christiefan915
Catalyst
Here is a black writer's opinion on the meme that most blacks vote for Dems because they get free stuff.
"GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush, in response to how Republicans can woo African-American voters, responded, “Our message is one of hope and aspiration. It isn’t one of division and ‘Get in line, and we’ll take care of you with free stuff.’ ”
This idea that Democrats earn minority votes with “free stuff” is an article of faith in the Republican Party. In 2012, Newt Gingrich said blacks should want paychecks and not food stamps. Rick Santorum said he didn’t want to give black people someone else’s money and that they should earn their own. And then there was GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney blaming his defeat on President Barack Obama giving “gifts” to blacks. So evidently there’s something free that black folks are getting that no other group is getting. I’ve been checking my mailbox and looking out for the UPS truck, but I don’t seem to be getting this government swag bag that my peeps are getting.
Is it food stamps? According to the Department of Agriculture, 25.7 percent of food stamp users are black, while 40.2 percent are white. So this isn’t it. It’s not Medicaid, either. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, 41 percent of non-elderly Medicaid users are white and 21 percent are black. Since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, more than 16.4 million more Americans have health care. One of those people is one of my closest friends, Chumly, who said Obamacare was a godsend after an injury and job loss. But Chumly is a white Republican, so this can’t be the free stuff. It has to be Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, which we commonly call welfare. But the benefits are divided roughly evenly between whites, blacks and Hispanics. And the rolls have gone down in the past two decades. Maybe its the free Obamaphones for low-income people. But isn’t this the phone companies-supported Lifeline Assistance program started by the Reagan administration and expanded to cover cellphones under the Bush administration?
There are two obstacles to Republicans wooing blacks. The first is what Republican Colin Powell called a “dark vein of intolerance” in the party. On NBC’s “Meet the Press” recently, Powell added, “I’m not calling the party racist . . . there’s some in the party who practice a level of intolerance that is not good for the party and is not consistent with American values.”
Number two is that blacks trust the federal government more than state governments, and Republicans believe the opposite. Blacks have a history of states curtailing their rights, blocking their advancement and failing to protect them. Federal courts struck down separate but equal schools and federal troops enforced it. Federal civil rights legislation passed to ensure blacks’ American citizenship birthright. A states’ rights, weak federal government party platform is a tough sell to a people with a horrendous history under states’ rights.
Or they can keep deluding themselves that it’s free stuff."
http://www.dailyrepublic.com/opinio...ebunk-gop-myth-of-why-blacks-vote-democratic/
"GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush, in response to how Republicans can woo African-American voters, responded, “Our message is one of hope and aspiration. It isn’t one of division and ‘Get in line, and we’ll take care of you with free stuff.’ ”
This idea that Democrats earn minority votes with “free stuff” is an article of faith in the Republican Party. In 2012, Newt Gingrich said blacks should want paychecks and not food stamps. Rick Santorum said he didn’t want to give black people someone else’s money and that they should earn their own. And then there was GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney blaming his defeat on President Barack Obama giving “gifts” to blacks. So evidently there’s something free that black folks are getting that no other group is getting. I’ve been checking my mailbox and looking out for the UPS truck, but I don’t seem to be getting this government swag bag that my peeps are getting.
Is it food stamps? According to the Department of Agriculture, 25.7 percent of food stamp users are black, while 40.2 percent are white. So this isn’t it. It’s not Medicaid, either. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, 41 percent of non-elderly Medicaid users are white and 21 percent are black. Since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, more than 16.4 million more Americans have health care. One of those people is one of my closest friends, Chumly, who said Obamacare was a godsend after an injury and job loss. But Chumly is a white Republican, so this can’t be the free stuff. It has to be Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, which we commonly call welfare. But the benefits are divided roughly evenly between whites, blacks and Hispanics. And the rolls have gone down in the past two decades. Maybe its the free Obamaphones for low-income people. But isn’t this the phone companies-supported Lifeline Assistance program started by the Reagan administration and expanded to cover cellphones under the Bush administration?
There are two obstacles to Republicans wooing blacks. The first is what Republican Colin Powell called a “dark vein of intolerance” in the party. On NBC’s “Meet the Press” recently, Powell added, “I’m not calling the party racist . . . there’s some in the party who practice a level of intolerance that is not good for the party and is not consistent with American values.”
Number two is that blacks trust the federal government more than state governments, and Republicans believe the opposite. Blacks have a history of states curtailing their rights, blocking their advancement and failing to protect them. Federal courts struck down separate but equal schools and federal troops enforced it. Federal civil rights legislation passed to ensure blacks’ American citizenship birthright. A states’ rights, weak federal government party platform is a tough sell to a people with a horrendous history under states’ rights.
Or they can keep deluding themselves that it’s free stuff."
http://www.dailyrepublic.com/opinio...ebunk-gop-myth-of-why-blacks-vote-democratic/
