Vision Circle

Right for the Wrong Reasons

A cat over at Slate has decided to write Al Sharpton's political obituary. He should be right...Sharpton should be toast. But there is this tidbit:

Hank Sheinkopf, one of New York's best-known Democratic political consultants, puts it this way: "The fact that blacks declined to cast a symbolic vote—that's a sign of political growth." Bill Schneider said much the same thing on CNN last night: Black Democrats have joined the mainstream in a variety of ways, and, as a result, they're voting pretty much the same as all other Democrats.

Sheinkopf is right, but if we are to assume that he means that BLACKS have politically grown up, he's all wrong.

We've BEEN grown up. For a LONG time. Check out local voting patterns for Republicans for example, rather than national ones. Blacks will vote for Republicans in significant numbers if it can be shown that they support black interests. Even in the face of dwindling choices, black voters have made due. In this case it's the Democratic Party that has grown up. They've still got some growing to do though.