Posted on 08/31/2002 5:57:23 AM PDT by vance
Bitter Truth For Black Politicians In McKinney Defeat
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
The first ballots had barely been counted in Georgia's 4th District Congressional race between five-term incumbent Cynthia McKinney and challenger Denise Majette, when McKinney's supporters screamed foul. They claimed that hordes of white Republicans crossed over to vote for Majette and that Jewish groups bankrolled her. McKinney's shoot-from-the lip style, perceived pro-Palestinian tilt, her criticism of Bush's war on terrorism, and her grandstand offer to take Saudi money for black causes, certainly made her an inviting target for Jewish groups and Republican conservatives.
But blaming her defeat solely on politically malevolent outsiders skirts the bitter truth that more and more blacks are rejecting old-style narrow race based politics. Majette did not beat McKinney by a razor thin margin. She trounced her. Blacks make up nearly half of the voters in her district. If McKinney had captured the solid black vote that her supporters claimed she would get, it would have pushed her over the top, or at the very least, made the election much closer than it was.
McKinney's bombast on the Middle-East, her assault on Bush's war on terrorism, and grandstand offer to take Saudi money was yet another troubling sign of the penchant of many black elected officials to grab at showy, chic issues to get attention rather than presenting, quiet, and thoughtful solutions to the problems of poverty, failing public schools, crime, gang and drug violence, and the near pandemic of HIV/AIDS that has taken a massive toll on middle-class and poor blacks.
These are the bread and butter issues that black voters want and demand that their elected officials pay attention to. And they are getting more conservative. A recent poll by Black America's Political Action Committee, a Washington D.C. based political advocacy group, found that more blacks than ever say that President Bush is doing a good job. But even more ominous for black Democrats, a near majority of blacks lambasted the Democrats for taking them for granted.
Many do exactly that. Many black politicians make little or no effort to inform and involve black voters on vital legislation and political actions that directly impact on black communities. Their all-consuming passion is to elect more black Democrats to office and make sure that those in office stay there. They are accustomed to the unchallenged and unquestioned brandishing of power. They jealously hoard what they view as their sacred right to make all final decisions on proposing laws and supporting public policy they deem important for blacks. Yet those laws and policies more often than not do not boost the interests of middle and working class blacks.
Two perfect examples of this are the issues of crime and violence, and failing public schools. Polls show that more blacks than ever back the death penalty, three strikes, and mandatory drug sentencing laws. The reason is simple. They are the biggest victims of gangs, drugs and violence.
In recent court decisions upholding school vouchers, black parents led the charge for school vouchers. They see them as their children's ticket out of grossly underserved and under performing public schools. Yet, civil rights leaders and nearly all black Democrats relentlessly oppose vouchers, and talk almost exclusively about police abuse and the racism in the criminal justice system, rather than black-on-black crime, and creating opportunities for the black poor in schools outside the ghetto. The leaders and the politicians and working class blacks talk two different languages on these and other issues.
The political disconnect of black politicians such as McKinney from black voters has caused their free fall from important state and national offices. In the past two years they have lost mayoral races to whites in the majority or near majority black cities of Baltimore and Oakland. The number of black state legislators has plummeted in the California legislature in the past decade. They have lost dozens of local and municipal offices nationwide. But they haven't learned very much from their slide.
When Alabama Democratic Congressman Earl Hilliard lost his primary election bid earlier this year, his backers claimed Jewish groups targeted him because he called for a Palestinian state. Again, it was simply much easier to blame his defeat on outsiders rather than to admit that he failed his constituents, and they wanted change.
The bitter truth is that guilt tainted racial appeals by black politicians for black solidarity and voter registration caravans and buses into black neighborhoods are not going to make blacks dash to the polls to vote for politicians who wage media-grabbing empty fights over issues that many black voters regard as remote and foreign to their needs and interests. But many will rush to the polls to vote for someone they think can better deliver the goods.
The voter turnout in Georgia's 4th Congressional district was the highest of any major race in that state, and many black voters rushed to vote for Majette. To them, she, not McKinney, represented that someone who can best represent them.
I feel ya, but don't believe the "leader" hype. The conservative message doesn't work with a leader. It's an individual thang.
Blacks don't need leaders. Treat us like you would a white person.
I've interviewed Dr. Hutchinson several times over the last ten years - and while I find that some of the time that I don't agree with his views, I have found that much of the time, he is unaffected by the perpetual vicitm mentality that many are afflicted with.
He's right on target here. No whitewashing; no hints of "playing the victim card," just on the money.
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
Should whites support whites by such margins, they screams of racism would be heard by McKinney's Palestinian friends.
It is ironic that the crossover vote in Georgia beat McKinny just as the crossover vote in Michingan, engineered by their black congressman using well organized labor operatives, got McCain nominated on the Republican ticket in 2000.
Watch the black vote in Texas, for example. Almost 100%, statewide, will got to Ron Kirk, the crooked mayor of crooked Dallas, who is black, because, well, he is black.
Check your percentages - there are more who vote differently than you would think. The breakout on those who think about what they are doing (i.e., not just vote yellow dog Dem or only for black candidates) is probably closer to half of the black electorate on the whole. (especially when you look at the BAMPAC poll)
You can't generalize! You can't lump all blacks into your convenient little pile. That's been a major failing of the GOP for more than a generation.
