cross-posted from Sum of Change and check out Pam Spaulding's post at PHB for more thoughts and discussion.
Yesterday we sent cameras to Glenn Beck's 828 rally and Al Sharpton's rally and march. We posted a handfull of videos from each. But first, a personal comment, if you don't mind. My parents and grandparents were civil rights activists (not to mention anti-war activists and labor organizers). On the same grass where we stood yesterday, my mother stood 47 years ago to watch Martin Luther King Jr. declare his dream for the world. I highly doubt anyone will remember yesterday the way my mother remembers 47 years ago.
People have noted for some time the curious phenomenae of conservatives attracted to Barack Obama. At Salon, Joe Conasan's article "Why conservatives love Barack Obama" carried the subhead, "Clinton haters who think the Illinois senator can beat Hillary support him now, but their affection will fade if he gets the nomination." The irrational exuberance of Hillary hatred seen before the New Hampshire primary certainly reminds us of how potent a force such hatred remains, not just within the official conservative establishment, but among its Versailles enablers as well. Still, that's only part of the story.
some conservatives, in particular, can't wait to bum rush the current crop of media-anointed black leaders out the door.
"The big losers, two big losers tonight are probably Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton," George Will observed after the Illinois senator swept the Iowa Democratic caucuses last week.
The Revs. Sharpton and Jackson, Mr. Will said, were "representative of those who have a sort of investment in the traditional and, I believe, utterly exhausted narrative about race relations in the United States."
Conservative radio host Bill Bennett said Mr. Obama "has taught the black community you don't have to act like Jesse Jackson; you don't have to act like Al Sharpton. You can talk about the issues. And, this is a breakthrough."
Page's reference to "media-anointed black leaders" is bizarre, of course. Jackson ran for President twice. In the 1988 primaries, he got over 7 million votes, won ten states and went to the convention with over 1,200 delegates. Sharpton ran in 2004, and repeatedly confounded expectations with his cogent arguments in the debates. This comment by Page is indicative of how, even when he's questioning what white conservatives are saying about black political issues at one level, he's buying into their assumptions at another: Jackson and Sharpton don't really represent the black community, according to the subtext that Page has casually endorsed. They are "media-anounted black leaders." (Unlike Obama?)
Joining the Reserve Officer Training Corps was once an attractive choice for people with few options growing up in impoverished, predominantly black East Baltimore. That has all changed, largely because of the war in Iraq.
"Now, it is like, no way," said Cornelius McMurray, who does outreach with a local church and says the young black people he works with view life in Baltimore as enough of a war. "It is a continuous fight waking up and walking the streets every day."
In the Bronx, Adeyefa Finch says he simply walks past the recruiters who, seeking out minority members along Fordham Road, make the case that the military can help with college financing and job placement after they serve. "I'm not really into going overseas with guns and fighting other people's wars," said Mr. Finch, 18, headed to college this fall to study accounting.
That kind of rejection of military service as an option of young blacks throughout the country has resulted in a sharp drop in black recruitment figures since the war began. Defense Department reports show that the share of blacks among active-duty recruits declined to 13 percent in 2006 from 20 percent in 2001, the last year before the invasion of Iraq began to seem inevitable...
In a recent CBS News telephone poll, 83 percent of the blacks surveyed said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq; only 14 percent said it had done the right thing in taking military action. Whites, by contrast, were closely divided: 48 percent said military action had been right, and 46 percent said the United States should have stayed out. The poll was conducted Aug. 8-12 with 1,214 adults nationwide and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
The poll numbers show up in the daily hardships of recruiters trained by Sgt. First Class Abdul-Malik Muhammad, based in Birmingham, Ala. "With blacks, there is not really a great support for the war," Sergeant Muhammad said, recalling one prospective recruit who was told by his parents that they would sever all ties with him if he enlisted.
My read on this is that there's a deep sense of betrayal within the African-American community that parallels what's going on in the activist base of the party in general. I took a glance at the drops in polling support for a variety of Democrats over the past month or two, and the drop is concentrated among liberals and African-Americans. At the same time, there's a deep sense of frustration with current black leadership centered in two areas. One, many opinion leaders in the hip hop community are deeply embittered by the civil rights generation of leaders and media stars like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Oprah that chide Hip Hop culture without speaking to the real concern in their music, communities, and expression. And two, the middle class emerging black activist class is furious with failures of the political leadership, represented both by the political leaders themselves and institutions like the NAACP and the Urban League that aren't capturing the newer generation. There's obviously overlap here, and I'm probably simplifying these trends dramatically.
It's still interesting, though, how this parallels what's going on with the new progressive movement on the blogs. We're part of a newer irony-infused culture, and we're constantly told by our progressive elders that we're too angry, controversial, or informal. We don't relate to traditional liberal institutions like unions or mass membership organizations like the ACLU, and our leaders tend to disappoint us on a regular basis. Permeating all of this is Iraq and the breakdown of trust in Republican governance. Anyway, I don't have tremendous insight here, but there are a lot of opportunities and I figured I'd point out that there's ferment all over the place.
I'm going to echo Jane's comments about diversity and supplement them with my own observations. It's not enough to say that diversity is important. The political blogosphere is political, which means you have to discuss politics, and you have to do it with specifics.
If you want to discuss diversity, you have to talk about African-American politics, including problems at the NAACP and newer vital organizations like the Ella Baker Center and ColorofChange.org. You have to talk primaries. That's why I covered Donna Edwards and Al Wynn last cycle, and it's why I talk about the CBC and corrupt black billionaires like Robert Johnson. And not to play the 'why isn't everyone working on my pet issue', but doesn't it seem strange that Robert Johnson's push to use race to justify light taxes on his investment funds - after he did the same thing on the estate tax - gets no play anywhere except on a blog written by a Jewish liberal? I don't mean to whine but, to be selfish, I want a lot more discussion of ethnic politics on the blogs so I can read about it. I find the specifics really interesting. And the specifics - whether AIPAC is supporting Artur Davis in Alabama or was involved in beating Cynthia McKinney - are not just important but critical for progressives.
If you want to discuss diversity, you have to talk about Latino politics. That means Joe Baca and his awful stewardship of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the fight between the male and female members within the CHC. You have to talk about how Latino groups like Southwest Voter failed to bump up registration rates among Hispanics last cycle after the huge immigrants rights marches, and how labor screwed up on immigration.
If you want to discuss why women are so disempowered in our political system, you have to look not only at our cultural roots but at clear examples of problematic organizational structures, such as Emily's List or NARAL.
Like it or not, politics is politics, and specifics are the whole ball game. In Connecticut, I remember who was there with us. It was Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters, and Danny Glover, and they helped us beat Lieberman in the primary. Maxine Waters is heroic, while Bobby Rush takes millions from AT&T to his charities and Harold Ford Jr is a contributor to Fox News and an employee of the financial service industry.
Politics is about power, and power in America cuts through race and identity. It's a fascinating story to tell, but it has to be told if you want to make any change.
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