Like I said, time to get started people
You want progress? Time ta git hard. Make them scared of your vote.
What Will Drive Black Voters to Polls?
One expert says voters have to ask themselves whether they are better off now than they were four years ago
By Joyce Jones
…For Republicans and Democrats, the votes of African American voters, who have been Democratic Party faithful for years, will count more than ever. “I think turnout is going to be extraordinary,” says Hilary Shelton, who heads the NAACP’s Washington office. “Blacks turned out in record numbers in 2000, and I think they see this election as much more crucial.”
If primary results are any indication, Shelton is right. While lamenting that Kerry is not more “Clintonesque,” African Americans gave him strong support. He is not warm and fuzzy, but does claim to feel black America’s pain, and that pain will drive them to the polls this fall.
“There’s a perception that Bush and the Republican Party back policy and policy changes that are not positive for African Americans,” says Robert Brown, a political scientist and assistant dean at Emory College at Emory University. “I can’t think of an issue that would be so compelling it would cause large numbers of blacks to support Bush.”
It is said that all politics are local, but blacks from coast-to-coast are confronting the same crises, with jobs topping the list. In a poll conducted by brilliant corners Research & Strategies, 47% of college-educated African American men cited jobs as the most important election issue. “It’s an amazing number that denotes a great deal of angst around jobs and job security from a group of voters who you would think should be more secure economically,” says the firm’s president, Cornell Belcher. “If you look at exit polling from the last two cycles, African American men are the ones dropping out of the electorate at a fairly fast rate, so the ability to speak to them honestly will be important,” particularly in such states as Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. “[Black votes] could very well turn the tide in those states alone,” adds Belcher.
