday night, Georgia Congressman John Barrow earned his place in history when he lost his reelection campaign to Republican Rick Allen by almost 10 points--a peculiar place he undoubtedly didn't want. Barrow, a five-term Democratic incumbent with a conservative voting record that earned him endorsements from both the National Rifle Association and the Chamber of Commerce, was the last white Democrat in Congress from the Deep South.

This fact has occasioned some eloquent obituaries for that most endangered of political species, which is on the verge of extinction. Not only will there be no white Southern Democrats left in the House come January, but it's a good bet there won't be any white Southern Democrats in the Senate either (Mary Landrieu is likely to lose in the Louisiana run-off next month). Throw in the election of South Carolina's Tim Scott to the U.S. Senate and, as The New Yorker's Nicholas Thompson pointed out on Twitter, "there are now more black Republicans than white Democrats from the Deep South."

Much as this is a problem for white southern Democrats, it's a crisis for black ones. That's because blacks in the South--who, notwithstanding the very compelling counter-example of Tim Scott, are almost invariably Democrats--have for decades relied on coalitions with white Democrats to increase their political power. Lacking white politicians with whom they can build coalitions, black politicians are increasingly rendered powerless. The situation for southern black Democrats has only grown more dire after Tuesday's midterms.
Here's the problem: Blacks have come to make up the most important voting bloc within the Dem world. They make up 13 percent or thereabouts of the nation's population. You can't go around calling everybody in sight a racist and then expect them to vote with you. If I'm a racist no matter what I do, I'll do as I damned well please, which won't be supporting black candidates simply because they're black. I think we all heard Michelle Antoinette telling blacks to vote the color, not the candidate. She's not the only one, though I'll admit she put it more bluntly than most.
Posted by Fred 2014-11-10 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ]  Top

#1 Test
Posted by Besoeker 2014-11-10 03:56||   2014-11-10 03:56|| Front Page Top

#2 "Help, help, I'm being repressed..." etc.
Posted by ed in texas 2014-11-10 07:52||   2014-11-10 07:52|| Front Page Top

#3 Let me get this straight. It's a crisis if blacks (R) represent black (voters)?

Who is doing graphics today? I love the picture.
Posted by jvalentour 2014-11-10 08:16||   2014-11-10 08:16|| Front Page Top

#4 I'm not dead yet, but I'm not Democrat anymore.
Posted by Glenmore 2014-11-10 09:07||   2014-11-10 09:07|| Front Page Top

#5 Barrow, a five-term Democratic incumbent with a conservative voting record that earned him endorsements from both the National Rifle Association and the Chamber of Commerce, was the last white Democrat in Congress from the Deep South.

I'll wager he didn't get any support from the DNC either.
Posted by Pappy 2014-11-10 10:48||   2014-11-10 10:48|| Front Page Top

#6 Actually, the complete rout of the donks in the south might be the best thing that happens to blacks.
Posted by DarthVader 2014-11-10 11:04||   2014-11-10 11:04|| Front Page Top

#7 E&W Coast dems have really not caught on to black voters in the south. They actually hold pretty close to their religious beliefs, which contradict the current LGBT trends. They [southern blacks] don't cotton to the illegal immigration either.
Posted by Besoeker 2014-11-10 11:05||   2014-11-10 11:05|| Front Page Top

#8 blacks have been taken for granted for so long they're being thrown under the bus for the illegals vote
Posted by Frank G 2014-11-10 11:22||   2014-11-10 11:22|| Front Page Top

#9 I hope that blacks are beginning to realize that they are being used by the dem party like cheap tricks.

A rise in consciousness will cause blacks to ask of people like O, Sharpton, Jackson, et al, "Who elected YOU as leader of this outfit?"

Dems keep thumping the race card, with little results. I will vote for the man or the woman as an individual with the values that IMHO best represent this country as a whole. I do not see Dems or Pubs living up to this.
Posted by Alaska Paul 2014-11-10 12:19||   2014-11-10 12:19|| Front Page Top

#10 For a Democrat, he was pretty conservative. He had to be, in order to get the sliver of the white vote (to accompany the 90% of the black vote*) necessary to win elections. Among GOP legislators, Barrow was more conservative than Lisa Murkowski and John Hoeven. That's about it.

* Vital for Democrats in Southern elections because Southern states have the most blacks as a % of the population.
Posted by Zhang Fei 2014-11-10 16:49||   2014-11-10 16:49|| Front Page Top

02:03 Grom the Affective
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