(ThyBlackMan.com) Earlier this week I commented on an article asking whether or not it is wrong to root for someone, specifically in sports, because they are the same race as you. Wrong or not it’s what people do and it doesn’t happen just in sports.
The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal presidential poll is a lightening rod for race relations revealing President Obama captures 94 percent of the Black vote. Mitt Romney, zero. Of course there are Black Republicans and of course they will probably vote for Mitt Romney: Herman Cain, Michael Steele and Mia Love, Allen West. But what’s the most telling about this poll is not the President’s lead among the people with whom on the surface he has the most in common, he also leads among Hispanics, women, and voters under 35. What’s telling about this particular part of the poll is what the zero number represents for Mitt Romney and the Republican party.
GOP Mitt Romney leads among Seniors, whites, and people living in rural 
areas. Sounds like the demographics of the South to me.
It’s been long held the Republican party is the party of the old Dixie-crats. The party of southern land owning, humans as property owning men. But if the base of the party are the only viable members of the party the GOP is going to find itself in an identity crisis very soon. The makeup of America is changing. Southern whites don’t dominate the way they used to. I’d go so far as to say they don’t dominate at all.
If you live in the South you know there are still deep seeded racial issues that aren’t as prevalent, if at all in the North. Take race mixing and marriage as the most recent example.
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In the south the frequency with which you see the hate and heritage symbolizing Confederate Flag is not surprising; no reason to sound the alarm. The same can’t be said when you see the criss crossed stars and bars in the North. It is incendiary, damn near a reason to riot.
The differences in landscape, culture, priorities and people can explain the extreme polarization of the country. The south holds steadfastly to family values and religion making it an easy win for the Republican party which posits itself as the party of family values and evangelism. Some ask the question, If Black people hold fast to family values and conservative mores, why don’t they vote Republican? The simple answer is the Republican party while catering to the family values set, caters more to those with tall money and deep pockets, a set many minorities by circumstance, not choice, are excluded from.
Mitt Romney’s courageous appeal to Black voters at the NAACP conference was out of political duty not genuine interest. If the Republican party and its supporters want to play courtesan to one of the most picked over minority groups in the country feel free. But if they are going to don the role of the coquette they need to master the art of making one time samplers repeat customers.
The Republican party is hostile to outsiders. Minorities and immigrants are said to be welcomed but only in the confines of appearing to boost diversity not actually initiating a lane of equal opportunity. Women are only worthy if married with children. Single women are villainized or left victim to policies that protect nuclear family units over singular independence.
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Those without excessive monetary value are insulted being told they are not working hard enough to achieve success; accused of being envious of the wealth of others when really they just want a shot to create their own.
There is no room to alternate from the main narrative of the Republican party. Without that alternation there is no room for inclusion because opposing ideas and opinions are shunned.
It is no surprise Mitt Romney has not captured the Black vote. It is not his fault. George W. Bush and Republican Presidents before him didn’t capture much of the Black vote either. Black people are not shunning the candidates per say, they are shunning the party that shuns them. The party that says, yes you must jump through all our hoops just to vote this year. The party that says if you are on welfare you are lazy, if you go to Planned Parenthood for any reason you are a baby killer, and if you came to this country for a chance to make your life better for you despite your illegal entry than you should turn around and retreat until you are invited in to the nation that says we will make all of your dreams come true.
The Republican party is the party of old moneyed mongrels who have no time to waste on charity cases, cases Democrats presume to take up with pride.
If Mitt Romney and the entire Republican party want an even split of the “unaccountable” voters they need to actually embrace the issues of these specific demographic groups. Until then they’ll continue to come up with zero and have to mobilize their base and not so undecided undecideds while Democrats reap the spoils of being able to pick from the minority majority.
Staff Writer; Nikesha Leeper
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