Sad, that years of neglect have come to this, but Ken Mehlman was making his pitch today in Milwaukee for African Americans to give the GOP another chance:
“Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization,” Mr. Mehlman told his audience. “I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong.”
Alluding to the rise of the Republican Party in the South since the civil right movement nearly a half-century ago, Mr. Mehlman said that “if my party benefited from racial polarization in the past, it is the Democratic Party that benefits from it today.”
Make no mistake, this is just another round of hardball Republican tactics, after years of voter suppression, most recently in Ohio. The unspoken message — we took your rights away, and you have to come to us to get them back. Where else are you going to go, you can almost hear Mehlman saying … that other party has made it clear that they won’t stand with black lawmakers, let alone black voters.
One almost couldn’t blame black Americans if they thought … “hmmmmmm, he’s a lying sack of shit, but what the hell, being LOYAL hasn’t worked out so well, time for some hardball.”
Howard Dean offered a counterpoint today to Mehlman’s plea for “forgiveness”:
I’m here to tell you that the Democratic Party is going to stand up for the things we believe in. We’re going to stand for social justice. We’ll never take a single African American vote for granted. We’re going to show up now, not eight weeks before an election. And we’re going to put organizers in all 50 states.
For more than 95 years, you have been the conscience of our nation, and the message of your work is a powerful one – when we come together around shared goals and common principles, great things are possible. Historic things are possible. People of all races, nationalities and faiths have united in the NAACP on a fundamental premise – that all men and women are created equal.
The Democratic Party shares this mission, and we share common goals in the fight for fairness and equality for every one. We believe that everyone is equal in the eyes of God…
That all sounds great. Many of us on the left are big fans of Howard Dean, but we couldn’t blame them if the delegates at the NAACP convention took all of that with a grain of salt. After all, the other guys have done a pretty damned good job of gaining power by stealing access to the polls, maybe it’s time to go to their fence and buy back what was stolen.
After years of neglect, Dean has got a long fight ahead of him to win back some trust, and I wouldn’t blame the NAACP to play coy to protect their community.
How very sad that the party of the Southern Strategy has played the Democrats so well. Perhaps the only way to save the Democratic Party from the corporate handmaidens now running it is to appeal to the other side. Perhaps it’s time for various communities of the Democratic Party base to start making the party WORK for their votes.
or are you just saying what you would or wouldn’t blame them for doing?
You state: “After all, the other guys have done a pretty damned good job of gaining power by stealing access to the polls, maybe it’s time to go to their fence and buy back what was stolen.”
Are you saying that African-Americans should pay again for their right to vote? That they should not only countenance the theft of their right to vote, but make a deal that legitimizes that theft?
You state: “Perhaps the only way to save the Democratic Party from the corporate handmaidens now running it is to appeal to the other side.”
Just what do you mean by “the other side.” It seems you mean the Republican Party. Do you?
Nope, I’m not.
I’m not saying they SHOULD, but I certainly don’t blame them or any other interest group for LISTENING. If a criminal gang is in charge, and the “opposition” does no opposing, then it’s understandable to LISTEN to what the criminals are offering, if only to put pressure on the folks who’re supposed to be fighting for you.
So yes, I mean the Republican Party. They are playing hardball politics, old fashioned quid pro quo politics. The Democrats are barely playing politics at all.
Do I WANT the Democratic coalition to splinter? Well, no, but if the party doesn’t quit listening to the Vichy Dems trying to turn the party into quasiRepublicans, then it’s every community for itself, since quasiAnything has no power, no convictions and no passion.
Well I am, and let me tell you, it’s getting increasingly more challenging for me to make the case for my party to folks.
And I DO make the case. There are other issues like min. wage and healthcare and ESPECIALLY Social Security that are winning issues. And black folks aren’t stupid–we of all people know who these repubs are.
But when you have say, the MD GOP promoting Black candidates when the Dems, in a progressive state, are too chicken shit to do same (or even…gasp!…a black woman), folks tend to take notice. We give our support to the party year after year, and this is how we’re rewarded? They give the orders, and we take them, unquestioningly? Do you know how that sounds? That’s increasingly the perception and people are increasingly chafing against that.
So hell no, I can’t blame the NAACP for inviting Melman. I don’t like it, but guess what? It damned sure got SOMEBODY’s attention, did it not? Just like NARAL supporting Chafee. I don’t like it one bit, but it damned sure got somebody’s attention after repeatedly getting shit on.
Now I’m not stupid. My “skin folks” aren’t always my kinfolks. Cliche as this may be, it’s still true: Perception is reality.
Kerry sad display in 2004 might be the straw that broke the camels back… that and the DLC pushing for dumping so-called “special interest” groups for corporations.
Especially Kerry’s sad showing in Ohio. After months of rhetoric about how he’d fight for the people’s right to have their vote counted, when thousands of black voters were denied that right, he… Gave up.
Brilliant, Kerry. What a way to prep yourself for a run in 2008!
One almost couldn’t blame black Americans if they thought … “hmmmmmm, he’s a lying sack of shit, but what the hell, being LOYAL hasn’t worked out so well, time for some hardball.”
yeah i hear that. and one couldn’t blame women for feeling the same way.
mind if i say it?
