| Political Overload |
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| by Rufus Shaw | Mon, May 7, 2007, 11:31 AM |
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The unprecedented courting of the Black electorate by the largest, most competitive field of candidates in mayoral history is proving to be too much for Black Dallas voters. With less then a week to go, dismal low early voter turn-out in the southern sector coupled with an equally dismal low voter turn-out for the Super Sunday “Get Out The Vote” event makes it clear that Black voters are not interested in the 2007 municipal election. At first glance, one could easily draw some negative conclusions about the effectiveness of the Black political players attempting to turn out the vote. But closer scrutiny clearly shows political apathy among Black voters is so overwhelming for this election that it is impossible to assess praise or blame on any of the people who worked so hard to get out the Black vote. Instead, we have learned just how much we have all over rated the political sophistication of the Black electorate. With Tom Leppert and Don Hill in the audience, Rev. Freddie Haynes III had over 4000 members attend his Super Sunday church service. Many of those members were expected to caravan to the polls with Rev. Haynes. Instead, less then 50 voters accompanied Rev. Haynes to the Oak Cliff Sub-Courthouse. This anemic voter response was replicated over and over Super Sunday. The immensely popular Rev. Rickie Rush was only able to deliver less then 40 members from his 15,000 member church to the polls on Super Sunday. As a matter of fact, none of the ministers involved in the Super Sunday event were able to deliver more then 50 voters from their congregation on Super Sunday. But before anyone heaps all of the blame on the ministers, check this out: Ed Oakley, Don Hill, Tom Leppert, and Darrell Jordan were all present at the Oak Cliff Sub-Courthouse waiting to meet voters. Every one of these candidates had a full retinue of Black staffers and supporters in tow. As a matter of fact, for most of the day, there were more candidates and their supporters then there were voters on Super Sunday. With all of this political fire power aimed at the Black electorate, one would think that the Black voter would have turned out. What happened? It is my humble opinion that the Black electorate has been exposed. So far what we have witnessed in this election is just how unprepared the Black community is to make complicated political choices. In this election we don’t have a good versus evil choice i.e. the Black community versus Laura Miller. We don’t have the simple choice to vote for the bond or against the bond. We don’t have a Black Democrat versus a white Republican. We have too many choices that are too similar for us to choose either one. In a nutshell, I believe the Black electorate simply shut down because of too much attention, too much information, and too much pressure. In other words, we did exactly what the Dallas Mavericks did. When it was time for the Black vote to stand up, when expectations were high, we shut down. So what about all of those political players, preachers and consultants who could not get out the Black vote on Super Sunday? I personally have never seen the faith-based community work as hard as these folks did to get out the Black vote on Super Sunday. I cannot find anything that the ministers, candidates, and organizers of this event did not do to get out the church vote. And every candidate stood to benefit if their voters turned out on Super Sunday. But you cannot make people vote who don’t want to vote. Early voting numbers show that no mayoral candidate or city council candidate has been able to turn out Black voters thus far. Maybe this will all change on Election Day even though it falls on Mother’s Day weekend! I have said over and over, nobody really knows what is going to happen in this election because everything is so new. If the weak early voting trend continues in the Black community, then we can conclude that north 
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Comments (6)
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written by Grovegirl , May 08, 2007 Wow. It is been a while since I have seen someone so blatantly insult the people they claim to be a voice for. Voter apathy is a far-reaching problem that affects every community. In talking to voters, especially in South Dallas, I find it is not a lack of knowledge or sophistication it is disgust that keeps them away from the polls. They don't see candidates as truly working for the people and looking out for their best interest. That disgust is likely compounded when the see folks they though they could trust, like Commissioner Price and the above mentioned Pastors, pushing candidates that would be hard pressed to locate anything South of the Trinity and I-30 without a map and a guide. We should be questioning the integrity of the candidates and encouraging candidates from our areas to run; not chastising the voters for not buying the false bill of goods some have been selling. But what do I know; I'm just an old school girl from the Grove, clearly ignorant and unsophisticated.
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written by Rufus Shaw , May 08, 2007 I have never claimed to be a voice for the Black community. I offer my own opinion. How anybody can excuse Black voter apathy after so many African-Americans have died for our right to vote is beyond me. I am franky disgusted with people who always find an excuse for us when we don't fulfill our obligation to democracy by voting. There are never perfect choices in any election but that is still not a valid reason for us not to vote. I also noticed you negelected to mention that the city council candidates from the Black community have not been able to turn out the Black vote either. By the way, Don Hill is the first serious mayoral candidate from the Black community in the history of the city. Yet the people you talked to either did not realize that or they are waiting on Dr.Martin Luther King to run for office. The last time I checked the Black community is eager to gain enough political power to improve the plight of our community. In a democracy political power comes at the voting booth no where else. As for your ignorance and unsophictation, that is your opinon and your business.
