To Reach Blacks, GOP Must Take Progressive Tack
The November election nears, and African-Americans must decide who they will vote for. As the nation’s second largest racial minority, our vote is crucial, even in the Southwest where “the Latino vote,” also inclusive of the “African American vote”(picture Sammy Soza), has garnered much attention. It is assumed, with merit, that most blacks will “go Democratic.” Black’s overwhelming support for the Democratic ticket must not be viewed as an affront to conservatism however. Most black people are socially, politically and culturally conservative. Like most conservative Republicans, most blacks give primacy to God, uphold a principled legacy of safeguarding our nation, abhor un-safe sex, abortion, and divorce, believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, and champion self-sufficiency, accountability, civic responsibility and duty. Many blacks believe in the right to the bear arms, recognize the vitality of maintaining a strong and just military apparatus, support the war on international terrorism, and most back the death penalty and believe that free market economics is the most viable monetary system.
Why then do blacks offer almost unqualified and often uncritical support of the Democratic Party? Is it that most blacks are “closet conservatives,” afraid of being labeled sell-outs, as a dear Republican friend of mine suggested? Is it because the Democratic establishment wields a Voldermort type power over our psyches? No. It is, in part, because most blacks do not subscribe to the dominant white Republican paradigm of conservatism. Black people have a conservative tradition that is independent of white conservatism, and the kind of neo-conservative cronism practiced by a small cadre of black Republican propagandists. Should the Republican Party become more progressive and inclusive, particularly to many conservative African-Americans who are more sympathetic, given our history and life, to civil liberties, universal health care, all-day kindergarten, public education, after school learning and service programs, affirmative action, and hate crime legislation, many blacks would be more inclined to join their ranks.
Many of my conservative white counterparts, however, practically refuse to acknowledge that race matters at all, and that economic inequality must be attacked, or that we must implement and maintain mechanisms and institutions that curb the kind of greed, avarice and bigotry that has exploited people at the margins for generations. Too often white Republicans insist upon framing “conservative” issues, and if we don’t go along, we’re out (can you say Colin Powell?). If we won’t be J.C. Watts, Armstrong Williams, or Alan Keys (does anyone take Keys any more seriously than they do Al Sharpton?), we are marked with a Scarlet Letter “L” for “Liberal.” As if being “Liberal” is somehow inherently reprehensible. If we denounce the Confederate Flag as a symbol of white supremacy, we are called divisive. If we speak out about racial and economic inequality, we are called confrontational “prophets of victimization” and doom. We’re told repeatedly to simply “get over it,” as if we haven’t tried for hundreds of years. For most black people this kind of attitude is unacceptable and counterproductive.
Until the Republican Party embraces our brand of progressive conservatism, like the Radical Republicans did during Reconstruction, its mantra of “compassionate conservatism” will ring hollow in our ears, and the Democratic Party (which has “tokenized” and insulted us with paternalistic rhetoric and actions too), will again hold a virtual monopoly on our votes in November (if only by default). Until a leader or party emerges that speaks truth to power and privilege along class and race lines, and the need for conservatism marked by moral clarity, conviction, and inclusion, I will continue to challenge both parties to recognize that conservatism and progressivism are not competing values.
Dr. Matthew C. Whitaker, a Phoenician native, is Assistant Professor of History at Arizona State University in Tempe. He is also an affiliate faculty in African and African American Studies and the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at ASU. He is also Co-Owner and CEO of The Whitaker Group, L.L.C., a consulting firm specializing in diversity and educational curriculum and instruction training.
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