An a long time Democrat who began my activities a year and a half before I could vote, spend 20 years as a Committeeman on our County Democratic Committee and at one point served as Chairman, I can tell you that. what I have observed is that. black voters in bulk have continued to be a block of support for Democrats. That said, I believe there has developed a age division within the black community of voters. Older folks, from the generation that clung to the party because they believed we were the party that had brought them along.
Today's young black people are not as easy to deliver on election day. Why, they are aware of the history of the two parties, but by and large they feel
that the early gains in civil rights are not sufficient.
They want to see more moment. Economically, socially, and educationally.
The younger black voter sometimes finds themself feeling unimpressed and as a result somewhat less motivated to vote at all. They do not want to be taken for granted and sometimes feel their folks settled too little. This is easy for them to do as more time has passed from the days when they were inclined to be grateful for their gains, but still holding back as, especially in the south, and did not feel it was wise to make waves.
Legislatively, the democratic party has been there for them. One of the problems is that you can only do so much with legislation to bring along people to a more inclusive place in society. That progress is slow and is about changing attitudes and core beliefs. The younger generation I believe is much more open to this than my generation was as a whole.
But as to the matter of growing more conservative with age, that has not been my personal perspective. I've moved through periods in my life where I was perhaps a moderate liberal, with social issues drawing me more liberal. That has however given way to an overall movement. to more liberal than ever. At 71, I find the last 8 years that challenges facing this country and the world have pulled against progressive policies and in large part it has not been do to conservatives advancing positive alternative policy, but in fact for lack of it. The Republican party has been hi-jacked and is dominated by conspiracy theories that has taken the oxygen out of any intelligent dialogue.
