Brazile: Blacks Poised to Bolt Democratic Party

NewsMax.com ^ | 12/01/02 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

Donna Brazile, who managed Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign two years ago, sent a memo to Democratic lawmakers last month warning that they need to do more to reach out to African-Americans or risk losing their support in coming elections.

"The Republicans are in the House," Brazile said in the controversial memo, quoted in Sunday editions of New York's Newsday. "They came in through the window and they want to play."

The former Gore official, who now heads up the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute, urged party officials to "roll up their sleeves and box (the GOP) out." Otherwise, Brazile cautioned, support from the Democrats' most loyal constituency is likely to "slip away."

"The party is ready for that challenge," she added, "but it remains to be seen" whether they'll take it.

Although African-American turnout in 2002 was similar to that of other midterm elections, Brazile still termed it "unsatisfactory," noting that blacks flocked to the polls in droves two years earlier to vote for Gore.

Brazile attributed the diminished turnout to the fact that the party spent less money in 2002 on minority outreach, while the GOP launched an intensive radio ad campaign in urban markets.

Others complain that party chief Terry McAuliffe offered only tepid support to African-American candidates. University of Maryland political science professor Ron Walters told Newsday that McAuliffe didn't give black Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Carl McCall the campaign cash he promised "until it was beaten out of him."

"The love affair is over between African-Americans and the Democrats," political strategist Jaques DeGraff said. "In massive numbers we still can't go and pull that Republican lever, but we can still stay home."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

DNC

[goldstategop]

They're getting lazy on the Liberal Plantation and Bubba and McAwful still haven't figured out how to give the house slaves a sound whippin.'

[ALS]

Typical of the DumbNC. They always think money is the solution. Yours, of course.

May they rot in peace. Ok, I'm just kidding about the peace part. :)

[Texas Eagle]

I got news for you, Donna. It was never a love affair. To DemocRATS, blacks were nothing but ....well, I can't say it, but it rhymes with Gores.

[Nick Danger]

I thought Frank Lautenberg, Walter Mondale, and Nancy Pelosi were all honorary Black People, like Clinton. Does this mean they're not?

[Dog Gone]

We'll see in the Louisiana senate election on Saturday. If blacks don't show up in large numbers, Mary Landrieu is toast.

[expatpat]

The white leadership in the DNC is between a rock and a hard place. If they don't give the blacks more power, the Brazile scenario arises; if they do, they will lose much of their own power. And we know how hard the Democraps hang on to power!

[Southack]

This is just a plea for more money and power for herself.

If Brazile had been serious about the slights handed to Blacks by Democrats recently, then she would have at least mentioned the insult to Jackson when McAuliffe was bumped up over him to head the DNC, or that Page had been walked over by Mondale for the Senate nomination in Minnesota, or that Pelosi had dissed Ford for House Minority Leader, or that the leading Black candidate for governor of Louisianna had been snubbed by Landrieu.

If Brazil had been serious about Democrats losing ground to Republicans on the topic of promoting Blacks, she would have alluded to Clarence Thomas getting his Supreme Court nomination from a Republican President, or that Rice and Powell and Paige were in higher positions under Bush than any Black in Clinton's cabinet after Ron Brown.

But even though she isn't serious, she's flirting with fire. This issue could explode in the Democrats' hands.

[Go Gordon]

"In massive numbers we still can't go and pull that Republican lever, but we can still stay home." ,/i>

You want to know why? Because if traditionally democrat supporting African-Americans went to the polls and pulled the Republican lever, that would mean they had to admit that all along they were duped by the RATs for 40 years. I'm not blaming them its only human nature to not want to admit you were wrong. But at some point, they have to suck it up and send a message that they want their independence and support true American values, not socialistic pandering.

[Optimist]

Ping

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

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.

[DCPatriot]

Well, just what in the hell is so hard for them to appoint an African-American to high positions?

Where is *their* Condaleeza Rice or Colin Powell?

The entire Democratic Party is a sham, that's why.

[glc1173@aol.com]

Blacks may not ever be willing to vote GOP in substantial numbers - but they showed they can decide elections by just not voting.

Blacks are now alienated by the Democrat Party for several reasons. They know its leader Klinton pardoned Marc Rich while seemingly every black person in America has a relative close enough to name doing 5+ years for just having one rock of crack under Klinton-signed drug laws. They know inner-city government schools - a Democrap monopoly - suck, and that their victims are nonwhite. And they know that the Democrat Party - which totally depends on black votes - is totally dominated by a nonminority nomenklatura of leftist social-cause outfits, incumbent politicians, and staffers.

[Revolting cat!]

Send Donna back to Brazil!

[bayareablues]

Time to redouble our efforts at outreach to this community. There seems to be lots of gloating in the GOP ranks since the midterms. We should not underestimate LalaPalosi, nor call Hillary irrelevant, nor think the Dems cannot lure African-Americans back with the promise of more social programs. Overconfidence breeds defeat. Our message of lower taxes and border control should resonate with the African-American population.

[rdb3]

IR == 'ON';

There shall be no mercy.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[artsie]

Not to mention vouchers.

[Samurai_Jack]

I dont know why all this reminds me of this quotation...

Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813).
Scottish jurist and historian:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship."

[winner3000]

I agree with you that vouchers and education reform based on competition and parental choice are the key to winning black voters.

2 more points:

The best way to get a black Democrat to the poll is to scare him into it. Remember the dragging death of a black man in Texas in 2000? Well, I don't remember any such incident in 2002. Be on the lookout for some real ugly race baiting in 2004.

"Where is *their* Condaleeza Rice or Colin Powell?"
Theirs are unelectable. Is it due to racism? No. Because of gerrymandered "safe" seats, their black elected officials are too socialist, too extremist, too left wing, and too darn bigoted to be electable on a state-wide or nation-wide basis.
Both Condaleeza Rice and Colin Powell can win state or national-wide office because they have been appointed to their positions based on their skills, not on their race. However, liberals are not waiting for them to be elected to attack them for being uncle Toms, house slaves, etc...