The point
is that I think Blacks will oppose a Jew or Gentile on
the ticket as the Vice presidential candidate who:
I can hear the questions
asking whether, if you oppose Lieberman, do you also
oppose Al Gore. Not necessarily. It is possible to say
that Al Gore did a good thing insofar as he gave someone
from a formerly oppressed minority group an opportunity
to be Vice President of the United States.
However, it was a highly questionable decision if, by
selecting Lieberman, you mean to choose someone who would
help to energize the base of the Democratic Party. He
will now have to work much harder.
The base of the Democratic Party does need energizing,
with Gore polling only 70% among the core voting blocks -
labor, Blacks, women, Hispanics and gays. Moreover, the
last poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic
Studies showed that Gore was running at about 70% in the
Black community several month ago this year. So, Gore
needs desperately for the Democratic Convention to fire
up the troops, but this choice of Lieberman may have the
opposite effect of chilling them out and feeding into the
low-turnout pattern we have seen in recent elections.
On the other hand, we accept the conventional wisdom that
Lieberman was chosen to give Gore cover from those
opposed to his relationship to Clinton. But he may have
another role in the campaign.
On August 10, Gore and Lieberman went to Atlanta for a
rally with four Southern Governors, the major policy
point of which was to celebrate their "victory"
with Welfare Reform. I had difficulty understanding this
as a strategy designed to appeal to Blacks - Buppies who
are buying homes in the suburbs of Birmingham, Atlanta,
New Orleans, more established Blacks, or even low-income
Blacks. So, I conclude that this meeting was not about
Blacks at all, it was meant to compete for a constituency
that has all but been ceded to George Bush -- Southern
White moderates who believed that pushing Blacks off of
Welfare and forcing them to work was a good thing. The
meeting added one more theme, the great state of the
economy, but without direct references to Blacks, the
same conclusion could be drawn.
Against this backdrop, the Black Democratic leadership
class has a formidable task - to sell Lieberman to the
rest of the Black community. The selling has already
started, with Rev. Jesse Jackson saying that Lieberman
supports Affirmative Action. This is strange because on
March 25, 1995, Rev. Jackson wrote a four page letter to
Lieberman after he made a speech at a DLC event at the
National Press Club, in which he said that
"preferential policies" based on race were
"patently unfair," "caused a breakdown in
society" and were opposed to individual opportunity
"which is what America is all about."
Jackson responded that Lieberman's comments were
"particularly irresponsible" and that he was
fueling "unjustified fears" and promoting
"myth and hysteria." And while Jackson went on
to defend Affirmative Action then, he cannot now throw
the cloak of respectability around Lieberman's shoulders,
merely to provide him with the credibility to attract the
Black vote.
It is possible to ask where is the sense of
accountability in the politics of those who would
represent us, not just Jackson, but the Congressional
Black Caucus members, Civil Rights leaders and others? Is
the prize of winning office worth it, if it empowers
those -- even Democrats -- who have opposed our interests
and given credibility to the massive Conservative
movement that has attempted to turn back the clock of
history? I think not. When Lieberman was run up the flag,
I expected that all hell would break loose, but instead,
all was quiet.
While it is obvious, that the decision most voters make
about the ticket will not be made on the basis of the
second spot, still this is the second DLC ticket in a
row, proof that the Democratic party has swung decisively
to the Right ideologically. It will be interesting to
assess how Blacks will receive this ticket at the
Democratic Convention as a key to determining the outcome
of the election itself.
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