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Compassionate Conservatism and African Americans: Politics Puts Faith to Work and Gains New Allies?

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Abstract

Historically African Americans have been loyal to the Democratic Party; yet some discontentment may allow opportunity for the Republican Party to make inroads among African American voters. Situated within the context of the Republican electoral “compassionate conservatism” strategy, the purpose of this work is to demonstrate how Republicans are building political relationships with loyal democratic African American voters through cogitative tactics grounded in religion and moral values. We describe the relationship between African Americans and conservatism, examining alliances between Blacks and Republicans, highlighting “compassionate conservatism” and the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and then analyze two case studies from the 2002 elections to explore the question: Is the compassionate conservatism strategy a blessing or curse for the African American electorate?

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Notes

  1. Taken from President George W. Bush’s speech, “Rallying the Armies of Compassion,” January 30, 2001.

  2. The OFCBI was created by Executive Order 13198, signed on January 29, 2001. A second executive order created the Executive Department Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives within five federal agencies: Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, and Labor. Currently, the OFCBI program is being administered through two legislative proposals: the Community Solutions Act of 2001 (HR 7), including an extension of the controversial Charitable Choice Expansion Act of 1996, and a modified Charity Aid, Recovery, and Empowerment Act (CARE) of 2002 (S 476).

  3. There are numerous characterizations of FBOs. Several typologies have been used to distinguish FBOs according to the size of the organization, the size of their geographical service boundary, and their level of religious faith (see Scott 2002). Vidal (2001) characterizes FBOs as: (1) congregations; (2) national networks, including national denominations, their social service arms (e.g. Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services), and networks of related organizations (such as YMCA and YWCA); and (3) freestanding religious organizations, which are incorporated separately from congregations and national networks.

  4. The terms “African American” and “Black” are used interchangeably. The term “Black” is used most often when referring to the historical “Black Church” and/or for organizations or groups identified accordingly. Historical Black Churches are most often the African Methodist Episcopal; African Methodist Episcopal Zion; Christian Methodist Episcopal; the four Baptist Conventions: National Baptist—USA, National Baptist—America, National Missionary Baptist, Progressive National Baptist; the Church of God and Christ; Pentecostal/Charismatic churches/affiliates; and the Congress of National Black Churches, to name a few.

  5. Economic development strategies emerged in such forms as public programs to develop minority-owned businesses through managerial training and subsidized financing; business incubators; procurement set asides for firms owned by African Americans and other racial/ethnic groups or located in areas of high unemployment; corporate placement of branch plants in inner cities; public–private partnerships between commercial firms and local governments, to name a few (Bendick and Egan 1993, p. 3). The SBA 8(a) program and Office of OMBE were eliminated under the Reagan administration, a Republican.

  6. Compassionate conservatism holds that while the government should limit the scope of the social services it provides, it should take an active role as a catalyst or source of financing for social services provided by other entrepreneurs, such as FBOs, CDCs, and other community organizations.

  7. This executive order essentially stipulates that social service providers are not allowed to discriminate against beneficiaries of services on the basis of faith, but they are allowed to be selective in hiring and in selecting board members on the basis on religious faith. Additionally, they are not allowed to use federal grants or contracts to fund any “inherently religious” activity, they must separate “in time and location” services funded by direct governmental aid from “inherently religious activities,” and they can compete for government funding to provide public service without having to abandon “their independence, autonomy, expression, or religious character.” (For more information see White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives 2003).

  8. In addition, religious, civil rights, and educational groups, including the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination, the American Association of University Women, the American Federation of Teachers, the Service Employees International Union, and the National Education Association have been opponents of the bill over the hiring provision (see Goodstein 2001a).

  9. Interestingly, these preachers/ministers predominantly come from Black Evangelical, Charismatic, Pentecostal and Holiness Churches (Church of God and Christ; Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship; Church of Christ Holiness; Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, The National Black Evangelical Association; and Black Non/Denominational Mega-Churches). They represent a paradigm shift from the more traditional Black Churches found in the forefront of the civil rights movement in that their “ministries...[are conceived of to] not only save souls, but [seeks] to impact the social and political agenda, [which] includes, but is not limited to, activism in areas of education, economic development, community revitalization, and issues of police profiling and brutality” (Smith 2001: 1–5).

  10. Subheading in qoutes was taken from R. L. Jones (2002b).

  11. The initial $5 million housing grant was allocated to African American churches as follows: $1.6 million to St. Stephen Baptist Church for its Lifestyle Enrichment Campus on Seventh Street; $1.1 million for various outreach programs at Canaan Missionary Baptist Church; $500,000 to New Zion Baptist Church; and $400,000 to Shiloh Baptist Church. Northrup was credited with helping to secure funding for the Louisville Development Bank and African American Heritage Center as well (see Jones 2002a, p. 17).

  12. Although the written exchanges are beyond the scope of this work, it should be noted that Cosby took out a full-page ad in The Louisville Defender to respond to the attacks by Jones (see Cosby 2002, p. A7).

  13. It is reported that the ADC meeting became a shouting match between the delegates with one member, state legislator Alvin Holmes, resigning as deputy vice chairman of the group. Holmes protested the endorsement by ADC by stating, “This is the worst decision. In my opinion this is the most crooked administration we’ve ever had” (Chandler 2002b).

  14. Survey results were a courtesy of Gerald Johnson, Director of the Capitol Survey Research Center in Montgomery, Alabama. The survey was conducted November 4, 2002, N = 624.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Louisville, Ford Hall Room 205, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA

    Sherri L. Wallace

  2. Department of Government, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Angela K. Lewis

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  1. Sherri L. Wallace
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  2. Angela K. Lewis
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Correspondence to Sherri L. Wallace.

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Both authors contributed equally to this work.

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Wallace, S.L., Lewis, A.K. Compassionate Conservatism and African Americans: Politics Puts Faith to Work and Gains New Allies?. J Afr Am St 10, 75–93 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-007-9009-2

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