By Nate Abraham Jr.
Commentary
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson said that he wanted to make N—— vote for the Democrat Party of the next 200 years. Sixty-two years later, the vast majority of African-Americans still vote for Democrat candidates at all levels of government.
That may be changing, at least when it comes to northern African-Americans.
During the Memorial Day weekend, I was at a BBQ with a Black family from Maryland. These people grew up in a Democrat family with who worked for the federal government. And all they could talk about was how much they hated the Democrat Party. As far as they were concerned, the party was a complete failure at the local, state and federal level.
These people lived in Baltimore and have lived under a Democratic mayor since birth. They said that current Mayor Brandon Scott is the most corrupt mayor they ever had. Apparently, he campaigned as a champion of the community, but once he was in office he was only interested in living high on the hog and spending money to enrich certain supporters. They said that Baltimore is probably the most corrupt city in the nation.
In addition to living under the jurisdiction of a Black Democrat mayor, they also live under a Black governor, Maryland governor Wes Moore. Governor Moore, they said, completely ignores the Black people who voted for him and only cares about helping illegal aliens.
What surprised me the most was that each of them were now supporters of President Donald Trump. They didn’t agree with him on every policy, but what they did like was that Trump tells people what he thinks, not what he thinks they want to hear. That he will tell people what he wants to do then goes out and does it.
I have heard similar sentiments from Black folks in other major northern cities, such as New York and Chicago. In Chicago, there are Black folks organizing to unseat mayor Brandon Johnson, a Black Democrat, because he has spent billions on illegal aliens while cutting services and raising taxes on Black citizens.
None of that stuff is happening down South. Black southerners are still firmly in the Democrat camp. The difference is that Black Democrats in northern states have large Democratic majorities, while Black Democrats in the south are in the minority with little political power.
Last week, South Carolina Democrats celebrated because Republicans in the General Assembly failed to pass redistricting legislation that would have ended the 6th Congressional District’s status as a Black-majority district. It would not have made much of a difference in this year’s election anyway. Congressman Clyburn would still be re-elected.
The dirty little secret is that most Republicans like the current district lines. By purging Black voters from the other districts, they get an almost iron-clad guarantee of having six Republicans in Congress. With the large number of Northerns fleeing cities like New York, Philadelphia and Boston and moving to the South Carolina coast, if Republicans redrew the lines South Carolina might have ended up with three competitive Congressional districts.
This fight does seem to have energized southern Black Democrats. The majority of Southern Black Democrats will remain loyal to the party over the next few years.
Northern Democrats? Not so sure.