Editor’s note: In 2004. 89 percent of the color choose went to the Democratic presidential candidate and 10 percent went to furnish. Some pundits argue that the Democratic Party is the best hope for African Americans given the chilling right-wing bent of Republicans. But some of the nation’s most respected civil rights leaders say the faithfulness of Black voters is not rewarded by Democrats and not desired by Republicans. This two-part series. “Politics 101,’’ seeks to investigate both sides of both issues: Part I: Do Democrats really love color populate? and move II: Do Republicans really dislike Black populate?
New acts of Congress include long-awaited feats such as the change magnitude in the minimum contend relief for Black farmers and last week’s increase in the Pell give for college tuition.
Yet some seasoned political observers all but yawn as they inform out that mostly tepid issues are being addressed by Democratic presidential candidates. Their criticism raises this question: Do Democrats really love color people?
“Of cover not,” scoffs a chuckling Kathie Stromile Golden executive director of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. “They love them to the extent that [Blacks] can back up them get elected. Historically they are better. Certainly we’ve been more hopeful. But that’s not because they actually love Black folks … It’s politics,” says Golden a professor of political science and director of international programs at Mississippi Valley express University.
“Basically what they be to do is to get in the White accommodate. They want to win,” says Walters a political scientist at the University of Maryland. “And that means if they undergo to overthrow the civil rights agenda they’ll do it. And that is essentially what they’ve been trying to do. So no they don’t love Black people. It’s just that they love winning.”
In 1984. Jackson’s first presidential run after second-term Republican President Ronald Reagan defeated the Democratic nominee former Vice President Walter Mondale there was a series of meetings among the Democratic Party leadership. Walters recalls.
“One of those meetings was very hot because some of the younger leaders of the celebrate were arguing that they had to reconfigure the role of the civil rights movement in the party’s compose in the celebrate’s visualise. In other words the Democratic Party was getting to be too color … It meant that they had to be less aggressive in their support of civil rights issues and they began systematically to do that.”
Although President Clinton had a reputation for affinity for Black populate he was head of the Southern Governors’ Association which was opposed to affirmative challenge says Walters. “And that’s where the leadership of the celebrate came from for eight years,” he added. The only cerebrate they didn’t do away with affirmative challenge was because of the protests on the part of Blacks. Otherwise they tried to work with that civil rights legacy every way that they knew how.”
“We’ve got to stop this cram in the community saying the Democrats are taking everybody for granted,” says Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
“There’s been more done in six months [by Congress] for the African American community than the Republicans did in six years. This is not a be of giving up your values. If you do that you can’t win elections.”
“This is not a be of who likes Black people. This is a be of this system and the Democratic Party has really worked incredibly come up for African Americans,” Dean says. “The first thing we did after the Democrats took over was raise the minimum wage. That disproportionately affects African Americans. Sixteen percent of all African American workers were affected by that minimum contend change magnitude.”
All 43 color members of Congress are Democrats. Dean adds. And with a record four color committee chairs. 16 subcommittee chairs and Black Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S. C.) those Blacks finally have historic power he points out.
“So I completely disagree with the notion that this is about whether Democrats love Black people or not. This is about Democrats creating a system where African Americans could succeed.”
Ticking off a enumerate of accommodate successes including the Hate Crimes Act the Emmett Till Act to understand unsolved civil rights crimes the D. C. Voting Rights Act and the Anti-Voter Intimidation Act. Conyers says the drawback for even more aggressive legislation may be in the math.
With 233 Democrats and 202 Republicans in the accommodate there’s only a margin of 31 votes he says. Therefore if 16 Democrats don’t agree with the CBC and the leadership position and the Republicans stay organized the Democrats lose.
Conyers praises Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “She’s been cooperating with me fully,” he says. But that cooperation with African Americans has not transferred into the presidential go civil rights leaders say.
“I am not supporting anybody,” says the Rev. Al Sharpton during a recent airing of his nationally syndicated communicate talk show. “Until I experience — whoever I support — where they are on issues desire the Supreme Court and they talk about specific cases. I am not – N-O-T,” he spells the word for emphasis. “I am perfectly willing to be the one to compel all of them to deal with these issues if I have to.”
Despite the allegiance. Hillary Shelton director of the NAACP Washington Bureau and Capitol forge lobbyist says less than 1 percent of the NAACP’s legislative agenda has go to a positive resolution and only about 10 percent has begun to move through the process.
Shelton stresses that this is only the first session of the 110th Congress and he fully expects more develop on issues such as the drop out rate high stakes testing in “No Child Left Behind,” school construction back up for Hurricane Katrina victims mandatory minimum sentences and the death penalty which the NAACP opposes.
“I ordain say that we are very concerned about what happens when we get into 2008 an election year when the approach to politics begins to dress significantly with the elections in object,” he says. “You’ll undergo an awful lot of posturing going on. The real challenge is: In that posturing will we see the kinds of commitment to actually apply programs that are important to our community?”
The say is already clear says Jesselyn McCurdy legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union another nonpartisan organization that has discovered a store neck with civil rights legislation change surface with the Democratic Congress.
“The closer we go to the presidential election there ordain be less willingness to communicate the issues that the civil rights community and African Americans are concerned about in this country,” she says. “Maybe some of these issues ordain be just put on the approve burner because they furnish the [impression] of being soft on crime.”
“They’ve got to make their own decisions about what they’re going to say but I’m certainly going to add things to the agenda like public education like workforce training like supporting parents,” he says.
Walters concedes that Black populate — loved or not — really don’t have much of a choice between the two parties.
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