Last night on Twitter, before all the NC votes on the Amendment to Ban Same-Sex Marriage (Amendment 1) were reported, I came across a tweet from journalist Josh Kraushaar (@hotlinejosh) of the National Journal which said this:
Many of the rural, heavily African-American tobacco counties in NC overwhelmingly back gay marriage ban. These counties voted 65%+ for Obama
https://twitter.com/...
He also tweeted this:
do you think Afr-American voters stay home if Obama comes out for gay marriage? Some find that hard to believe...
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From both these tweets, it's evident that this guy's agenda is to not only pin the passage of the amendment on the backs of Black voters, but also by extension to those anti-same sex marriage votes to President Obama.
After pushing back vigorously on his propaganda with some of my own tweets which were fact-based, I decided to do some of my own research into the voting situation down in North Carolina to see what really drove the passage of the Amendment 1, because I was almost certain that the "Afr-American" voters that Mr. Kraushaar referenced in his earlier tweets had very little if any to do with the passage of this amendment.
After most or all of the NC votes have been reported- here is a report of the counties with the most turn (40% or higher), their breakdown by race, candidate voted for in 2008, and how they voted on Amendment 1. Don’t allow the media to push false narratives about PBO and “black voters” when 100% of the blame goes to Republican/conservative voters who supported McCain in 2008 and will probably vote for Romney in 2012.
1. First, there were 15 counties with turnout of 40% or higher. 10 of them went for John McCain in 08; 5 for Obama. Of the ten that went for McCain in ’08, ALL of them voted FOR the ban. All of them were heavily white, ranging from 85%-98% white, with 9 of the 10 counties being 90% or higher white. Incidentally, the county with the highest turnout by proportion in the entire state was Mitchell county – (50-60% turnout), which is 98% white and went HEAVILY for John McCain (71%) in 08.
2. Of the five “high” turnout counties that went for Obama in ’08, THREE of them voted AGAINST the ban. They ranged from 14-21% black. The two Obama ’08 counties that voted FOR the ban were 35% and 36% percent black. They were Bladen and Hyde counties.
3. Total number of votes cast in entire state was 2,135,740. Of that total, 1,303,952 or ~ 61% were FOR the ban. Of the votes that were FOR the ban, 909 came from Hyde county, and 7412 came from Bladen county. Assuming ALL the black people in both counties showed up and voted for the ban, that would yield 318 “black” votes from Hyde county and 2,668 from Bladen county. So the heaviest black turnout in these two counties would yield a total of 2,986 votes (which is an overestimate, since I’m assuming that 100% blacks showed up).
4. Now if all black voters from these counties were to vote AGAINST the ban, shifting these 2,986 votes out of the “FOR” column and to the “AGAINST” column, we would still have an enormous deficit in the “AGAINST” and the ban would have still passed as it did – and by the SAME margin! So the black voters in these two counties would have made absolutely NO difference in outcome – whether they voted for or against because their numbers are simply too small!!!
5. The county with the highest population in NC is Wake county – went for Obama in ’08 and is ~21% black. Wake county voted AGAINST (57%) the ban.
You can get all this information and more here.
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/...
http://www.usatoday.com/...
So the BOTTOM LINE is that the Amendment 1 passed due to an overwhelming support from White, Conservative Republican voters - which is consistent with what we know about discriminatory laws of any kind in the this entire country.
The Media however, in trying to pit Blacks and Gays against each other, and in trying to turn the LGBT community against President Obama has decided that it's in their best interest to keep the focus of same-sex marriage as much as possible on Black voters, and on President Obama's "evolving" comment (never mind that President Obama came out AGAINST the ban long before election day!) I saw this tactic from a mile away, from the moment NBC decided to run away with VP Biden's comments on MTP Sunday, I knew the media had received it's marching orders from Karl Rove, to use the NC Amendment election in an attempt to swiftboat the President with the LGBT community.
Meanwhile, there has been very little focus on Mitt Romney who just a few weeks ago FIRED a gay aide from his campaign. Some of the same "journalists" on Twitter who are breathlessly tweeting away about same-sex marriage since VP Bidens comments, were hardly interested in the Romney incident.
The facts do NOT support any of the claims made in the MSM or elsewhere that President Obama or black voters are responsible for these discriminatory policies being upheld. Fortunately, it appears that the majority of the LGBT community is no longer falling for this ploy as some might have in 2010.