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Don’t
Take Us For Granted
Before,
during, and especially after his rousing Democratic National
Convention keynote speech, Illinois legislator Barack Obama
was hailed as the shining knight who will energize black voters.
But it will take more than a stirring convention speech by
the still-relatively unknown and untested state legislator
to do that. Despite their fear and terror of another Bush
presidency, more blacks than ever express in polls their disgust
and disillusionment with the Democrats and their ambivalence
toward Democratic presidential contender John Kerry.
That political turnoff is painfully evident in the marked
slowdown in the growth in the percentage of black elected
officials. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies,
a black think tank, reported in 2002 the lowest annual percentage
increase in the number of black elected officials since 1970.
Blacks have lost mayors to whites in majority black cities
of Baltimore and Oakland. The number of black state legislators
has plummeted by half in the California legislature in the
past decade. They have lost dozens of local and municipal
offices nationwide. The Congressional Black Caucus has been
unable to get any substantial legislation through Congress
that directly benefits poor and working-class blacks. Though
blacks held important committee chairmanships, made high-profile
speeches, and made up a significant percentage, if not the
majority, of some state delegations at the Democratic Convention,
their overall percentage share of delegates actually decreased
from the 1996 convention.
Black politicians blame their political slide on voter apathy,
alienation, inner-city population drops, suburban integration,
and displacement by Latinos and increasingly Asians. These
factors have certainly contributed to the evaporation in the
number, power and influence of black elected officials. But
the blame for the political slippage must be placed on black
elected officials.
Many black politicians make little or no effort to inform
and involve the black public on vital legislation and political
actions that directly affect black communities. Their all-consuming
obsession is to elect more black Democrats to office and make
sure those in office stay there. They jealously hoard what
they view as their sacred right to make all the major decisions
on legislation and public policy issues they deem important
for blacks.
Black politics has also been enshrouded in media flash and
individual political stardom. First there was Jesse Jackson,
then Al Sharpton, and now Obama.
They are the titular purveyors of power whom blacks depend
on to raise and define issues and prod the Democratic Party
to craft an agenda addressing the crisis problems of failing
inner-city schools, the HIV/AIDS plague, police abuse, crime,
and drug destruction, and the high unemployment that have
taken a massive toll on poor and working-class blacks. Despite
the efforts of black Democrats to publicly push for that agenda,
it’s far less likely to get much attention this election than
four years ago.
The Democrats’ goal is to beat Bush at any costs. Kerry will
say and do nothing to give the Republican attack dogs the
opening to tar him as a tax-and-spend big-government proponent.
Though many black convention delegates privately grumbled
about that strategy, and Sharpton obliquely criticized it
in his convention speech, they must grit their teeth, and
muzzle their dissent. This is the heavy price that they must
pay to insure the unity top Democrats absolutely demand.
Black politicians are also crippled by their near total dependence
on the Democratic Party for patronage, support, and assorted
party favors. Despite Obama’s instant leap onto the national
political stage, though running in an until recently uncontested
race for the Senate, he has yet to win that seat. To face
his Republican challenger in the fall, he will still need
the resources and support of the national Democratic Party
to win the race. The race is already costly. He announced
in July that he raised four million dollars in a three-month
span. That’s a record for an Illinois Senate campaign. As
a top Democrat, Obama must adhere tightly to Kerry’s campaign
emphasis on national security, the war on terrorism, and military
preparedness.
The downward shift in black politics should be a wake-up call
for the Democrats that guilt-tainted appeals 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 they feel have, or will, fail them, and that could
even include John Kerry.
With the most crucial election of the past half-century only
months away, Kerry counts heavily on Jackson, Sharpton, Obama,
and the legions of black Democrats to deliver the monster
turnout of black voters that he needs to win. Unfortunately,
this comes at a time when the power and influence of black
politicians has eroded. Obama’s rising star is not enough
to restore that power.
—
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
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Columns
& Opinions