SOLD FUCKING OUT!
want to sell my interests down river?
well then, get ready to lose.
Hit the nail on the head…African-Americans, women, who else is next on the DLC sell-out list? The dems need to stop assuming that because the Republicans are the other party, these so-called “special -interest groups” will continue to vote Democratic.
“Vote for us, because where else will you go?” is not going to win any votes, IMO.
It sounds like a recipe for a third party, doesn’t it? I hope black Americans and woman (of any color) and labor and all the other traditional Dem constituencies manage to scare the sh*t out of the Dem establishment that doesn’t particularly want to have to associate with the likes of us, if that’s what it takes to wake them up. That’s what it takes, I guess, when they’re as confused about basic Dem principals as so many of them seem to be. Howard’s already there and I just hope he’s not riding in too late on his white horse.
You know what would be a pisser? If the Repubs do get kicked out in the next election because voters get fed up, and the Dems still ignore all of us. Which could happen depending on the kind of Dems who get into office.
Both parties have already trashed the working poor. I guess that both feel we need a permanent underclass (please sir may have I some more cannon fodder?) and make sure they have policies that support that end.
I believe the solution is to put more attention on state and local elections so that we can get more progressives in office. These are elections, after all, where small, well-organized groups can have a large impact on outcomes. We need to build an revolution from the bottom up.
Right on, Andi. All politics is local. Someone who sees the Democrats fighting for them in their town will not only vote for a Democrat on their city council but is also more likely to in state and national elections.
If we truly care about the concerns and issues of everyone – and we’re willing to walk the walk, to get to work, we’ll win elections.
I specifically say “progressives” because I don’t feel that liberals should feel constrained to vote for Democrats. I have no problem with third party and independent candidates, except at the presidential level. In fact, I suspect that the best way to drive Democrats left is to have progressives third party or independents win elections. For one thing, it would make the Democratic leadership re-evaluate their policies and for another it would force Democrats to make alliances.
I consider myself a Democrat and personally want to work on making the party become what I think it should be. But I’m also in favor of supporting anyone who shares the values that I hold dear. Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), for example, is a shining light in Congress. We could use more like him.
trying to do. We have no time or energy to waste fighting the last election. Or the DLC. The DLC’s time is past.
There’s an old saying, “People who say it can’t be done should get out of the way of people who are doing it.” We must be the people who simply start doing it. This is the power of the grass/netroots.
If you are a Democrat – or even if you are an independent or Green, etc. who has decided that our best hope for ousting the neo-con junta is for Democrats to win elections – then be the Democratic party. We’re it. Not the consultants, the DLC, the talking heads.
The only way the Democrats will win is if the party reclaims its legacy as the party of inclusion – the party that fights for every American. This is not just the Right Thing to Do (although it is), it is pure pragmatic politics. It is a winning strategy.
All politics is local. We can start there. Look around – in your town, your state, there are groups who are being ignored or marginalized or dismissed by the power structure. You may belong to one of these groups or not. If you do, get active in fighting for your group, and then work on forming coalitions with other groups. If not, inform yourself about their issues and reach out.
Yes, there are too many people calling themselves Democrats who don’t get this yet. But Dean does. He’s showing leadership here, but he can’t do it all by himself. Just do it.
but I also support EVERY community making the DNC WORK for their votes for a change. I know the Doctor will work, but will the DC Vichy Dems?
Joe Conason was on some panel before the last election. He told a story about a labor leader meeting with FDR, going on and on about things the unions wanted FDR to deliver. FDR’s response, “MAKE ME.”
A politician can only make change when there is a constituency demanding change. The Vichy Dems have risen to control of the party b/c they only listen to “speech” in the form of corporate contributions. Dr. Dean and like-minded folks like him will only win the fight for the soul of the party if the REST of us make political speech showing an impetus for change. That’s what NARAL did in RI, and that’s what the NAACP did in Milwaukee. It’s good politics. It’t the only way to promote change.
Both parties have used racial animosity to promote political gain at various times in their histories. Yes, the Dems passed the Voting and Civil Rights Acts, but it was DEMOCRATS who promoted Jim Crow for decades. History is complicated, and the crimes are many.
Hey Madman, you should come over here full-time, if you know what i mean…
as far as crossposting?
It’s so much fun to poke certain people in the eye from time to time though … 😉
Liberal Street Fighter is my full-time bloghome, but I really enjoy this community, and actually find the level of writing and commentary to be of much higher quality than certain self-proclaimed “reality-based” communties.
irrelevant. They have only as much power as we give them. If we simply sit back and listen to what the consultants and pundits have to say and complain if we don’t like what they are saying, then we are giving them the power. If DINOs determine how they will vote based on how their big-money campaign contributers want them to vote instead of voting in their constituents best interests, we have to find a way to make them pay a price for that.
As you say, “A politician can only make change when there is a constituency demanding change.”
Each heretofore taken for granted group whose rights and concerns have been marginalized or put on the back burner must start organizing and demanding change. But we can go even further than that.
