Four consistent concerns from African Americans regarding the 2014 election

Rss@dailykos.com (shaun King)
Wednesday, November 05, 2014, 5:01 pm
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While we wait for some states to finish counting their votes, it's abundantly clear that Democrats lost elections in key states and races all across the country-including North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida-where African Americans make up a significant portion of the electorate.
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Four consistent concerns were expressed on Election Day by African Americans that must be addressed if results are going to improve for Democrats moving forward:
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1. As of this past September, President Obama still held an amazing 87 percent approval rating with African Americans. When Democratic candidates across the country publicly and privately shunned his support and even refused to admit they ever voted for him, scores of black voters were instantly turned off. The love and admiration for President Obama is deep in the black community and Democrats will have to reconcile how they embrace him if they ever want enthusiastic African-American support. 
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2. Young African Americans across the nation care about the death of St. Louis area teenager Mike Brown and the injustices felt by protestors in the wake of his death. Students from the historically black all women's school, Bennett College in North Carolina, were seen on Election Day chanting, "This is what democracy looks like," a phrase used consistently by protestors in Ferguson.
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Young African Americans feel like the Democratic Party has failed them in Ferguson, Missouri, in a state with a Democratic governor, a well-known Democratic senator, a Democratic mayor, and a Democratic prosecutor in Bob McCulloch overseeing the case in St. Louis. The young activist, Tef Poe, just flat out said that the Democratic Party is failing African Americans in Missouri and the Washington Post noted that it was Republican Sen. Rand Paul who has made one of the boldest statements about Ferguson of any politician.
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3. The sentiment that white politicians seeking election only show up in black communities and churches when they want votes has crossed a tipping point. Whether social media has magnified this phenomenon or not is hard to determine, but what is clear is that it has crossed an offensive line where African-American voters, particularly young ones, are increasingly frustrated by it. Either you care or you don't and showing up just when you need black votes doesn't suggest genuine concern.
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4. Called the new Jim Crow by Al Jazeera, the efforts to make voting for difficult across the country for many African Americans have simply not been fought hard enough by prominent Democrats. It may be prominent white Democrats, whose voting rights are rarely threatened, to understand the feeling that these new laws evoke, but the sentiment that not enough has been done by Democrats in power to fight them is growing.
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Ultimately, the Democratic Party is going to need to make some serious course corrections in the weeks and months ahead if it wants better results in 2016. While a mass migration to another party is highly unlikely, the days of taking the concerns of black voters for granted has clearly passed and some trust needs to be regained if any semblance of excitement is to be resurrected.
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