Is Thomas Sowell right?
Although the anonymity of the internet is a huge problem when it comes to children and the internet (I’m thinking of sexual predators), I think it has a real virtue in the area of political blogging. People reveal what they feel is relevant about themselves for purposes of supporting any given position they take. Thus, you all know that I’m Jewish, a parent, a lawyer, wishy-washy about abortion, hostile to the media, etc. When you comment, I learn about your race, religion, lifestyle, etc., if you want to volunteer that information. I know many of my regular visitors are Christian or Jewish, young or old, male or female, although there are many visitors who leave great comments about whom I know nothing.
One of the things I don’t know is whether I have any African-American visitors. This fact occurred to me today when I read Thomas Sowell’s column stating his belief that Republican party policies would serve the average African-American better than do Democratic party policies. For example:
Most blacks are working people and taxpayers, who are not benefiting from the welfare state programs of the Democrats or from affirmative action. Many live in places where they are more likely than whites to become victims of the violent criminals that liberal judges turn loose and liberal governors pardon.
Blacks are also more likely to gain from vouchers that would enable them to pull their children out of failing public schools and give them a chance to get a decent education in a safer environment. Democrats cannot give them that because of the enormous influence of the teachers’ unions within the Democratic party. Since the teachers’ unions contribute millions of dollars to the Democrats, only Republicans are free to support vouchers.
Violent crime is another social problem that hits blacks especially hard. In some years, there are more blacks than whites murdered in absolute numbers. However, even in high-crime neighborhoods, most people are not criminals, but are more likely to be victims of crime. That is especially true of black ghettos. In some of these neighborhoods, the probability that a young black man will be killed is greater than the probability that an American soldier would be killed in World War II.
What do the Democrats have to offer? Aside from liberal judges who are forever finding flimsy excuses for turning criminals loose, the Democrats offer “crime prevention” programs that prevent nothing, except for preventing the criminal from being put behind bars. Nothing has a proven track record of preventing crime like locking up criminals. But liberal Democrats are forever seeking “alternatives to incarceration.”
Much of what Sowell says makes sense to me, yet African-Americans in huge numbers support the Democrats. From my position as a white American, I can make intellectual guesses about what seems to me to be an illogical voting pattern (closely related to the Jews’ obsession with the Democrats and fear of Republicans). I really don’t have any sense, though, whether Sowell is correct that Republicans are better for blacks (as I think they are for Jews), or whether there is something I’m missing in the African-American experience, aside from tradition, that makes the Democrats the only viable party. You’re all free to weigh in here but, on the off chance that I have African-American visitors, I’d be especially interested in your point of view.