I want to be part of a progressive movement in the Democratic party where straights stand up for gays, whites fight for the rights of African-Americans, men support women . . . This has often not been the case in the past, however, I think the only relevance it has to the future is that we must be aware of the history so that the “advantaged” understand how to reach out and why there may be a certain wariness of their motives when they do.
And then – Onward! Grassroots organizing, ho!
they COUNT on people waiting in the rain for hours to support their crappy corpoasskissing candidate, snickering “where else are THEY going to go?” as Americans try to do their civic duty.
I agree. Grassroots organizing. I’d also kinda like to see the Progressive Caucus threaten to split into a third party … to join Bernie Sauders on a true “third way” … a progressive way.
Janet, I’ve liked your posts through this diary, and I wouldn’t attempt to change a thing.
The only thing I would like to add to the local angle is that, speaking for myself, I sometimes get lost in the intricacies of Washington DC and the Sunday Talk Shows and the DLC and how bad it is — part of my staying too long in the Left Wing Echo Chamber. I am confident that the majority of Americans, particularly the ones that are approachable to build a dominant progressive/liberal for decades to come, are much more affected by their local school board and mayor/city council/county supervisor, etc. The Republican takeover started at this level and even things like PTA decades ago, and we have a long way to go to reverse course. But that is where it has begun, Dr. Dean “gets it”, and 50-state strategies will take time to take hold. I have been seeking out my local Democratic state representatives, joining local Democratic groups, blogging on non-political sites, writing letters to the editor, etc.
Good schools, universal health care, decent wages and working conditions — winning issues all, and color-blind as well. With few exceptions, what is good for the low and middle classes are good for all races, colors, creeds, religions or non-religions. Bill Clinton got it, even if in hindsight I wish he had not been what I now see as DLC-based and centrist. What he did get was a rising sea raises all boats.
The Republican Party doesn’t focus on any particular election. I cannot stand what the DLC has done and is still attempting to do, but they are becoming more and more irrelevant by the day. The Democratic Party takeover will not take as long as the Republican takeover did, and we need to look beyond any one election, any one candidate, and any one office. Liberal ideas are the ideas of most Americans, they’ve just been successfully painted as out of the mainstream by blowhards like Limbaugh and O’Reilly, without any balance by things like liberal blogs and Air America Radio and progressive Christians like Jim Wallis.
Take no vote for granted, build from the ground up, and look long-term — all ideas that I’ve heard Dr. Dean say, and say often. He’s only been in the chair for 6 months, and he’s been saying it where it counts — in places like Alabama and Mississippi, where they haven’t seen a national Democrat in decades (at least that is my impression).
Howard Dean has talked about this Nixon strategy from early on in his campaign. He also recognized early on that it is not just the African American community they have been leaving behind and selling out. It is just ordinary, everyday people of all colors.
Howard tried to point out that all the tax cuts to the wealthy were simply shoving everything down to the middle class. Taxes here on homes are going to go sky high soon, so they won’t have to tax the developers.
When I saw today that the DLC has come out in favor of CAFTA just in time to help Bush put it through, then I realized our world of hurt is just beginning.
As I say, Howard Dean tried to discuss this Southern Strategy early on, and he got attacked and laughed at by his own party as well as the GOP. At least a good thing came out of it. A speech he gave during the campaign in Columbia, SC, was recognized as one of the most important statements in “40 years.”
Here is the article from the Black Commentator on December 11, 2003:
Dean Makes Racial-Political History
“Howard Dean’s December 7 speech is the most important statement on race in American politics by a mainstream white politician in nearly 40 years. Nothing remotely comparable has been said by anyone who might become or who has been President of the United States since Lyndon Johnson’s June 4, 1965 affirmative action address to the graduating class at Howard University.
For four decades, the primary political project of the Republican Party has been to transform itself into the White Man’s Party. Not only in the Deep South, but also nationally, the GOP seeks to secure a majority popular base for corporate governance through coded appeals to white racism. The success of this GOP project has been the central fact of American politics for two generations – reaching its fullest expression in the Bush presidency. Yet a corporate covenant with both political parties has prohibited the mere mention of America’s core contemporary political reality: the constant, routine mobilization of white voters through the imagery and language of race.
Last Sunday, Howard Dean broke that covenant.”
The content of the speech follows.
Then the Commentator makes this statement:
SNIP…”Howard Dean has taken history in his hands by hitching his ascendant campaign to a straightforward, anti-corporate message that does not pander to white racism. He presents whites in the South and elsewhere with the only principled choice they should be offered: to vote their interests, or vote for their bosses’ interests (if they are lucky enough to have a job). Although corporate media called Dean’s statement his “southern strategy,” it is in fact the only position that holds out any hope for a national Democratic victory in 2004 – whether enough southern whites emerge from their racist “false consciousness” or not…..”END SNIP
I think Howard is on the right track, and as mentioned above we must support his goals. I feel so discouraged some days, but then I realized at least we are aware now of what we need to do. Before the corporate wing of the party was flying under the radar, and most of us did not know what they were doing.
and that article. Thanks for linking them.