The Zombie Vote

            Many of you have seen the old 1940 “Ghost Breakers” movie clip with Bob Hope equating Democrats with zombies in the way they vote http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWpU8sX10_4.  It’s not just Democrats, however, that possess a “core” of voters that will continue to vote R or D, no matter what.  This core vote is what each party relies upon every election; votes that they can always count on, no matter who their candidate is.  That’s where the saying about a “yellow dog Democrat” comes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_dog_Democrat.  And it’s not the same as the “cemetery vote,” or dead people who continue voting.

            If you are a major party candidate, you don’t need to worry about spending money to sway or gain these voters; they’re already in your pocket.  If you’re running as an independent or third-party candidate, you can forget about them, they belong only to their party and nobody else.  That’s why some candidates who are independent at heart choose to run under the Republican or Democrat banner.  That’s the only way they’ll get those core votes.  Nothing can convince those voters that they may be wrong.  It’s like some people who just can’t admit they’ve made a mistake.  And that goes for BOTH parties.

            In our last presidential election, 96% of African-Americans voted for the Democrat, Obama.  In past elections African-Americans gave about 80% of their votes to Democratic candidates.  This is in spite of all historic evidence that the Republican Party has done more for African-Americans than Democrats.  It’s a continuing misconception that liberals will put more food on their tables and make their lives better in general.  It’s just not true.

            This is part of what’s wrong with our two-party system.  All those zombies who don’t know what they’re doing when they step into the election booth.  They just look for the R or D and pull the handle, helping to decide how our country fares in the next four years (or two or six for Congress).  They’re not helping the country.  They need to rethink their votes, but from the core voters I’ve talked to, that’s not likely going to happen.  They’ve voted for the same party for generations; “What was good enough for my Dad is good enough for me!”

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