Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
Dean, Gore and Blacks
by Ron Walters
Al Gore's recent endorsement of Howard Dean for the Democratic presidential nomination underscores a titanic struggle within the Democratic Party that places considerable pressure on the Black community. What is now forming is a ''two–camp'' struggle with the Bill Clinton operatives rallying around Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and the Gore faction supporting Howard Dean. The pressure of two opposite camps takes much of the emphasis away from the other candidates and begins to make this appear to be a two–person race.
The fact that Al Gore announced his support for Dean in Harlem was also important. Not only is it the backyard of Congressman Charles Rangel and now includes the turf of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Gore was sending a clear message: the Democratic Party must change direction. Gore came aboard Dean's train because the former Vermont governor had the courage to directly oppose George Bush on America's invasion of Iraq. Dean criticizes Bush for continuing to pursue a war that is wasting billions of American tax dollars, making many more enemies and thus, heightening American insecurity in the process.
Most important, it also signals a change from the Clinton strategy of talking like a Republican while walking like a Democrat. For my money, I would rather stand for something rather than to be following either Richard Gephardt or Joe Lieberman into the fog of supporting Bush on the war and then criticizing his tax policies. If they support the war, how would they pay for it? Seems to me they would have to run the same budget deficits that Bush is running and dry up funding for social programs.
So, the Gore endorsement was very big because it moved the ball toward the goal post for Dean and caused the entire Democratic team to consider more seriously his emergence as the clear leader of the pack.
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Elijah Cummings is said to be supporting Dean. If that's true, the Black community will be split. The Black split, however, will not be between Clark and Dean, but between Al Sharpton and Dean. Each say they want to change the direction of the Democratic party, which seems to be where the Black vote wants to go in this election cycle.
Should Sharpton pull out? Absolutely not. I think that although Dean looks very Left to many people, actually he is not far Left and it is possible that he could adopt a far more compromising stance on issues important to Blacks. Candidates tend to play to their core constituencies in the primaries and then to the rest of the country in the general election. The betting by his detractors is that Dean will look too liberal to the rest of the country in the general election. Dean is no dummy – he is just smart enough to give them what they want in the general election and that raises the question of how far will he go in backing away from Blacks and the rest of his core constituency.
Sharpton need to stay in the game because he can help put the brakes on any sharp swing to the center–right, especially if he has the delegates to support him. Sharpton – and other Black leaders need to be poised make sure Dean doesn't turn his back on us.
This is important because we still don't know fully how Dean would configure racial issues. He gave a speech on ''Race Relations'' in South Carolina, two days before the Gore endorsement, and his primary message was similar to what he had been saying all along. And that is: Blacks and Whites have a common interest in voting together to support not only justice, but class–oriented issues of more jobs, education, opportunities for small businesses, rebuilding rural communities and the like. But what about rebuilding the inner cities?
There was no targeted strategy in Dean's message directed to Black urban voters. The pressure on Black voters and their leadership is always that they give in to a logic that says: "the other guy is so bad that any Democrat would be better, so I'm going with whomever wins the nomination. And if I try to demand anything from him, it will be seen as a problem and a barrier to his election. So I better keep quiet and put my demands back in my pocket and just hope and trust that he will do right.''
That's why Sharpton and the rest of us need to keep our footing as the real battle for the nominee of the Democratic Party heats up.
Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American Leadership Institute in the Academy of Leadership and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland–College Park. His latest book is "White Nationalism, Black Interests" (Wayne State University Press).###