"THE COSBY FACTOR"--MORE ON BLACK VOTING PATTERNS: Mary Mitchell

A recent survey by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies may have uncovered the Cosby Factor. You may recall that last summer, Bill Cosby went on a rant that made him look more like an angry old man than the beloved comedian he is. Indeed, when Cosby scolded irresponsible poor black parents for holding back the race, he sounded more like Rush Limbaugh than most of us wanted to admit.

But Cosby may just be showing his age.

According to the Joint Center's report, in 2004 -- for the first time in recent years -- younger African Americans became more Democratic and older African Americans became more Republican.

African-American voters between the ages of 19 to 25 who labeled themselves as Democrats increased from 54 percent to 71 percent, and from 56 to 63 percent among those ages 26 to 35. But older African Americans were less likely in 2004 to identify themselves as Democrats and more likely to identify as Republicans, the survey found.

Black seniors between the ages of 51 and 64 shifted from a 75 percent Democrat and 5 percent Republican split, to a 66 percent Democrat and 12 percent GOP split. ...

Jeremy Levitt, a professor of law at DePaul University, said the shift by older African Americans could be a response to what is "arguably a failure of the Democratic Party agenda to uplift the African-American community.

"These are also individuals who actively participated in the civil rights movement and tend to have a higher level of patriotism than the 19- to 25-year-olds. But these stats are interesting because blacks were in the Republican Party until the 1940s. This 51-64 category grew up in households where their parents were members of the Republican Party," he said.

"Blacks are conservative. So when you look at the same-sex marriage, death penalty, school choice, prayer in school and the list goes on, you'll find we subscribe to a conservative doctrine. The only reason why we don't have 20 percent and above figure for blacks in the Republican Party is because the Republican Party has not been able to wash away the perceived stain of white supremacy."

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