Barack Obama’s candidacy and subsequent win has caused some consternation among black conservatives, many of whom had a difficult decision last election. Black conservatives are being forced to choose between sticking with the conservative agenda that they have held thus far and leaping at this unprecedented opportunity to cast a ballot for a black man as President of the United States of America.
It should be noted that we, as a community, have not been too receptive to the conservative movement in mainstream America. This rejection of conservatism, while not without significant cause, translates into extreme distrust and outright hostility towards black conservatives.
It is easy to demonize many of the famous figureheads and high office holders of the black conservative movement as “Uncle Toms,” “traitors” and “sellouts.” Often there is significant and obvious hypocrisy in some of their policy positions. Notably, the vigorous opposition to affirmative action programs by Ward Connerly and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, when both benefited significantly from such programs. Despite this and other failings, these persons do have a following in the black community, and it would be wrong of us to dismiss them out of hand.
We can’t expect people such as Fox News’s Juan Williams to go about listing Obama’s good qualities, even if they did recognize any. As public faces of the conservative movement, these men have a vested interest in promoting and adhering to conservative scripts in their public pronouncements. What about those black conservatives who are not so restrained by their financial backers though? Have the regular Joes of the black conservative movement been captured by the Obama mania sweeping America?
The short answer — not all of them. The black conservatives I spoke to haven’t been swept off their feet for Obama. Many have expressed their support for him, however, and stated quite openly that they will be voting for Obama. “I am a conservative, but I don’t just vote the party. I vote for who is the best candidate. It is my luck that the best candidate happens to be the first African American who could win it,” said Ms. Brittany Curtis, a recent graduate of the University of Florida and black conservative supporting Obama. The issue that won her over was the same one that has, in recent days, brought many flocking to the Democratic ticket: the economy. Curtis has confessed to disagreeing with Barack Obama on many other social issues.
The Obama campaign has benefitted greatly from the recent economic downturn America is experiencing. Shelby Steel, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and author of the book, A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win, has conceded that the economy might push Obama over the top. “The economy did it. It looks pretty certain Barack Obama will be the next president, but, like most people, I’m not sure what kind of president he is going to be,”(as reported by the London Times Online, dated November 2, 2008).
Obama and the economy have not won over every one in the black conservative movement though. Bertrhude Albert, a freshman at the University of Florida, says she voted for McCain as the lesser of two evils. The big issues that prevented her from voting from Obama were abortion and gay marriage. Even though Obama has been exceptionally diplomatic on these issues, abortion in particular, it hasn’t been enough to win over many evangelical Christians, even the black ones.
The problem that the Democratic Party has had with many evangelical Christians in getting them to vote on their economic interest and not only on values still exists, even in the case where the candidate and constituents are black. When asked about her financial situation and the economy in general, Albert admitted that casting her ballot for John Mc Cain would be against her individual economic interests. She was still willing to do so because of her morals, saying, “This is so big to me. I’m so into morals. I am willing to sacrifice my economics because of my morals.”
Barack Obama garnered as much as 92 percent of the African-American vote in the Democratic primaries. All the Back conservatives interviewed for this piece, and most in the media, have expressed great pride in Obama’s achievements thus far and great excitement at the possibility of him becoming the president.
Many observers, commentators, politicians and average citizens, liberal and conservative alike, have expressed great concern about the cult of celebrity surrounding Obama. His opponent John McCain even produced a campaign ad poking fun at Obama’s rock star status. Jealousy on McCain’s part or not, the question remains — is the support that Barack Obama enjoys a result of his policies or his charisma?
Many supporters, young and old, black and white, but particularly the young, seem quite smitten with Obama. Those who voted for what he represents may be disappointed when the soaring rhetoric and idealism meets up with the day-to-day grind of American politics.
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