Blacks turn against Paterson

New York Gov. David Paterson’s approval rating is so low—a staggering 19 percent—that his approval rate is even below 50 percent among his fellow blacks, who a year ago greeted with joy his ascension as governor. “To be below 50 percent among any group is bad,” says the director of the Quinnipiac University poll. “But there’s no way a black governor can get re-elected when he’s below 50 percent among black voters. That’s desperation time.”

However, the reason for blacks’ rejection of Paterson is not his perceived incompetence, which is the reason for his low approval among voters generally. According to the New York Times, blacks are displeased with Paterson because “As he has confronted the state’s deepening financial crisis, Mr. Paterson has pushed for deep cuts to government programs that directly affect black constituents.”

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Jonathan W. writes:

This confirms what you have been saying for a long time, that ultimately the widespread dependence of our black and Hispanic populations on social programs will dictate how those groups vote. This is why conservatives can never win large numbers of black and Hispanic voters without promising to provide the same wealth transfers that the Democrats promise.

I was recently reading on another forum a reply to a post arguing that amnesty will produce nearly 20 million new Democratic voters. The reply countered with something like, “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Hispanics are very anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage so I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them vote against their economic self interest.” Every time I hear or read something like that I want to scream. How many studies and elections have to go by before conservatives realize the folly of this “strategy.”

LA replies:

The answer is simple and terrible: such conservatives will never see the obvious, because that would require them to have negative thoughts about nonwhite immigration.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 13, 2009 07:47 AM | Send