Race, Democrats, and the Ideological Divide

There has been some talk here about disgruntled black Maryland Democrats who feel that their party is ignoring them, and thus have endorsed Michael Steele, the black Republican candidate there. I'm writing this diary in part because of that, but it isn't really about that specifically, but rather the broader issue of the politics of African-American Democrats in the US, and their ideological leanings, and how that compares to the politics of Daily Kos and/or the Democratic Party. What I've found is that there definitely is a divide, and I think we should talk about it.

First, so you know where I'm coming from, what I am, and what I'm not: I'm not black, I'm not a statistician, I'm not a registered Democrat, and I'm not a Maryland resident. Actually, I'm a white, registered Independent, computer programmer in North Carolina. So I'm going to try to stick with what I really understand: the data. And in this case, all the data in question comes from Pew's Typology polling. And what the data tells me is that there is a divide. First it tells me is that most Democrats on Daily Kos are probably in a different typology group than are most black Democrats in America--we are a majority Liberal/progressive site, whereas they are majority Conservative Democrats and Disadvantaged Democrats.

I crunched the numbers to verify this--according to my reading of Pew's survey data, about 37% (69/185) of black voters are Conservative Democrats, and about 24% (45/185) are Disadvantaged Democrats, whereas only about 11% (20/185) are Liberals. Note that the statistics in this paragraph will be regarding black voters specifically. Of all the groups, Conservative Democrats cast the most votes for Kerry (51 votes) and the most votes for Bush (7 votes). Disadvantaged Democrats cast 40 votes for Kerry and Liberals cast 19 votes for Kerry. Also note that neither Disadvantaged Democrats nor Liberals cast any votes for Bush, period.

So, having established that, and noting that in general we are all voting for Democrats here, then the larger question becomes, how do Liberals differ from Disadvantaged Democrats and Conservative Democrats ideologically, and what issues would divide them? Probably the starkest example in 2004 is gay marriage. Note that the only group with a majority supporting gay marriage is Liberals--the Democratic party is split on this issue, and in fact a majority of Democrats opposed gay marriage in 2004 (in part because some of us Liberals (hi!) are registered as independents). Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the GOP used it as a wedge issue in an attempt to divide us and peel off black voters.

Another related issue is religion--in general, black voters--and in fact any other typology group--tend to be more religious than Liberals. Take for instance the issue of displaying the Ten Commandments in a government building. Again, Liberals are the only group with a majority opposing this. So it's clear that the Democratic party is divided on some of these 'values' issues, and it's clear that the GOP has been trying to exploit that division.

And that is the big divide. Past that there are other differences, but the numbers aren't as stark. Conservative Democrats tend to be more hawkish than Liberals, but not that much more hawkish. Look at the numbers for torture or pre-emptive force--there's a difference of opinion there, but not a huge one. One other potential wedge is immigration, in this case apparently with the Disadvantaged Democrats understandably more concerned about keeping their jobs.

So in general, the divide is on some social, moral, and religious issues. On the other issues, on the kitchen table issues, on the foreign policy issues, while we aren't in lockstep, we are fairly solid as a party. And those are the issues that have mattered most to us lately, despite the GOP's long-standing efforts to the contrary. That's the ideological divide in the Democratic party as I see it--and I'm sure there are other divisions, but I haven't seen any numbers for them.