Jack & Jill Politics

Oliver Willis writes a good piece covering the soon-to-be-released book “Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction“. It’s written by a former Special Assistant to Bush and Deputy Director of the Faith-Based Initiative, David Kuo and unmasks the contempt Bush Republicans actually have for evangelical Christians, their values and their leaders. There’s an MSNBC article too.

He says some of the nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders were known in the office of presidential political strategist Karl Rove as “the nuts.”

“National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and just plain ‘goofy,’” Kuo writes.

This is important news for black folks because we all remember the pastors who got into bed with Bush for the 2004 election, most notably mega-pastor/author/movie producer/TV personality T.D. Jakes. With the help of people like Jakes, Bush’s campaign actually made inroads and attracted votes away from John Kerry.

My own mother told me that her hairdresser and her daughter both told my moms they planned to vote for Bush. Their minister had told them to do so based on his superior Christian values. She called me right after getting out from under the dryer in the parking lot, she was so shocked and disturbed. I thought she might actually start crying. That’s when I knew Kerry was in trouble.

Bush made a modest inroad into the Black community, but that’s more than enough to let Republicans crow. Surveys of voters after they left the polls indicated that 11 percent of African Americans voted for him, up at least two points from 2000. In some places, like Ohio, Bush took 16 percent of the Black vote, an increase of seven points.

Kerry won a solid 88 percent of the national Black vote, but that was two points lower than Al Gore’s African American support in the last presidential election. (Source: BET)

Based on the Foley scandal and Bush’s support for Dennis Hastert, we can all see how hollow those so-called Christian values really are. Spirituality and living your values is something I welcome like many African-Americans. But church-going brothers and sisters should all remember those folks who show up every weekend at church yet sin regularly all the rest of the week. You know who I’m talking about. The usheress who runs off with the deacon and so on. On issue after issue — education, faith-based initiative funding, Iraq, Katrina, etc — Bush sins against African-Americans. I just hope that now that the truth is coming out, that folks will be a little more careful who they vote for in the next go-round.