Pointing out potential homophobia among large blocks of Democratic voters appears to be a taboo"

[mobeau69]

The campaign will show whether homosexuality is still enough of a taboo in the black community to cost Buttigieg. But pointing out potential homophobia among large blocks of Democratic voters appears to be a taboo in the journalism community. That journalistic finger-pointing is reserved for conservative voters.

And that’s not right.

https://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/lane-filler/mayor-pete-buttigieg-african-american-voters-1.30790547

[Funtatlaguy]

1. Yes, there's still homophobia everywhere. But, Pete persists.

[Tipperary]

2. K and r.

[Laelth]

3. I don't think Mayor Pete's sexuality is going to hurt him among African-American voters.

I have seen no evidence (yet) that it might.

-Laelth

[leftofcool]

6. I don't think so either

[crazytown]

18. From what I've been hearing out of SC

I think it is a real problem during the Primaries for 30+ AA voters but not in the General.

Black voters know Joe Biden, they trust him, and will also vote strategically for him as the candidate with the best chance.

IN 2007 an Obama S.C. event featured Donnie McClurkin as a warm up. Donnie brought the crowd to it’s feet with ‘God has saved me from homosexuality’

[Demsrule86]

10. I think it would which is part of why I don't think Mayor Pete will win a general.

[Laelth]

16. Ordinarily, I might agree with you.

Then I saw this article. I would be curious to know your reaction to it.

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/05/710080667/pete-buttigieg-explains-his-agenda-for-black-voters

-Laelth

[Demsrule86]

21. I read the article but this has mostly to do with an agenda for Black voters...I doubt that will

help as he has no history of outreach as Mayor and there was some issue with a Black police chief early in his career. The point is Black voters tend to be far more conservative than white voters in the Democratic Party. I work the elections every year and have done work with Gay teens...there is far less acceptance in the Black community than one might expect of a Democratic constituency. Based on this and recent polls showing Biden leading with the Black vote, I just don't see Mayor Pete winning a primary or a general for that matter. He doesn't have enough experience for me, and I don't think he will win. Biden has the best chance in my view.

[Laelth]

29. I don't deny that Biden has the best chance.

I just think that the African-American community has come a long way on "the gay" over the past decade and that Mayor Pete's sexuality is a non-issue for most of them.

Thanks for the response.

-Laelth

[jberryhill]

4. You obviously weren't around in 2008

When California voted for Obama AND Prop. 8.

[dsc]

5. It is hard to discuss

Honestly the percentage of black voters who are homophobic is likely not that much different than the percentage of white voters who are overall but the percentage of black Democrats who are homophobic is likely considerably greater than the percentage of white Democrats who are homophobic since white homophobes have a party while black ones don't. That said, I don't think Buttigieg's problem is entirely or even mostly due to homophobia. Biden is at over 50% of the black vote and there are two black candidates in the race as well. There is no evidence that Sanders is doing any better than Buttigieg is in terms of attracting black voters nor are Beto or Warren and all of them aren't gay. His lack of support in the black community is a problem for him and some of it might be due to being gay, but I don't think all or even most of it is.

[WeekiWater]

7. Very interesting first part to your post.

I’ve never heard it put like that yet it seems to ring true at face value. So simple yet I’ve never thought of it like that. Thank you.

[zipplewrath]

8. The big tent problem

"...since white homophobes have a party while black ones don't."

This is an interesting point. The GOP has this problem over and over. The democrats are the "big tent" party. You can be almost anyone and you can be a democrat. There are pro-gun democrats. There are pro-life democrats. There are small government democrats. You can go on and on. The GOP complains regularly about all the groups that they fear will vote democrat so they want to exclude them somehow. They want to exclude South American immigrants. They want to exclude convicted felons. They make it hard for African Americans to vote. They have a long list of people who they don't like. They complain that the African American community won't vote republican and yet don't seem to get why. It's really hard to support a party that, other than the fact that they hate you, you might actually agree with much of what they represent. I know more than my share of the LGBT community. Many of them would be staunch republicans, except of course that the republicans hate them.

