Voters’ values trump skin color

The “who’s more racist?” finger-pointing between political pundits on the left and right gives the impression the first words a black person utters after exiting the voting booth are “I feel seen.”

It is easy to see why desiring personal validation from politicians is fool’s gold if you think about our political system as a construction project rather than a therapy session. Constructing a building requires a plan, a builder, and tools. To the extent that electoral politics impacts public policy, it can be viewed similarly.

Skin color is not a value. Melanin is not a principle. When voters forget that, crafty politicians take advantage of them.

That means the people who are most effective in our system must already have a blueprint in mind before they ever go searching for a person they believe can “build” according to their specifications. In a certain sense, citizens use voting as a tool to select politicians who become our “tools” in the quest to construct the type of society we believe leads to human flourishing.

One reason affirmation and (superficial) identity politics are such a corrosive combination is that they allow candidates to use their membership in a particular group to cover for political positions that are not part of their supporters’ blueprints.

One clear example of this is how progressive women, often self-identified feminists, use the threat of sexism to appeal to female voters, then take office and prioritize the demands of men who dress as women. The female hosts and pundits on MSNBC, CNN, and ESPN know they must submit to the delusions of Rachel Levine and Lia Thomas if they want to keep their jobs and social standing.

I have heard social commentators on both sides of the aisle claim that all politics is identity politics, noting that outreach to conservative evangelicals — who are disproportionately white — is no different from engaging ethnic minority groups.

The big difference is that religious affiliation serves as a proxy for specific values and political interests. Evangelicals support traditional marriage and abortion restrictions because both are tied to a biblical worldview on creation, reproduction, family, and human dignity.

Judging by the cultural critics who practice affirmation politics, the only value that a critical mass of black voters embrace is opposition to racism.

Given our nation’s history, you can understand why this would be the case. But the truth is that we’re not in the 1940s any more, an obvious fact given how elastic the definition of “racism” has become and how flippantly people toss out terms like “white supremacy.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave $1 million to sponsor a training program established to “dismantle racism” in mathematics. The curriculum’s creators claim that “white supremacy culture” shows up in the classroom when students are required to show their work and the focus is on getting the right answer.

Words that once invoked images of “Colored Only” signs and burning crosses are also routinely attached to pro-life laws, parental rights, and the nuclear family.

The people who speak this way do so because they believe that accusations of racism activate a Pavlovian defensive response within the average black person that leaves him susceptible to manipulation.

This is the danger of affirmation politics.

Skin color is not a value. Melanin is not a principle. When voters forget that, crafty politicians take advantage of them.

One of the clearest examples of this phenomenon occurred when Barack Obama was first elected president in 2008. Excitement to vote for the first black president was palpable in the black community and certainly in Washington, D.C., which for years was known as “Chocolate City.”

Obama won 95% of the black vote, including many poor and working-class adults in the city. These voters were the people who benefited most from the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, the only federally funded voucher in the country. Students receive up to $13,500 to attend a private school in D.C., a figure far below what the city spends per pupil.

So how did the president reward his most loyal supporters?

By making the elimination of that program one of his highest priorities when he took office. He sent his daughters to Sidwell Academy, where tuition was $40,000, but moved to kill vouchers for families making an average of $26,000 per year.

Thankfully Republicans in Congress blocked Obama’s efforts. President Trump pledged to expand the program.

Obama and his progressive compatriots have no problem consigning poor black kids to schools where few students are reading at grade level, all while passing themselves off as champions for the marginalized and downtrodden.

The notion that black people can’t vote Republican because the party is racist is not based on a universal law or political principle. Democrats have their own problems on race – especially when it comes to the white voters who make up 64% of their electorate.

CNN has no problem saying that angry white men are the biggest threat in the country. The Daily Beast has no trouble railing against killer “Karens.” Several news outlets ran articles in 2016 berating the 53% of white women who voted for Donald Trump. Joy Reid feels comfortable claiming that white evangelicals see nonwhite Christian conservatives as “fraudulent Americans” on MSNBC.

And yet, white liberals from New York to Los Angeles continue to vote for a party that is openly hostile to them. But at least for them, it makes some sense. White liberals support the party’s three top priorities: all things related to sexual orientation and gender identity, abortion, and climate change.

Many black progressives support the same things. But there are also millions of black working-class men, churchgoing seniors, and suburban moms who prioritize good schools, safe streets, and better jobs.

They should not allow their feelings and emotions to get in the way of acquiring the “tools” they need to create a better future for themselves and their children.

The GOP has serious work to do to earn the votes of black voters, but political fragility is a bad construction strategy. Politicians don’t show up in our largest cities to challenge progressive policies, and many conservative pundits seem just as hell-bent on inflaming racial tensions as their leftist counterparts.

Allowing someone else’s ignorance to dictate your political calculus is unwise. It also reveals a poor self-image, despite all of the public declarations of “black girl magic” and “black excellence.” Truly secure people are not easily moved by what strangers think.

Elected officials who say, “Vote for me, I look like you!” love voters who are more motivated by feelings than interests. It’s time to teach them that’s no longer a winning strategy.