Are You Being Served?

Star Parker's latest article is about how the Black Conservative Evangelical community isn't being served by this White House. You see they wanted one thing - no more talk of Gay Marriage. And they haven't gotten their way. There hasn't been a constitutional amendment declaring Marriage between a Man and a Woman. President Bush hasn't issued an executive order to that effect either. So Black Conservative Evangelicals have lost faith in President Bush.

The marriage agenda has been a focal point for mobilizing this community over recent years. It certainly influenced the black vote in the 2004 elections.

The percentage of blacks voting for George Bush almost doubled to 13 percent. In the swing state of Ohio, where a marriage initiative was on the state ballot, the black vote for Bush doubled from 8 percent to 16 percent.

Yet after the elections a kind of amnesia seemed to sweep across Washington, with our elected officials having complete memory lapses regarding what motivated many who cast votes for them.

I think Ms. Parker and the Black Conservative Evangelical community may be missing two key points (assuming Ms. Parkers analysis is complete and accurate).

1. This is a difficult proposal to pass and can't be cone in an instant.

2. They may prefer to have the issue to rally the base. This is after all the issue that got Blacks to vote for President Bush - they solve this problem, how are the going to accomplish that feat again.

I will say this points to an over arching problem the Republicans are going to face. They've had the presidency for 5 years, they've had the house since the 2002 elections. Why haven't they accomplished more? And it's not just the religious conservatives who are going to ask this question. Other types will ask why we haven't phased out the income tax system or gotten rid of Social Security (by "saving it").

All of which is good for Democrats. If the Republican Base is depressed, they won't fight so hard, won't donate so much and so on and so forth. I don't know if we will pick up many hard-core Republican votes (actually I do know. We won't), but it will make them a little weaker.