Florida has a habit of passing moderately progressive referendums that the GOP hates, and yet elects republicans in droves. We've passed medical marijuana (by over 60%) while electing a legislature that did its level best to interfere with it. Same with felon voting rights. We've passed things about the environment, schools, wages, and a host of other things the GOP doesn't like. The GOP just doesn't get it. They can go on trying to maintain power through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and generally appealing to the fears of the population, or they could actually look at the policies that the majority likes, and put their conservative spin on them and actually compete in the realm of ideas. But they've doubled down on being the party of angry white men and they don't appear to want or need to change any time soon.

[Celerity]

11. Florida is the most bizarrely confusing political state of the entire 50.

No other one is even close.

The only one even in the same solar system (if we are speaking in galactic terms) would be New York, where they have a had a strange (and shitty) convergence of a Republican Seante and a Democratic governor in Cuomo.

West Virginia is 3rd, where pure racism and coal-driven delusions have driven a previously rock solid (and also very poor, on average when compared to most other states) Democratic electorate into the grimy hands of the white nationalist (and predatory pro .01%, pro-authoritarian corporate, so horridly self-destructive to their socio-economic interests) Rethugs.

[zipplewrath]

13. Blue Collar retirees

We have a tremendous and continuous influx of retirees from the northern climes in Florida. They are predominately Blue Collar, often civil service retirement. There is a tremendous "I got mine" attitude among them. They come for the low taxes and the GOP continues to cut taxes as the schools deteriorate further and further. We're also one of the leading states for toll roads.

[Celerity]

15. I read a really interesting article after seeing someone long ago on DU talk about the Villages

Packs of hateful scum

'I got mine so FUCK you' (and I am white so fuck you more!) personified

it is a long article

Generation Pickleball: Welcome to Florida’s Political Tomorrowland
Republicans’ political future looks a lot like this vibrant, fast-growing, Trump-friendly retirement community outside of Orlando.


https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/18/florida-senior-citizens-vote-election-2018-218758

[zipplewrath]

17. Texas suffers something similar

It was interesting after the last election. When they looked at the population that voted, those that were "native" Texans voted democratic. It was the "imports" from other states that went strongly republican. Again, attracted to no income tax and strict property tax restrictions.

[titaniumsalute]

24. Remember though the population of The Villages is like 55,000 people

The blue bastion of Palm Beach County is 1.5 million.

Let's be honest if someone does their homework and moves to the Villages they are already white, older, and very conservative. I'd rather they all love together so I can avoid that place like the fucking plague.

[Celerity]

25. thats the total population, so you really have to chop it down to by a lot of factors

Take the number of actual voting age residents, then the ones who can actually vote, then the ones who DO actually vote, and then sort out only the Democrats. The Villages is almost all of voting age, super Rethug, and they turnout in droves, plus it is just one of many highly Red population points who have flooded into FL over the last 30, 40 years.

[titaniumsalute]

27. Based on that Naples is 100 times the threat that The Villages are

[spooky3]

28. About the only good side to that is that they have left the northern states more blue

as they have brought redness to some parts of Florida.

[Demsrule86]

9. There is a reason a perceived moderate - Biden -is carrying POC in the polls.

These tend to be the more conservative Democratic constituency. I work with Gay teens coming out and there is far more resistance by numbers in Black families. My daughter is gay and we have seen this in her friends also.

[zipplewrath]

14. Hispanic is only marginally better

They also tend to be "more catholic", in a social/political sense. As such they aren't the strongest of supporters of choice. LGBT rights, world wide, tends to be a very western European idea.

[Demsrule86]

19. This is very true. People don't get that. If the GOP had any brains and were not bigotted pieces of

shit, they could attract POC voters.

