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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDems: Black voters deserve more from party
Democrats say their party needs to wake up and stop ignoring major parts of their coalition, particularly black voters.
The party, they say, must build off Doug Jones's win in the Alabama Senate race this week by working hard on issues of interest to minority voters who have been the partys most loyal backers.
This has long been a sore spot, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in an interview.
He said black lawmakers and their constituents have long felt theyre taken for granted.
We've had meetings, countless meetings, with the political arms of our party and we would go away wondering if we were heard. And not only were we not heard, we were ignored, he said.
Shortly after the Jones win, former NBA star and Alabama native Charles Barkley captured those frustrations in remarks on CNN though he did so in a way that sought to draw an alliance between black voters and poor white voters who have often been pitted against one another.
Democrats, he said, have taken the black vote and the poor vote for granted for a long time. Theyve always had our votes and they've abused our votes."
Its time for them to get off their ass, Barkley added. This is a wake up call for Democrats to do better for black people and poor white people.
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/365003-dems-black-voters-deserve-more-from-party
bearsfootball516
(6,377 posts)Quit going after the unreachable Trump voters who are never going to change. Target your base, women, minorities and African Americans.
ismnotwasm
(42,008 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)marylandblue
(12,344 posts)G_j
(40,370 posts)Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)And bring back the 50-state plan. The national Democratic leadership had basically abandoned places like Alabama for years. Just look what a little work and a million bucks did for the party on December, 12.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)African-Americans
Labor
Native Americans
You could list group after group.
On the campaign trail much will be said and promised, but when it comes time to legislate much less will be done for them.
Why?
Because they know that the other guy is so bad they dont have to deliver much to be the better choice.
They take those votes mostly for granted.
And they expend most of the effort then on the groups whose votes they dont feel like are a given.
TheDebbieDee
(11,119 posts)The minority base of the Democratic party showed up to vote for Obama in 2008, and the Dems enjoyed small majorities in the Congress and Senate but there were still enough republicans to filibuster and impede Dem progress on EVERYTHING!
The Dems managed to get the republican healthcare plan/ACA through just in time for the election! The Dems base stayed home for the mid-terms, the republican based ALWAYS votes in every election and the Dems lost a lot of seats in Congress and the Senate and Pres Obama and the Dems spent the next 6 years taking the high road!
The Dems can't do anything for anybody if their base doesn't come out and vote for them EVERY frikkin' election!