Can Democrats Increase Black Voter Turnout?

Both major political parties seek to reach low-information or otherwise reluctant midterm election voters. The biggest and most divisive weapon in the Democrats’s arsenal is race. Because the president is half-black, they imply, criticism from the other side of the aisle is racially motivated.

It isn’t the president’s pro-abortion stance or his disregard for the checks-and-balances system that conservatives don’t like. It’s his skin color.

The Washington Post notes that Democrats need black voters to turn out particularly for the upcoming elections in November.

“We have a unique challenge in offsetting drop off with African American voters, with Hispanic voters, and with young female voters,” Israel said. “So we’re tackling those challenges head on.

The DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] has undertaken a new black voter outreach initiative — which the committee says is the most expansive and expensive project in the history of the DCCC — that has consisted of demographic focus groups, battleground polling, ad testing and renewed ground game in black neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, a sure-fire way to fire up certain black voters is…race. It’s ironic that a people who fought and died to gain freedom from government oppression would be swayed by appeals to grow the government, which leads to more government intrusion in our lives and actually less freedom. Since race is part of the Democrats’s platform, Republicans have to counter it.

Republican operatives said that the [current] push underscores a long-made GOP argument: that Democrats take black voters for granted.

“This Johnny-Come-Lately initiative from the DCCC only validates what we’ve been hearing from black voters all along – Democrats take them for granted,” said Orlando Watson, a spokesman for the GOP. “While it should come as no surprise, it’s clear the intense ground game being undertaken by the RNC is now forcing the DCCC to show up in these communities and actually compete.”

Ideally, race wouldn’t be mentioned at all. The good news is the GOP’s base is more motivated to change things than the other side. President Barack Obama will be leaving office. He will serve out the remainder of his term, regardless of impeachment or lawsuit threats. Black liberals showed up at the polls because of the novelty of a half-black man running on the Democratic ticket for the country’s highest office.

The novelty has worn off, and everyday life hasn’t changed much for the voters hopped up on the Hope-and-Change hype.

Photo credit: Kenn Wilson (Creative Commons)