[zipplewrath]

20. Kinda what I was saying

Up thread I went into that in a bit of detail:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=111038


If they'd stop hating people for being who they are, they might actually attract people based upon what they believe. As it is, people who otherwise might join them, are driven into the "big tent" with the democrats where they can believe AND BE all sorts of things.

There is an interesting story about the GOP in the early sixties. The democrats were looking to forcibly integrate their party. The dixiecrats went looking for a party to accept them. The GOP jumped at the chance. At their conventions, the bigots ran off the African American members of the party. Mind you, for the better part of 100 years, AA members that could vote, tended to vote for the "Party of Lincoln". That changed VERY quickly as they were PHYSICALLY driven out of the GOP. LBJ, and RFK had alot to do with bringing them into the democratic party.

[Demsrule86]

35. This is absolutely true. Interesting story...unaware of that.

[Demsrule86]

12. I don't agree with that as Mayor Pete is relatively unknown and inexperienced. My daughter is gay

and is not supporting mayor Pete. She is supporting Biden.

[Hortensis]

23. Let's just say it's counterproductive

There’s absolutely nothing for the LGBTQ community to gain by sabotaging the Democratic Party and empowering Republicans. Save it for when it’s safe for them to do — when Democrats are safely in power.

[Politicub]

26. No two sides to homophobia. You are either a bigot or you're not.

I am hyper-tuned to microagressions happening around me. At meetings I can sense when someone is uncomfortable with me.

There's a lot of intersectionality between the black and gay communities, and I think we are seeing more of that come to light. I don't like to think about the people who are so homophobic that they would pull the lever for a republican based on that issue alone (though I know people do that).

On edit: This column is garbage, though. The author uses a bunch of statistics and correlations that probably don't exist to the degree that he makes it out to be. If I weren't so cynical, I would believe he's merely ignorant and is unable to make a strong argument.

[LakeArenal]

30. For what it's worth,

I think it may be Pete’s time as much as a woman’s or a younger person.

But I don’t see it happening this time around.

[crazytown]

32. I don't see it happening this time either

but as Pete said, ‘There’s only one way to find our’

In the CNN town hall with Amy, Kamala, Bernie and Elizabeth, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind, he belonged there.

Unless Elizabeth or Kamala wins, I don’t see him getting a VP slot either. Joe will choose Harris - a law and order hawk meets prosecutor.

In 2017, he ran for the DNC Chair. What a loss to the Party that defeat proved to be.

[LakeArenal]

33. Well I disagree about Harris.

I’m not a hawkish prosecutor voter.

I’m more Perry Mason than Hamilton Berger.

Also the Franken “thing” is huge baggage for me.

And before I get any label, I think Stacy Abrams would make a fabulous VP. Or president. Just not this time.

[crazytown]

34. I was thinking about who Joe would choose,

not who I would prefer. Stacy yes - what is she doing? Maybe they have reached an understanding already?

[corbettkroehler]

31. Love Is Love, Truth Is Truth

Homophobes remind me of climate deniers. They find the truth inconvenient.

[rogue emissary]

36. Many on DU hold we can't call people names if we want there vote?

They support certain candidates that won't call Donny's voters bigots.

if we dare call a Trump voter a racist, misogynist, islamophobic, or xenophobic bigot they cry it will make them less likely to vote for our candidates.

So staying quiet instead of rightfully calling out African American homophobia is par for the course.

[MadDAsHell]

37. Any racial sensitivity can cost you your career, but misogyny/homophobia are practically celebrate.

Culturally we have gone 10x further to prevent racial disparity or racial discrimination than we have (or probably will ever go) to prevent disparity or discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. And even there almost the entire fight against racial disparities has been focused on the plight of African Americans, mostly or entirely leaving behind Native Americans, Asian Americans, etc.

I don't know if that's a guilty reaction to slavery or what, but it's a shame we can't throw equal momentum behind all these critical movements.