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CounterPunch
November
7, 2002
Democrats in
the Aftermath:
Stand for Something!
by Rep. CYNTHIA McKINNEY
While the national pundits postulate on the reasons
why minority voters didn't turn out as enthusiastically and
effectively as they think blacks and minorities should have,
minority voters themselves know the truth. For generations,
the Democratic Party has taken the minority vote for granted.
In 1996, Max Cleland was delivered from almost certain defeat
with a strong black vote from the 4th Congressional District.
In 1998, Roy Barnes was taken to the Governor's Mansion as a
result of, once again, a strong black vote. But these two stunning
victories failed to see sufficient returns for blacks in Georgia.
Starting in the days of Martin Luther King, Jr., black leaders
have warned the Democratic Party to deliver on that check returned
to black America stamped "insufficient funds."
In fact, in a recent CNN analysis of
the black vote, the current Senate Democratic majority is traced
directly to the black vote of 1996, 1998, and 2000--"the
election cycles that produced the current 50 Democratic seats.
CNN's conclusion: had no blacks voted in any of those years,
the Democratic majority would have disappeared to no more than
37 Democratic Senate seats. Yet, in a Joint Session to confirm
the 2000 Presidential Electoral vote no Democratic Senator would
rise and object to the Florida electors, which would have given
the objecting Congressional Black Caucus two hours to debate
the 2000 Florida debacle. The Democratic Party must do more
to deliver the spoils of victory to its base minority communities
or else, the Democratic Party will experience many more defeats.
White Democratic leaders going to black churches in the weeks
just preceding an important election smacks of insincerity and
actually hinders the Democratic campaign. Black voters, like
all voters, will respond to respectful attention on the issues
that affect the community. The fact that black and minority
communities continue to suffer huge quality of life disparities
will undoubtedly contribute to the drag on minority enthusiasm
in the ritual of voting that seldom results in fundamental changes
in the quality of life for the bulk of minorities in America.
The stunning General Election debacle
just experienced by Georgia Democrats clearly indicates that
the Georgia Democratic Party has been on the wrong track and
must set itself straight or be forever consigned to history's
sidelines. For the first time since the Civil War a Republican
will occupy Georgia's Governor's Mansion. The longest serving
Speaker of the House in any state of our union, Georgia's own
Tom Murphy, will no longer occupy that familiar seat; and several
shoo-in Democratic Congressional seats didn't turn out that
way. In addition, one so-called Democrat who was elected last
night has vowed to vote with the Republicans on all the "critical"
issues. Clearly, Democratic strength in the State of Georgia
has been diluted to levels unprecedented since the Civil War.
The people have clearly said to the Democrats
that the current way is the wrong way.
The Democratic Party and its leadership
must look and think like the people it purports to represent.
Democrats must stand against Bush's impending war and the increased
militarization of our foreign and domestic policy. Democrats
must not be afraid to tackle the issue of our national and international
security and the lack of accountability thus far of the Bush
Administration for tremendous failures witnessed by us all.
Democrats must decry the growing expenditures of guns over butter
and the Bush Administration's failure to fund crucial domestic
needs. And finally, it is the economy, stupid!
All Democrats must share in the joy of
victory or certainly many more will feel today's sting of defeat.
The new, post-November 5, 2002 Democratic principle must be
that every voter is important and every vote counts.
Failure to take stock now will forever
consign Democrats to the sidelines of public policy.
Yesterday's
Features
Bruce Jackson
Don't
Mourn, Bake!
Anthony Gancarski
Jeb
Bush: Left-Liberal?
William Evan
A Diplomatic
Strategy
How Carter and Castro Could Avert War on Iraq
William A. Cook
Blinded
by the Right
Pierre Tristam
Hypocrisy
at Camp Delta
Mayor Walid Hamad
Settlers
and Trash
Matt Siegfried
Questions
of War
Alexander Cockburn and
Jeffrey St. Clair
Nosedive:
the Democrats the Day After
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- The Shafts of Death: Bush, Coal Mines, and Death
in the Tunnels;
- Speak Memory!: Carter and the Draft;
- Daniel Pipes' World: Smearing Pro-Arab Academics;
- Ashcroft's Gays: the War on Free Speech;
- Saddam's Amnesty: Could It Happen Here?
- Criminalizing Dissent: a history and preview;
- Iraq 1987: When the Going Was Good;
- Egypt in Turmoil: an Anthropologist's Account;
- Green and Grounded: Profiled at the Gate.
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