Democrats are a funny breed. Their talking points for their operatives and politicians predictably always accuse Republicans of engaging in the focus group buzz term "wedge politics."
If you are Republican, you're engaging in wedge politics if you espouse the belief that the second amendment guarantees your right to own a firearm. To the Dems, you're engaging in wedge politics if your faith is important to you in your public and private life, especially if you use it to try and appeal to those with similar beliefs. It's wedge politics to declare that your faith dictates marriage should be between one man and one woman. It's gotten so ridiculous, the Dems now accuse Republicans of using national security as a wedge issue, even though radical Muslims have declared a world wide Jihad against western civilization!
We believe a better definition of wedge politics is dividing people by their ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, rather than by their particular beliefs. The Democrats have popularized and mainstreamed the Balkinization of America with the hyphenated American designation - African-Americans, Irish-Americans, German-Americans, etc. The Democratic base is traditionally comprised of special interest groups - teachers unions, Blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals, environmentalists, etc. It is not uncommon for Democrats to frighten these constituencies into believing that Republicans are going to take some right from them.
The
OK Bluenote gives a blaring example today of "real" wedge politics.
Black women across America are meeting, mobilizing and empowering themselves as a critical voting bloc for the 2008 presidential election.
Three prominent civil rights organizations -- the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, headed by Melanie L. Campbell; the National Council of Negro Women, chaired by veteran women's and civil rights leader Dr. Dorothy I. Height, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, led by Clayola Brown -- met in Washington D.C. and created the Power of the Sister Vote 2008 to lead a national debate about black women, the political process and the 2008 presidential election.
"Black women represent over 56 percent of the registered black electorate. In the 2004 presidential election, black women represented 58 percent of the total black vote," Campbell said in a statement. "Our voices weigh heavily in our family's civic engagement decisions."
The Sister Vote 2008 meeting represents the first in a series to draw attention to black women and young voters. More than 30 national and state-based black women leaders and opinion makers attending a session last month where they were briefed on the 2008 Republican and Democratic National Committee political process.
Donna Brazile, a Democratic political consultant, said according to the 2004 Census Bureau, black women's registration and turnout rates were 67.9 percent and 59.8 percent, both higher than the overall population figures (65.9 percent and 58.3 percent); according to the exit polls in 2004, black women were 7 percent of all voters.
"Black women are in a key position to help shape the debate and outcome of the 2008 presidential race," Brazile told BlackAmericaWeb.com last week. Read more...Labels: Decision '08, OK Bluenotes
Posted at 5/07/2007 12:01:00 PM
