Are Dems Worried About Future Black Vote?

As the King holiday approaches, it's interesting to note this Boston Herald story, which sheds light on the real attitudes of African-Americans, who actually have (believe it or not!) a wide variety of viewpoints, tastes and values.

This is one of the few American newspapers willing to admit that black conservatives do in fact exist. And something did seem to click in 2004 between Republicans and African-Americans on the gay marriage issue.

Some day we will look back and say it marked a turning point where Democrats could no longer count on black voters to support them 100% of the time.


(Boston Herald)

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, long a time for reflection in the civil rights movement, finds black activists looking for new ways forward after a tumultuous year.
It was a year in which comedian Bill Cosby issued a blistering attack on black America's ``dirty laundry'' of semiliterate, low-achieving children who drift into crime. It was a year in which President Bush [related, bio] snubbed the NAACP but saw his percentage of the black vote go up 2 percent from 2000. It was the year when black church leaders came out strongly against gay marriage.
``The events of 2004 have finally revealed to the broader community the complexity of the black community,'' said Janis Pryor, an activist who once worked with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy [related, bio] (D-Mass.) and the Rev. Jesse Jackson and now heads a business consultancy.
``We have differences about how we should go forward in the 21st century. The days of seeing the black community as a group that is in lockstep are over . . . we can't be taken for granted,'' Pryor said, citing the willingness of more blacks to leave a traditional Democratic safe haven to vote Republican.
``Forty years after the march to Selma, we're living in a post-civil rights epoch,'' said the Rev. Eugene Rivers, known for his own unorthodox activism.