Free people must judge or ultimately they are not free, and freedom is prior to other values—at least that was the faith of our Founders. That is to say, it is best certainly to be free and right and we ought to strive to be so, but it is better far to be free than right. Moreover, it takes a relatively smart citizenry to be able to relate, explain and judge tomatoes, much less two or more political candidates! Granted the identification and relation of A to B is often a perception of fact but as we’ve learned with politicians, looks can be deceiving. Then getting past that if you can, to explain something about A and B is more difficult, as this deals with aspects that can be ambiguous—where they’re from, what type are they, what are the similarities and differences? To judge A and B, to say which is actually better, well, that takes decision if not conviction, and also involves a little moral courage in the case of choosing leaders.

It doesn’t matter if judgment involves opinion or subjective elements. The determination of judgment rests upon values and/or criteria, and they can be those that are arguably fair, sophisticated, lawful, objective, measurable, and even "correct" in a policy sense. Every professional is forced to analyze this way in their line of work, but somehow consumers—even political consumers, are often the last to do so. If taken broadly and applied to politics, to history, science, medicine or art, it sounds radical. Indeed the concept of freedom is quite radical. Imagine: the idea that we ought to make up our own minds, rather than the master, or the hive, or private passionate impulses! Imagine: the idea that in a democratic republic, we ought to make up our own minds deliberately, regardless of what experts say even if we end up agreeing with them. Only you can assess your needs and beliefs. Only you are properly regarded as the arbiter of your own mind, if ever you should be called a freeman or freewoman. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and so is your vote.

Now what does it say if a racial group votes overwhelmingly one way in election after election? (The same if one gender votes that way, which they don’t). Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. After the War Between the States, blacks voted overwhelmingly Republican, since it was President Lincoln who pronounced the Emancipation Proclamation as a war time measure. It was the Republican Party during Reconstruction that passed civil rights legislation and enforced those measures and largely forced favorable changes to the Constitution with the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments, before military occupation of the South ended. The strong affiliation with Republicans continued for African-Americans until the 1930s. Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal programs appealed strongly to blacks, but then much of the country also swung Democrat during the Great Depression. From 1936 to 1960, Democrats never did worse than 60 percent of the black vote. Which is to say, one-third to forty percent of blacks still voted the other way.

Since 1964, Democrats have never got less than 80 percent of the black vote. Today a Democrat expects to get over 90 percent no matter who the nominee is! By contrast to the New Deal era moreover, the country did not become more Democratic. Until recently it became much more Republican. This has resulted in a strange sort of political segregation for blacks, all the more curious since it happened after the time when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 and thus extended full political rights to them. The most common explanation for this incongruity is that the Republican Party was stigmatized with the label of racist within the African-American community after 1964. Not only had Democrats sponsored favorable legislation during America’s "Second Reconstruction," many Dixiecrats and avowed segregationists bolted the Democrat Party and some became Republican. Voting patterns amongst whites, however, have shown more diversity than amongst blacks, in terms of their support for independents, third parties and/or changing allegiance between the two major parties—as indeed the times have changed, and changed again. Even the so-called Bradley Effect is in decline. Named for the black candidate Tom Bradley, who ran for California governor in 1982 but lost, the phenomenon refers to white voters telling pollsters one thing because they don’t want to appear prejudiced, then voting a different way in the booth.

Bradley had a nine-point lead going into the election but lost by a point. Other elections have shown a "Bradley Effect" too, but since 1990 the percentage has been on the wane, and in 2006 there were five statewide races with black candidates for U.S. Senate or governor where the polls got it right every time. This would seem to bode well for Obama’s nine-point plus lead in the presidential race. Black voter turnout reached all time highs in the 2008 Democrat primaries, and blacks supported Obama by margins often exceeding 97 percent against a field of other candidates. There is no other group in America that votes so lopsided. In terms of the upcoming general election, it seems futile but somehow important to suggest to conscientious and thoughtful African-American voters, that the stigma of voting Republican is hardly justified—not on the basis of racism anyway. Notwithstanding, there may be good reasons for both white and black voters to repudiate the policies of George W. Bush and to consider whether they apply to the McCain-Palin ticket. For all concerned, the only votes that will count are the ones cast on Election Day.

_____________________

Wesley Allen Riddle is a retired military officer with degrees and honors from West Point and Oxford. Widely published in the academic and opinion press, he ran for U.S. Congress (TX-District 31) in the 2004 Republican Primary. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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