The last time Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) faced a race-baiting challenger in his majority-Black African-American district, he thrashed Nikki Tinker by a 60 point margin. I promised at the time that I wouldn't worry that the voters of the 9th District of Tennessee would fall for such naked appeals to prejudice. This time around, Cohen drew a decidedly tougher challenge in Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, who also is trying to race-bait his way to victory.
Fortunately for my promise, I still don't need to worry -- Cohen appears to be cruising to victory, and by now has to be considered firmly entrenched in the district. And that's a good thing: Cohen is an excellent Congressman who deserves a long and successful career in Washington.
Rep. Cohen needs to stay around because he disproves most of what is said about black voters.
ReplyDeleteMany moderate Republicans have claims that black voters are actually conservative and Republicans could appeal to them. In reality, Rep. Cohen is to the left of Bernie Sanders and very liberal. Yet, Rep. Cohen gets wide support from black voters.
Cohen also disproves the idea that blacks are really social conservatives. Cohen is very liberal on all social policy and blacks still vote for him.
Rep. Cohen also shows that in the future, most elections area meaningless and that meaningful election happen one every couple of decades when an incumbent either retires or moves on to higher office.
Rep. Cohen is the poster child for the idea that blacks will support anyone who promises to tax the crap out of whites and give the money to blacks.
The down side of Rep. cohen is the highest office in Tennessee that any black politicians can now aspire to is state senator.
I too regret that whiter congressional districts rarely elect non-white candidates, in apparent contradiction to the belief in a colorblind society.
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