'Free from cages': Black election canvasser explains why minorities are leaving the Democratic Party

The black vote has been solidly Democratic since 1964, but there is a growing tension in the party as it caters to a college-educated professional class whose values are at odds with black communities that share the traditional beliefs of the Republican Party base and feel betrayed by policies that have kept them dependent on government and devastated their families.

Colton Taylor is an election canvasser who is giving voice to that tension, explaining to WND that in his door-to-door canvassing work he is seeing first hand the shift toward conservative policies reflected in polling and the ballot box.

"People aren't fooled anymore," he said, noting the increasing availability of alternative sources.

There are black leaders now, he said, whose alternative views can be "heard and understood."

Taylor said that most of his colleagues in the canvassing campaign – which has taken him to Denver and Southern California as well as Florida and Oregon – are black.

"Some of them come from very bad backgrounds, and they just want a different way," he said.

The door-to-door work has been "healing" for them, Taylor said.

"Believing in the policies, understanding how it will benefit lives, is giving us freedom and peace of mind – we are not in these cages anymore," he said.

"As black people," Taylor said in conclusion, "we see that there is hope."

There are possibilities that are not confined to "the ghetto" or "the hood."

"We can open our lives and our minds and to anything – and it's fulfilling."