A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Bruce Dixon
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What will black elected leaders do when the first black president bombs another innocent country? When the first black president co-signs for Wall Street parasites and Pentagon predators? The answer is that most will devolve into silence or worse yet, into cheerleaders for empire and privilege. The trappings and institutional gravities of office are for them, stronger than the will of the people and the memory of the movement for peace and justice.
Black Democrats Evolve Backward in the Age of Obama
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Bruce Dixon
Back in 2005 or 2006 a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus – that's all the Democrats in the House of Representatives, was underway. The topic at hand was approval of the latest Bush war budget for Iran and Afghanistan. Georgia's venerable John Lewis, a man who laid his life and limb on the line innumerable times during the 1950s and 60s in the Freedom Movement against white supremacy in the South rose to speak. Rep. Lewis reached beyond his fellow Democrats, anchoring himself in the permanent moral and political truths espoused by his former colleagues in the Freedom Movement, people like Kwame Toure, and Dr. Martin Luther King.
“Not another dollar... not one more dollar... not one more life,” he reportedly intoned, explaining why he could not, would not vote to fund the wars. The assembled Democrats fell silent in the face of Lewis's potent message of moral outrage, and the caucus adjourned soon afterward.
Nobody knows what happened in the interim but when the House Democrats met again a day or two later the honorable representative from Georgia sang a very different tune. This John Lewis seemed grounded no longer in the historic movements for justice at home and peace abroad, and no longer responsible to his own overwhelmingly black and antiwar Atlanta constituency.
This Lewis seemed invested soley in his status as a Congressman among pro-war House Democrats. He felt himself moving, he told them, toward their position, and in a surreal churchy kind of call-and-response he seemed to invite their encouragement, which they willingly gave. “Cmon over, c'mon over, John!” cried several, and Lewis did just that, eventually voting to continue to fund the war.
For Rep. Lewis, the institutional gravities of Congress and the corporate-sponsored Democratic party were stronger than the living will of his constituents and the memory of the Freedom Movement combined. So the question for Black America now is, if a black congressman near the end of his career with a safe seat and the historical stature of a John Lewis could not speak and would not vote for truth against power in the Bush era, what can we expect from elected black Democrats now that a black face is in the White House? Will any, ever find the backbone to stand up when a black president bombs an innocent country, when a black president co-signs for Wall Street parasites or Pentagon predators, when the first black president continues to send military aid to more than 50 out of 54 nations on the African continent? African American commentators seem reluctant to ask or answer this question.
But corporate America and the right wing know the answer very well indeed. The reprehensible David Horowitz wrote in the Wall Street Journal on the occasion of Obama's inauguration that
'When President Obama commits this nation to war against the Islamic terrorists, as he already has in Afghanistan, he will take millions of previously alienated and disaffected Americans with him, and they will support our troops in a way that most of his party has refused to support them until now. When another liberal, Bill Clinton went to war from the air, there was no anti-war movement in the streets or in his party’s ranks to oppose him.'
The answer is that black Democrats and elected leaders will lose and are already losing their willingness to speak truth to power. At best, many wlll sit down and shut up. The least principled will become cheerleaders for what they once opposed. Black politicians, and black politics in the age of Obama are de-evolving and becoming less connected to the permanent interests of African American people in the age of Obama. For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Bruce Dixon.
Comments
The Answer Was Shown in the Primaries
Criticism and/or Opposition of Obama's policies and positions, regardless of source or actual veracity of claim, was met with demonization of the critic in question or the opponent. And, rarely, was the person criticized on the grounds by which the argument was being made. In nearly every instance, those who questioned his stance were equated with the Bush GOP, and then the pile-on by his main media support team (made up of mostly White [Male] Journalists) would commence.
