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Submitted by: James on Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The article does, of course, address these issues in a broader context, thus our comparison of black and white fortunes over the past four years. We nowhere say that blacks are voting for Obama because of his skin color. We do not say that because it is not particularly relevant. What we do say, and what we mean, is that black support of the Democratic party has been nearly monolithic for some time, and for understandable reasons. The very reasons that gave rise to that wholesale support, though, need to be reexamined. Just as blacks walked away from the Republican party when they perceived that the Republicans did not address issues that were important to them, so too will they walk away from the Democrats (likely in part, not in whole) when a sober assessment is made. Blacks are worse off than they were four years ago, both in absolute terms, and relative to their white counterparts. The belief that the Democratic party serves their interests is not one based in empirical evidence. Indeed, the evidence supports a contrary conclusion. Like many associations, it is emotive and historical. But those associations are the ones that come to be redefined over time. In the end this is the case because it should be the case. The last two paragraphs make this point unambiguously. James R. Harrigan (speaking only as one half of the author team)

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Submitted by: Will on Monday, October 29, 2012
The authors contend that African-Americans are voting for President Obama in huge numbers, and for the Democratic party in general, for reasons that don't align with their economic self- interest. In order to address this contention, the article focused on data suggesting African- Americans are economically worse off than they were four years ago as support of their contention. I have a few problems with this: - The authors seem to be confused as to whether they are looking at why African-Americans vote Democratic or why they voted (and are voting again) for President Obama. Despite some initial vacillating statements, I can only assume the authors are really interested in why blacks vote for President Obama, as the limited data presented in the article relates solely to President Obama's first term. The implication seems to be that African-American voters are casting their vote for Obama simply because of his skin color, but no evidence is offered in this regard. I have to ask, however- why give yourselves the wiggle room? You seem to be saying that black people should reconsider voting for President Obama- so say that. Why the misdirection of pretending this article has anything to do with (longstanding, historical) black support of the Democratic Party? - My main issue with this article, however, is that it examines an extremely complex issue (why black people are voting for Obama) by boiling it down in a surprisingly simplistic way. There is absolutely no effort here to examine why the economic fortunes of African-Americans have suffered over the last four years, or to put those declines in a broader context (I heard something recently about a global economic crisis). Nor do the authors attempt to determine whether the downturn has anything to do with the actual policies of the Obama Administration, to say nothing of trying to suggest real policy alternatives that would actually, you know, help anyone. Of course, the authors utterly fail even to acknowledge that perhaps many African-Americans vote Democratic, and continue to vote Democratic, because the alternative seems to be at best no improvement, or at worst a significant step backwards. If you want to argue that President Obama has let African-Americans down, as the authors seem to do, then wouldn't your argument be strengthened by showing how GOP policies would somehow make things better for black people? Alas, no such information was provided- I will leave it to other readers to consider why that is. It certainly appeared to me that the authors ask a very broad question, present an incredibly narrow data set in order to get the answer they were hoping to get, and use that answer to argue that it's time for a whole group of people to change the way they think about that broad question as a result. Let me see if I can capture the level of sophistication of the argument made in this article. Say that I have always driven Chevy cars, and have had good luck with them, but recently I bought a new Chevy and it had engine trouble. Based on the logic in this article, because I bought a new Chevy (i.e., President Obama's first term), and that new Chevy had engine trouble (i.e., my economic situation deteriorated during his term), I should never drive that Chevy again (i.e., not vote to reelect President Obama). Oh sorry- that's not true. Applying the logic of this article, I should reconsider ever driving ANY Chevy- or apparently voting for any Democrat- ever again. Not a word about how my car trouble might have been caused by faulty maintenance, by an aftermarket alteration, unusual driving conditions, etc. Nope- the car had trouble, so get rid of it. I don't think that argument would persuade many car owners- so I can't see how an analogous argument would be very persuasive to many voters. I'll end with this: In the 2008 election, John McCain won 4% of the black vote, while the latest polls show Mitt Romney with ZERO percent of the black vote. So assuming for the moment that your argument had merit, shouldn't the black vote be moving in the other direction, and not becoming more solidly Democratic? Of course, people vote for all sorts of reasons and not always in their own economic self-interest. Fair enough- and that's a phenomenon you see with voters for both parties. But when African- Americans go to vote and the amount of voters supporting the GOP candidate aren't even statistically significant, is it logical to conclude that virtually ALL African-Americans vote against their economic self-interest, when voters of other races aren't as unified in their voting patterns? In the end, your analysis falls so far short here that it adds little to a topic that really should be explored more thoroughly.