I'm one of the honky masters of the universe, a straight white male American with a college education. I grew up in Oregon, still one of the whitest states in the union, and though I lived in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn for about 7 years, I'm probably still on some level racially ignorant. I'll still use the "we," though, because I think we're all in this together. So there's that upfront.
When it comes to Ohio, I never seriously considered the racial angle. "Folks Don't Get It" challenged my thinking. Cheers for that.
People who are pretending that the Democratic party is doing something -- or intends to do something -- meaningful in Ohio to fight for the rights of African-Americans who were disenfranchised are full of shit.
I find that I kind of agree, though I also think it's naive to expect the Democratic party as currently constituted to do anything meaningful. But this sparks new lines of thought.
How do I get from there to calling for a return of Black Power? Well, you'll have to click the extended entry to find out...
My understanding of how a lot of this plays out begins with Kerry/Edwards '04 loosing the initiative on Ohio. Other people (and here I'm thinking of Greg Palast and Bev Harris) framed the validity of the election with unsubstantiated claims about "fraud," implying that in a fair fight John Kerry would have won. That was really unfortunate.
There's no way to prove one way or another how many potential votes weren't cast because of long lines or through ballot spoilage, but when all the ballots which exist are counted, Kerry will still have lost. Unfortunately that's the election, take it or leave it. I'll take it, not because I like it, but because the alternative is total disenfranchisement (an end to democracy) and/or a shooting war with the establishment, which we would also lose.
Reading a diary like Shanikka's makes me wonder, "what do we want to see happen?" I don't mean this in a patronizing way, but I do wonder if anyone has a solid idea. What's the "solution" people refer to? Do we want a criminal investigation? Do we want to get rid of Blackwell? Do we want broader electoral reform? Do we want a media/PR victory? Those are different ends which tangentially connect, but are individually distinct and each difficult to achieve.
If this were still 1964, Dr. King would surely be leading people into the streets. Imagining he were alive and well today I'm not so certain. Peaceful protest was an effective tactic for civil rights (and to a lesser extent for the anti-Vietnam-war movement) because of the nature of media coverage and the conscience of the audience. MLK clearly understood this -- his calculation he made that images of dogs and water cannons would turn middle america against segregation was visionary -- and that's why protest and passive resistance were among the methods he endorsed.
The times have changed, however. Conventional protest has become a morally impotent form of political action, and as such its value is questionable. However, nothing has yet emerged to replace it in terms of grassroots-based activity. The question of "what to do" is far from trivial.
Taking up the racial thread again, it's clear that African-Americans are poorly served by the current Democratic party. Any large bloc of reliable voters without a great deal of autonomous organization or power within the established structure tends to be. The NAACP is a weakening institution, and black churches are being slowly chipped away at by cunning Republican strategists. Without organization, it's hard to make much of the power in numbers.
Personally, I'd like to see Black Power come back, possibly with a netroots edge
Clearly I can't make this happen, but I think it has a chance to work in the two to four year timeframe, and I think it would prompt a lot of very honest dialogue and growth for the US as a nation. I don't relish the nation of being excluded from a political organization -- or at least being suspect -- because I'm lilly-white, but I'd applaud it if it meant that black citizens would start seriously self-organizing.
Maybe it doesn't have to be Black Power. Maybe we're past purely racial classification and it can be "Hip Hop Power" or something like that. KRS-1 and others have some interesting if etherial ideas about using the commercial and cultural engine of hip-hop to create real political power. Such a coalition could be non-exclusive, but still be an effective vehicle for increasing the political clout of black Americans.
Make no mistake; that increase is necessary. Black Power or no, black people need more power. That's the notion behind affirmative action BTW, though clearly AA is not enough to solve the problem. As long as African Americans remain largely powerless, they're going to continue to get screwed. Everyone can and should "demand justice" from our public institutions, but at some point we must also recognize that institutionalized power differentials are inevitably oppressive. Taking power is part and parcel of securing equality, which is a cornerstone of real justice.
So about power. If affirmative action is about as good as it gets in terms of institutional giveaways (and I think it is), how do you get more? Well, if you want more, you've got to take it.
So how do you/I/we take it, and what about those spineless Democrats?
My sense is once they figured out they'd lost, most of the national heads took up the necessity of implementing (or obstructing) an internal reformation. The strategic thinking is about 2006/08, how to not loose again, and how to keep what they have, and how to block as much of Bush's agenda as possible. In the mean time, there's going to be a (hopefully civil) civil war over the nature of the party's organization and that's what they're mostly concerned with -- how to rebuild.
To some degree, that's right. The truth is that dealing with the kind of specific fraud and disenfranchisement that did go on in Ohio (and elsewhere) is something that legally/bureaucratically has to be driven on the state level. The good news is that the state parties are as shaky and badly in need of reform as the DNC.
Do you really want to do something about Ohio? Start working with people who are on the ground. Help reformers take over the state party. Pressure the legislature. Put our person in power as the secretary of state. That's what has to be done, and it's totally doable. It would be easier, yes, if Kerry and other national Dems led the charge, but that's not going to happen. So let's quit waiting.
The truth is, Kerry and the other national heads live and breathe DC, the federal system. They don't want to go camp out in Ohio, and unseating secretaries of state isn't really something that's on their radar, though maybe it should be.
Knock-Knock. Who's there? Oportunity who?
There's a window of opportunity in the next year to really change the nature of the Democratic party, and we would do well to make the most of it. That's what Kos is talking about with his notion of being a "reform Democrat." I would encourage anyone who's upset with the Democrats to get involved in that civil war I mentioned. Start a takeover of your state party; get involved in reforming the national party; found your own democratic clubs and associations.
I'm open to other ideas, but for now the best thing I can think of to do is keep organizing. Continue raising money, but try to find your own ways to spend it. Keep writing diaries. Start your own website if you're fed up with Kos; there are plenty of people out there who will help you if you need tech assistance. We have to keep growing, bringing more people in, creating more activists, developing better candidates, better messages, philosophies, policies, better ideas for how to govern our world.
So do it, and while you're doing it don't be afraid to keep taking power, because the yo-yos who have it now have blown it. Take your party back. It's the only way forward.