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written by Jonathan Green , May 09, 2007 I did not view the article as a blatantly insult to the African American Community, what I read is, African American come out to vote for things that they strongly oppose, on the flip side when they is not revelent issue at hand that attacks our conscious or African Americans as a whole we tend to let it play out on its own. That is what I interpreted. Good article with some valid points. In conclusion I have always viewed your political savyness as very real and enlightening to the community. You stated better that Gromer Jefferies. "And that's the real deal!"
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written by Michael Davis , May 10, 2007 People died for us to vote. I think that it is an embarrassment to the people that came before us that we don't exercise that right. Especially in a state like Texas that has early voting. It perplexes me why someone cannot take 5 minutes over the course of 10 days for the future of their city.
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written by jan b , May 10, 2007 Grovegirl's comments highlight some thought chains that are diturbingly common. 1) Black people have to "speak for their people" rather than simply expressing personally held opinions. 2)The black community is too fragile to handle criticism. 3) An overall negative assessment of a population is a criticism of every individual in that area, thus Grovegirl's last sentence. 4) If voters show apathy and are uninformed, they are really victims of the process. Otherwise, they would be tremendously engaged. (Meanwhile, teachers say that they cannot even get parents to show up for parent teacher's conferences or get their kids to do their homework or even show up.) 5) Even though voter turnout is abysmal, it is politically incorrect to note the truth. 6) It isn't that voters are unsophisticated, it is that they are too sophisticated.
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written by jan b , May 11, 2007 Rufus and Michael; At the end of the day, as abysmal as the voter turn out is, I really don't want folks going to the polls who are not informed, who don't understand economics, who go because they are rounded up on a bus or given a meal, who have to be begged or shamed by a preacher to vote, or who vote simply because they want big government that others have to pay for. Unbelieveably, today, I heard Rep. Yvonne Davis ranting that urban areas should not be expected to "subsidize" rural areas, even for fire departments (and, apparently, even if rural areas are poor), and that it was immoral to expect the "haves" to subsidize "the have nots"...that is, if it was urban haves having to subsidize rural have nots (Of course, huge segments of urban areas are totally subsidized). I was stunned (and appalled) at the hypocrisy as large numbers of her constituents pay virtually nothing in federal income taxes and live their lives subsidized by others. I have heard her innumerable times ranting that it is greedy for middle class folks to resist having their proerty taxes up around the ears to pay for the poor. Meanwhile, I have several kids who have lived under the poverty level and have done quite well. They even purchased health insurance. Note, they did not go to the beauty shop, had no tv, had no telephones,shopped at used clothing stores, and never ever ate fast food. They also worked full time while going to college full time. They took out loans and I am still trying to figure out why it is alright for a middle class kid to emerge from college up to their ears in debt, but not ok for a poor kid. Tonight, a small business owner told me that he was upset that people who wanted to work for him would end up with a pay cut from losing some of their diability checks if they took a job. I said, the real problem was that any human being on the face of the planet was on disability when they could still work. This was the third story I had heard in one week. A doctor told me about a fifteen year old pregnant with her second child who was on full disability for moderate scoliosis. Her scoliosis did not prevent her from conceiving two children by the age of fifteen. She had a subsidized apartment and her kids had every benefit under the sun. It was "for the children" doncha know. Would she have two kids if she could never rent a movie at Blockbuster? My youngest told me about a co-worker who quit this week to go on full disability because it would pay her more than she could earn, especially because she was a ninth grade drop-out. I cannot tell you how immoral much of the redistribution in the US is. I worked for two and a half decades overseas starting businesses for folks from third world countries who were in the grips of grinding cruel poverty. I was in awe of the guys who worked for me. I reel in shock and disgust by what I see here every day and I do not understand the misplaced sympathy that is so endemic in our society. What I see here as public policy is not compassion. It destroys the fiber of human beings. Not only that, but little of the money tanked through taxes ever gets to the truly poor and it saps the resources of the hard working middle class. Most of it goes to administration, greed, corruption, and waste. I really don't get it. Write comment
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