California’s passage of Proposition 8 certainly got a lot of help from members of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Bigots, but African-American and Hispanic bigots were the deciding factor in stripping a minority of their civil rights:
Weston, 44, is one of an overwhelming number – 70 percent – of black voters in California who voted for Proposition 8 and helped secure its passage, according to exit polling conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.
African Americans, energized by Barack Obama’s presidential bid, boosted their numbers at the polls this year to 10 percent of the state’s electorate, up from 6 percent in 2004.
“The Obama people were thrilled to turn out high percentages of African Americans, but [Proposition 8] literally wouldn’t have passed without those voters,” said Gary Dietrich, president of Citizen Voice, a nonpartisan voter awareness organization.
Latinos were 18 percent of California’s voters, and through sheer numbers also contributed to Proposition 8’s success. But 53 percent of Latino voters supported the measure, a much lower percentage than black voters. Among white and Asian voters, 49 percent voted for the measure.
I doubt there’s anything that Obama could have done to persuade these constituencies to set aside their religious bigotry, but it would have been nice if he’d tried instead of sending messages via right-wing, anti-gay, pro-Bush gospel singer Donnie McClurkin that it was okay to be a bigot.
