ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith told his audience at Tuesday’s Impact Symposium at Vanderbilt University that his “dream” is for African Americans to vote GOP for one election.
“I have often said — and I’m not talking about President Obama, I’m just talking about the times we’re living in — I have often said that, from a political perspective, what I dream is that for one election, just one, every black person in America vote Republican,” Smith declared at the event in Nashville, Tennessee.
He went on to provide a historical explanation for his assertion:
By consistently voting for Democratic candidates, Smith alleged, black Americans are putting their votes in the palms of the Democrats’ hands and therefore not inciting politicians to address their interests.
“Black folks in America are telling one party, ‘We don’t give a damn about you,'” Smith elaborated. “They’re telling the other party, ‘You’ve got our vote.’ Therefore, you have labeled yourself ‘disenfranchised’ because one party knows they’ve got you under their thumb. The other party knows they’ll never get you and nobody comes to address your interest.”
He argued instead that black Americans should “shop around” when choosing a politician for whom to vote and in turn incite politicians to demonstrate what they have to offer.
“We don’t do that with politics,” Smith said, “and then we blame white America for our disenfranchisement.”
Listen to a clip of Smith’s remarks below, via the Daily Caller.
