For the first time in American history, the majority of Republican Presidential hopefuls failed to appear in a stage show aimed at discussing the party position on the black voters and winning over the people of African origin to the party fold.
Instead, most of the GOP hopefuls are busy in raising funds for Republican primary elections.
Is it a growing indication of continuation of black American interest or just a signal that the question of race holds less significance in the issue-based US political arena?
The absence of top-ranked GOP hopefuls at the talk show is no doubt a sure embarrassment for the Republican supporters.
Even the front-runner among the Republicans, Rudolf Guilani preferred to attend a fund-raising dinner party hosted by some prominent people of Asian origin living in the US.
Though, Republican leaders did not hesitate to apologize the absence of their candidates, the incident is an indication that political parties in the US are shifting their attention from African to Asian voters.
The black voters constitute around 18 percent of American electorate. But, their economic affluence is very limited and they are seen as traditional supporters of the Democratic Party.
With the joining of Barak Obama, the Democrat hopefuls in the election podium, the Republicans are seen to be sure that the black votes will go to the Democrats as usual.
This may constitute a reason for absence of Republican Presidential hopefuls from the talk show.
The black votes are also not as significant as were before 1995. The growing affluence of Asian communities settled in the US and Americanization of people of African origin have robbed the black votes of their political significance.
The Bush administration, as clearly visible has failed to come up with any significant policy decision to advantage the black voters.
Its brazen support for British sanctions on Zimbabwe and Australian sanctions on Fiji has led to growing support for anti-Bush propaganda among the Blacks in the US.
The Republican ignorance of black voters is more willingly than unwillingly. In the last presidential elections, majority black leaders came out in support of John Kerry against Bush and the GOP is yet to make any viable effort to win this significant portion of American voters.
Via: Washington Post