Now, this is not to say that all of Obama's opposition has a legitimate issue with him (like say, Limbaugh/Hannity/Malking/Ingraham/McCain/Palin/the GOP Congressional Contingent/Fox-CNBC-Washington Post/etc; big examples of noise without any substance or content). However, even those who have limited their criticism of Obama policies to their own areas of expertise (like Krugman and Roubini), the response from Obama supporters is immediate and ultimately destructive to holding any kind of meaningful discussions on any number of subjects.
For African-Americans, the problem is two-fold. First, the fear of Obama's presidential failure is not necessarily that he personally will not succeed, but that his failure will be used as an indictment that African-Americans cannot be trusted with the highest office of the land (or any other office, for that matter). White Americans, especially the Fox News/Rush demographic, look for any "intellectual" excuse to continue with their Supremacist Thinking - and any singular "Black" failure provides them with the necessary justification of this thinking, irregardless of what came before this (like W's failed 8-year stint as ROTUS). But Supremacist Thinking holds the failures of a single person against the "whole race," so should Obama "fail," it will be he, not G.W. Bush or any previous office holder, who will be held to the fire for the failure of the USA - and by extension, African-Americans.
Second, Obama's election to the POTUS is a case of "We won...now what?" similar to the one that the GOP experienced back in 1994. And, in 1994, the GOP's core Gingrich-support (now known as Bush's Base) closed ranks, stifling dissent and ignoring all criticism of policy and/or operation. Mind you, none of the GOP's Contract on America programs did anything for the common citizen (strip money from Government Regulatory bodies for Big Businesses; gut Education funds while increasing mandates; impose Shaming Restrictions for public welfare recipients; Tax Cuts for the Super-rich, pennies for the rest of us - if any; and so on), but as long the opposition could be demonized (Tax and Spend Bleeding Heart Liberals Who Want to Surrender to the Enemy and Give Illegal Immigrants Your Money and Let Black People Take Your Jobs) the illusion was all that mattered. Something similar is taking place now: Democrats who oppose Obama's policies on the basis of providing little for the American people (especially for people of color) are silenced (by political arm-twisting), even as it has become clear that TARP and TALF will never trickle down to the American public. The main thrust of the public opposition comes in the form of Limbaugh and the GOP, who offer nothing of substance whatsoever (and never have), thus making them easy to demonize - and has the added bonus of blunting any critical impact. You would be hard pressed to find any transformational shift of policy (ironic since Obama slammed Bill Clinton for this - but, of course, that was just to slap Hillary's campaign in the face) towards the interests of social and/or economic justice for the common citizen in the US or the World (no investigations, no forced sunsets of "Unitary Executive"-like powers, no calls for accountability of TARP monies...oh, and where's that Pullout we were promised?).
So, where do African-Americans go with this? Part of what I believe is going on rests with the first part of the premise (Obama's fails = Black People Suck at POTUS Politics). Combine this with the whole House Slave/Field Slave mentality pushed by Obama's internet campaigners and you come up with a recipe of having a mindset of being unable to criticize someone because of a fear of being complicit in his failure and, by extension, our failure as well. While you can win the battle (gaining almost unanimous general Black support), you lose the war in the end (being able to offer necessary political and/or economic criticism of policy) because using shaming support, especially with a candidate you don't vet completely, becomes a double-down bet on a 20, hoping against nearly all odds that you don't go bust with the next card.
Black folks are going to have to choose
Black folks are going to have to choose between principle or popularity, morality or immorality, conviction or compromise. Black folks will have to choose between the rock solid principles that were the foundation of the freedom movement of the 50’s and 60’s and are still relevant TODAY or the if you can not dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with BULLSH*T policies of the administration. Remember this (You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. Abraham Lincoln). Black folks are going to have to choose between the moral position of speaking out against the immorality of social economic military exploitation even when it is unpopular to do so or being silent just to get along. Remember this ("All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men/women to do nothing." Edmund Burke). Black folks will have to choose between their convictions and NOT BE MOVED or be compromised and get pushed around like they are on roller skates. Remember this (If you do not stand for something you will fall for anything”. Malcolm X).
Peace
S Murph
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