CID1990 wrote:Cleets Part 2 wrote:
Cleets, I see your logic, and I agree that pointing to percentages is relatively meaningless in this case, but you missed a major point which makes your post immaterial (besides the fact that you also used the same flawed logic as AG). You considered the percentage of the black vote but you did not consider the number of voters. If black voters had turned out in 2004 in numbers approaching anything like they did in 2008, John Kerry would have been President. There were BEAU COUP more black voters at the polls in 2008 than there were in 1992. Your post only indicates that black voters traditionally (in the last 40 years) vote Democrat. You ignored the issue of voter turnout, and that is a major part of the issue that some people consider when they assert that blacks voted along racial lines in 2008. Perhaps the black voters who always come to the polls in every election voted for an idea and not a man's skin color, but something made double the traditional numbers come out to pull the levers in 2008.
Barack Obama might have garnered a similar percentage of the black vote that Bill Clinton did, but something made record numbers of registered black voters show up in 2008 in ways that even Goldwater wasn't able to provoke. Something made those folks come to the polls, and I suspect it was not the belief that John McCain was the Antichrist. Or maybe it was. If I am not permitted to consider the possibility that the presence of a black candidate for President was the reason, then I must resort to other possibilities such as the John McCain: Son of the Devil Who Eats Little Black Babies one. Equally hard to believe would be the theory that suddenly in 2008, millions of registered black voters who never before bothered to come out woke up that morning in November with a newfound sense of civic duty.
I don't know what the national statistics were, but I do know that in North Carolina, 95% of registered black voters turned out to vote. This was contrasted against the fact that 67% of the total registered voters in NC came out. In prior elections, I think the total number of black voters coming out hovered somewhere around 40-45%. This goes all the way back to the 1968 election. The average numbers might in fact be even smaller than this estimate.
Why did black voters suddenly turn out in such large numbers in NC last year? Is it safe to say that NC closely mirrored the rest of the country in terms of voter turnout? Why did they come out and vote?
(To be fair, a historically large number of white voters showed up and voted too... perhaps the new white voters were voting against the black guy? I know a couple of white people who showed up for the first time just so they could vote for a black guy. I guess that's also racist... in a perverted Monty Python kind of way.)
EL CID-Sir
You make several valid points...
I was only trying to make one point, simply to negate his one point - which I did successfully by showing factually that a white man garnered the same percentage of Black Voters as Obama did (Argument over, he loses - he's wrong)
Had he made a more complete argument (as you have) I would have been forced to actually reply with a complete argument - which I will do now...
A) We all see in color
B) We all have racial preferences hard wired inside of us (this has been proven about 100 times)
C) We all have experienced some kind of racism in our life - somewhere somehow
My only observation comes down to American historical trends... as well as American historical events
There have been (prior to this election) 43 U.S. Presidents
Last time I checked they've all been white - now this is not usual considering the percentages of population in North America but it is worth noting.
So just considering the odds of a person who comes from a population that consists of 15% it's fairly rare just statistically speaking
So taking that into account as well as American historical slavery issues and our continual (daily) racial tensions and the unfolding saga of the American fabric, this election took on historical relevance
Any (and I mean any) attentive, cognoscente American would be fascinated by this election... in perspective it actually pitted the two classic archetypal characterizations of American History...
The old stodgy white guy who historically has equaled "the face of the American power structure"
And the new educated erudite black man who has come to represent "The promise of the American Dream"
Seriously: It's a classic battle of the American stereotypes
So wouldn't people in general showing up to vote be expected...
Latino's did in record numbers
blacks did in record numbers
whites did in close to record numbers
The Latino percentages were spot on - the black percentages were spot on the historical trend of voting for Liberal Democrats... just more of them showed up because it felt like being a part of America history - where as voting for Herman Muster (John Kerry a billionaire's bitch of a husband) and George Bush a billionaire's silver spoon son... was a total "who cares" and more of a "gee guess what, two rich white guys"
Race played a role for sure...
but I think slightly different role than is played out by Rush Limbaugh
The angry dethroned Conservative plays this as "just Racism"
The happy Liberal plays this as historically invigorating and "finally meaningful" to minorities of all race as an example of American history being played out right in front of our eyes
Each of us get to decide how we feel about it... and what it means to us
