Carol Moseley Braun is out, and Dick Gephardt departed gracefully. Joe Lieberman is, thankfully, soon to be exiting stage right. (And I do mean
right.) So can we now start to mount a vociferous effort to get Al Sharpton to sit down and shut up?
Allow me to start the chorus:
Forget that Sharpton has no staff, no money, no organization, shows up late half the time, can't answer any substantive questions, or any questions substantively. Forget, too, his sub-textual feuding with Jesse Jackson, or the disproportionate amount of time he must spend preparing for debates by dreaming up catchy quotes instead of - oh, I don't know - developing a policy platform. Forget as well the fact that there is a Republicans-for-Sharpton website that mocks him and, by extension, the Democratic Party. Forget all that because here's the number one reason that somebody needs to upbraid Al Sharpton publicly, and soon: He's an embarrassment to the African American community, and especially its political class.
Forty years ago, there were very few elected African Americans in this country on any level. Today there are thousands, including not only 40 members of Congress and nearly 600 state legislators, but countless local elected and appointed officials. Moreover, because the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act occurred four decades ago, we are witnessing an emergent wave of multi-generational black political family dynasties (IL's Jacksons, MO's Clays, MI's Kilpatricks, TN's Fords, NY's Powells, FL's Meeks); ok, it's not yet the Roosevelts, Tafts, Kennedys or Bushes, but these things take time. And though it remains tough for African Americans to win statewide offices, especially governorships and U.S. Senate seats, the undeniable glass ceiling could, in time, be penetrated.
But when it does, it will be no thanks to Al Sharpton. He is not a transformative black political leader. Notice that Sharpton derives no mass support, and generates no following beyond very small geographic pockets. He lost the DC primary despite the fact that the city has a solid African American majority. He ratifies all the clownish stereotypes of African Americans that racially-insensitive people find comfort in perpetuating. There are far more suitable, qualified, reasoned, thoughtful, skilled, experienced, and credible African American leaders in this country than the Reverend Al.
Oddly enough, the only useful function Sharpton may serve is to provide a Sister Souljah-like moment in this campaign - and I predict one is forthcoming. Such a moment may be the result of crass opportunism on the part of one of the major candidates (and, yes, by "major" that implicitly, if unfortunately, means the remaining, exclusively white candidates). In any case, such a moment is long overdue - though we may have seen a softer variant of it already in Sharpton's taunts of Dean, which probably helped Dean because the governor didn't have to goad the Reverend.
Lincoln said it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than speak and remove all doubt. For Sharpton, the maxim should be this: Better to drop out now and be thought a foil, then stay in the race and remove all doubt.
....with that baggage now checked, it's time to catch a Southwest Airlines flight to Manchester, where you'll hear from me next.