Middle class black AIDS pandemic? I would like to see the source for this claim. At least in the USA, I doubt it. I thought AIDS in the black population was concenterated in lower classes where IV drug use is responsible for the spread.
I am glad to see a rational piece discussing apparent trends away from the dogmatic acceptance of the democRat party line.
Take a look again - he's talking about traditional black politicians (i.e., liberal, Democratic black politicans). And this DOES spell a change in the black electorate - there are more conservative blacks emerging and asserting themselves overall.
And that fact does hurt the traditional black political power structure - badly.
Don't let them fool you - AA has worked; just not the way they would have you believe it should.
AA is not perfect - but it opened many doors that were shut previously. More recently, it has been corrupted - badly. Many of the so-called black leadership have misused it to make sure their buddies get what they want - witness Jesse Jackson and bullying Budweiser into giving his sons a distributorship under the guise of "affirmative action."
The system is broken and needs to be fixed. Leveling the table doesn't mean tilting it entirely in the opposite direction. I don't have all the answers - but I do know that by getting away from the traditional black liberal power structure that we are on the right path.
Present the same message we present to ALL voters: that government is not the solution; government is the problem. That we'll spend millions for opportunity, but not one dime for soul-robbing entitlements. That morality is the key to enfranchisement in the American Experiment, not dependency. And that blacks can join the mainstream any time they want to, with the full backing and support of the Right, as long as no preferences are given.
The Right does not have a good record on taking its message to black people.
The Right's message is swallowed up in the wail from the hard Left and its largesse-spewing pimps. It's not easy to sell the idea of personal accountability in the 'hood after the Democrats have spent half a century nurturing a culture of dependency. With the media painting any Right-leaning proposals as abject racism, and with many influential black parasites approving that characterization, the Right has a Herculean task before it. The 'hood is a hostile place to the Right.
Growing up, I never saw anyone but a RAT come through the 'hood during election time.
Yet you managed to find the True Way. The information is out there; the message is sent. I agree we have to do a better job of pushing it, but we can't preach to deaf ears. And I don't know sign language.
Yes - let's look at Oakland. Oakland NAACP head (and CA state GOP Secretary) Shannon Reeves put up a pretty decent showing against Jerry Brown in the last mayoral race - this in a town that is more than 70% black. There are inroads being made. As for the "anti-americans" (as you put it), I think you must be mistaking it for Berkeley, just next door.
I've been up all night. I can't think straight all the time. Sheesh!
;-)
That sounds great - but how do you get the message to black voters? I don't see any press in the outlets that blacks view/read/listen to; I don't see any concerted work to go talk to blacks. The impression I get is "Here's the message; they've got to come to us to get it."
While the Dems are out there face-to-face; advertising on black radio; talking to black media. Face it, even though we talk about how the mainstream is where we should concentrate, if we ignore the media that the people we are trying to reach patronize, then the message remains unheard.
And if we patronize the media of the target audience, the message still remains unheard, but the Left-wing media make huge bucks off our misfortune.
Yes, we can take the message to the target, but the target has to meet us halfway. We should not have to go begging for people to do the right thing, the thing that will ultimately evolve to their benefit anyway.
I don't disagree with a program of outreach to blacks and other minorities, even to demographics that have traditionally voted as Democratic blocs. But the message has to come from a credible spokesman, and conservative blacks have been effectively discredited in favor of race shills and hucksters like The Revs, Julian Bond, and Kwesi Mfume.
Let me turn the tables. How would you propose we sell our message of "tough love" in the 'hood?
Right! And take just this message straight to the belly of the beast. Undiluted. Pure. Hopeful. Put it on BET, urban radio stations, billboards in the 'hood, you name it. Take the fight to them for a change. In politics, as in virtually every other place in life, victory is on the side of the aggressor.
The Right's message is swallowed up in the wail from the hard Left and its largesse-spewing pimps. It's not easy to sell the idea of personal accountability in the 'hood after the Democrats have spent half a century nurturing a culture of dependency. With the media painting any Right-leaning proposals as abject racism, and with many influential black parasites approving that characterization, the Right has a Herculean task before it. The 'hood is a hostile place to the Right.
And just who is at fault for this? THE RIGHT. The Left paints a portrait of the Right as being mean-spirited, vile, racist, and if it could, would send blacks back into chains at best or towards Africa at worst. What's the Right's response to all of this? Not one word. Therefore, if one side paints you this way, and you don't stand up for yourself, how do you think the target audience is going to view you? Take the advice of Horowitz here: don't blame the media.
Yet you managed to find the True Way. The information is out there; the message is sent. I agree we have to do a better job of pushing it, but we can't preach to deaf ears. And I don't know sign language.
Yes, the info is indeed out there. But don't look at me as a good example of going Left-to-Right. My experience was... different.
Nevertheless, as the author has laid out for us quite correctly, the ears of black folks are not closed. They're open. Now, what is the Right going to put into those listening ears?
Take the fight to the face of the Left! Pimp-slap them for a change. Pistol-whip them for once. Tapdance on their heads for a change.
Like Nike said, "Just do it." What have you to lose? IF blacks voted for Gore over Bush 9-1 (although I have yet to see concrete evidence to back this up, only innuendo and "conventional wisdom" which both ain't conventional and seldomly wise), you have nothing to lose and all to gain.
Look at it this way. The black vote is the most powerful vote segment in this nation. If the Right can tilt this vote 4 Right, 6 Left, the Left is DOOMED.
Think about it. It's a worthy goal to pursue.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.