Counting votes - counting delegates... why camp Clinton needs to be cautious

By now you are well versed in the Camp Clinton fall back position that she leads in the total popular votes cast in the primary contests thus far... not counting caucus states and counting MI and FL of course.

Such an argument makes for entertaining debate and theoretical supposition, but relying on it can be dangerous for the Democratic parties long-term health.

It has been often said, especially during the late stages of the primary contest, that a move by Super Delegates to give the race to Hilary at this point would irreparably split the party and cause a backlash by the Black voters who are the party's most loyal backers. Unfortunately, nobody has explained why Black voters would react in a way that White women or White men might not. There is a reason...

Historically Black voters, especially in the South, were denied the right to vote despite the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution in 1868, from Reconstruction to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and even then exercising those rights were risky. Despite the Constitutional enfranchisement of Black people following the Civil War, many states and localities erected barriers to prevent Blacks from voting, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, which were administered discriminatorily and forcefully against Blacks desiring to exercise the right to vote.  These state and local prohibitions were often enforced with violence and even death.

One of the tactics often used during this non-voting period was the frequent and arbitrary changing of the rules. It was common, for example for Blacks to study and master the stated requirements for "literacy" only to have some new requirement added at the last second when they tried to pass the test. This practice was widespread and even became the basis for bitter humor. Dick Gregory often told the story of the Black person who went to take the literacy test in a small town in the South - he was handed a ball point pen and a piece of wax paper and told to write his name, handed a book written in Greek and told to read a passage. So the last minute changing of the rules was a familiar and reviled tactic used to keep Blacks from voting.

The history of the Black struggle to regain the right to vote was long, painful and bloody. It was costly in blood and treasure. Stated simply, a lot of Black folks died, were beaten and lost their jobs and homes to get the Voting Rights Act passed. Voting rights was one of the basic rights that motivated the entire Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

And although the struggle of women for suffrage and the right to vote was long and hard, their way was not littered with the bodies of lynching victims who died trying to exercise the right to vote as was the case in too many instances for Blacks. Women were sometimes beaten and jailed, but never were subjected to the deadly violence that was regularly inflicted on the Black community.

If you understand this history, then you may begin to understand why Camp Clinton is playing with fire when she advocates the super delegates giving her the victory despite the fact that Obama has won the most delegates. This brings to the surface not to distant scars suffered by the Black community in their fight to ensure they had a voice and a vote. Black people who were born before the 1960s grew up understanding how costly and dangerous the vote was and how often the "rules" were changed to keep them from exercising it.

Any reprise of such results, the first time a Black candidate has earned the most elected delegates and is the presumptive favorite for the nomination, would say to Black voters - your status has not changed, your vote does not count! And it would cause a a bloody convention fight and could welll result in a Black exodus from the party that potentially would last generations - the same way Blacks deserted the Party of Lincoln as a result of it's opposition to the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964.

The Clintons, who grew up in the South know this history intimately, having lived through a large part of it. Playing this card in the heat of her desire to win is dangerous. It speaks volumes - albeit in silence.

This tactic is not simply a "political strategy" -- this tactic in nitroglycerin being held in shaky hands. Even using it as a talking point stirs animosity. The Clinton team needs to rethink it - NOW!