The Holy Vote

Broadcast journalist Ray Suarez discusses the intersection of religion and politics among people of color.

Tavis: You cannot win one way or the other in this country, increasingly, without the African American vote and certainly, we know now, without the Latino vote. Where do Black folk and Brown folk, separately, fit into this conversation, this holy vote conversation?

Ray Suarez: Well, Ken Melman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, has been crisscrossing the country speaking at Latino Protestant churches, and very conservative Catholic congregations that are Spanish-speaking. And in African American churches throughout the country, where there's an outspoken conservative social agenda. And there are many. And he's saying, "You guys, maybe you didn't realize it, but you're natural Republicans. Come with us."

And he wants to not take away 50 percent. You don't have to take away 50 percent. He knows that if you peel away 10 or 20 percent from these two groups, you create a coalition that's unbeatable with the White evangelical vote and with economic conservatives; that together, that coalition is unbeatable, and would mean Republican rule, House and Senate, White House, for decades to come.

Tavis: But historically, Black and Brown people have not been one-issue voters.

Suarez: Right. And I talk to both the leaders of some African American mega-churches, and some Protestant Latino pastors about the overtures they've gotten from the White House. And they say, the real problem that we have with the so-called religious right is that they don't understand that we have to get it right on the bread and butter issues too. Gay marriage, abortion, is not gonna be enough to bring my 15,000-strong, 20,000-strong congregation over into this column.

Because there are economic justice issues that we have to get right. And if we don't, we can't be your allies. So it's an interesting difference. There's a lot of similarities. And that's what gets Ken Melman into your pulpit on a Sunday morning in the first place. But the differences may be enough to just not keep the alliance from happening.

Tavis: So finally, beyond this conversation, where is this conversation headed, you think?

Suarez: Well, some people have been telling me that they think that some of the so-called Christian right may take its bat and ball and go home in 2008, because they feel they gave a lot in 2000 and 2004, and didn't get what they came for. They helped bring a Republican majority to both Houses on the Hill, to the White House, and to the Supreme Court, and still haven't gotten what they wanted on right-to-life issues. On choosing the time of death. On sex ed and evolution in schools. On a whole raft of social issues that they wanted action on.

And when George Bush leaves the White House in 2009, they may still be the way they were before he got there.

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