The President might be on the right side of history, but he's on the wrong side of a crucial voting bloc

The constituency calculus makes this choice politically risky for Obama. Black voters, who were critical to Obama’s ‘08 victory, are strongly against marriage equality. A recent Washington Post/ABC poll found 55% of blacks oppose gay marriage and 42% support it, which is almost the opposite of white voters—53% support and 43% oppose. This opposition, I think, comes from what many blacks are told by their church. Black antipathy toward gay rights is so deep that the National Organization for Marriage was planning to use it as part of their strategy in their battle to prevent marriage equality. A secret memo revealed their “Not A Civil Right Project” whose goal was “to drive a wedge between gays and blacks.” They would do this by finding and publicizing blacks who’d object to gay marriage as a civil right thus provoking gay marriage supporters into “denouncing [them] as bigots.” The point was divide and conquer: “No politician wants to take up and push an issue that splits the base of the party.” And just like that blacks would become pawns of social conservatives, helping to block gays from a civil right.

Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/05/09/will-black-voters-punish-obama-for-his-support-...

patrick2 wrote on May 10^th, 2012 at 3:05am:

They will stay home in droves. He hasn't done a damn thing for them except make them look like a bunch of Darwin's African ape-men. His thoughts on homosexual marriage are "evolving!"   Sheez. Give me a break, will 'ya? 

No. They won't.

joe_christian wrote on May 10^th, 2012 at 8:32am:


That's exactly what is going to happen.  There are quite a few Dems who will stay home now that they know this President supports same-sex marriage.  Biden put the knife to Obama's throat and Obama just cut it.

Sandy wrote on May 10^th, 2012 at 9:10am:


Blacks are not crucial? That's the bloc that got him into office in the first place.