What the Black Presidential Candidate Must Do. (Advice For Al Sharpton)

The Black Commentator ^ | April 24, 2003

[Fzob]

Last week New York's Village Voice ran an article advising Rev. Al Sharpton how to run his campaign. We're not going to do that. Sharpton will show who he is in the course of the race. Even those of us who think we know him cannot predict what the National Action Network leader will become as he is tested by the experience.

Instead we will briefly lay out what believes is the historic mission that a Black candidate should strive to fulfill in the Democratic primaries. We believe Al Sharpton is up to the task, if he maintains a clear vision and personal discipline.

Be the Black candidate

There has not been a national election cycle since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in which a demonstration of concentrated, effective Black voting strength has been more critical. First and last, the Black candidate's job in 2004 is to energize the Black vote. The largest possible number of African Americans must coalesce behind one candidate in order to prove that there still remains a formidable Black bloc vote. If you are the unabashedly Black candidate, that should be you.

The corporate media is out to destroy Black candidacies, not necessarily you as a person, but the very idea of an independent, conscious, shared Black electoral mission. Corporate media today act in lockstep with Republicans and corporate Democrats to encourage and even invent centrifugal forces within the Black body politic. (See November 4, "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Bogus Election "Study" - Black Majette vote grossly inflated.") Their common goal is to fracture the Black vote and, thereby, eliminate from American political debate the essential elements of the broad Black political agenda. If the Black bloc vote is fractured, or can be made to appear unfocused, the media will declare that the African American vote is no longer strategically important. From that point on in national contests, the Black electorate will be treated as less than the sum of its purportedly scattered parts.

Never before have so many freelance and salaried Black vote splitters been fielded within the community, itself. One of them is among your opponents, Carolyn Moseley-Braun. Others work on behalf of candidates and forces within the Democratic National Committee whose sole interest in Black voters is that they not interfere with white candidates' abilities to address white voters. You are the only hope for African Americans as a group to have a strong voice in the Democratic Presidential process, and Black voters are your only hope of wielding clout as a leader of an effective Party bloc.

No diversions

Do not allow yourself to trade in a single Black vote for any number of hoped for white votes. Your mission is to fire up Black people so that they might speak with a louder, more coherent voice, not to water down the cultural or political content of the message. In this sense, your candidacy is largely an internal Black affair, although certainly not exclusionist in spirit or intention. The fact of the matter is, you do not stand to gain many white votes anyway, and the good white people who will vote for you do not need to be pandered to. Your message is progressive, in line with the historical Black social vision. Let white people envision it with you, if they are willing. But you will do progressive politics no service by unnecessarily diverting your energies from your Black base. Progressive politics cannot exist in America without an energetic Black electorate and movement. That's your critical function, in this election cycle.

You will be encouraged to "broaden" your message early in the cycle, so that you will have a larger potential pool to draw from later on, when the field narrows. If you follow this nonsense, you will never get through the primaries. Your message is already broad, and you have made no mistakes of "narrowness." Those who suggest that you go "beyond your base" almost certainly represent smaller, single-issue groupings. In the end, they will most likely still not vote for you. You are not the scavenger candidate - you are the Black candidate. Your potential base is bigger than anyone else can offer. More importantly, you are in this race to demonstrate their power, not your wider appeal.

Put out the call

The Village Voice writer said you "absolutely must get invited to the big debates in January." Ta-Nehisi Coates is correct. But you will get there by virtue of your Black voter support. Let someone dare to bar from the debate a Black candidate with the polled support of more than half the Black Democratic public. That is a fight you will surely win, or bring into utter disrepute those Democrats that collaborate in your rejection. Trust us, none of your opponents wants to go there.

Make the January debates part of your campaign appeal. "If you don't want to see a monochrome debate in January, tell the pollsters you support me!" This message touches the "race person" in most African Americans, and should move even those Blacks who don't particularly like you. And some non-Blacks, too.

Finally, on the Tawana Brawley matter. We've tried to avoid offering specific advice, so we'll make this short. Those who ask that you "apologize" in order to "come clean" are your enemies. They are calling you dirty, and are full of the stuff that preachers cannot name. You are a minister who believed a young Black woman over the words of white men in rural, upstate New York. On Black terms, that's righteous, honorable, and quite enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fzob]

No idea what all the white space at the bottom is about.

[annyokie]

Is it only me who be gettin' the truncated text? WTFO? Word to your motha.

[Fzob]

No clue what happened. Here's a fixed format

 

Last week New York's Village Voice ran an article advising Rev. Al Sharpton how to run his campaign. We're not going to do that. Sharpton will show who he is in the course of the race. Even those of us who think we know him cannot predict what the National Action Network leader will become as he is tested by the experience.

Instead we will briefly lay out what believes is the historic mission that a Black candidate should strive to fulfill in the Democratic primaries. We believe Al Sharpton is up to the task, if he maintains a clear vision and personal discipline.

Be the Black candidate

There has not been a national election cycle since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in which a demonstration of concentrated, effective Black voting strength has been more critical. First and last, the Black candidate's job in 2004 is to energize the Black vote. The largest possible number of African Americans must coalesce behind one candidate in order to prove that there still remains a formidable Black bloc vote. If you are the unabashedly Black candidate, that should be you.

The corporate media is out to destroy Black candidacies, not necessarily you as a person, but the very idea of an independent, conscious, shared Black electoral mission. Corporate media today act in lockstep with Republicans and corporate Democrats to encourage and even invent centrifugal forces within the Black body politic. (See November 4, "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Bogus Election "Study" - Black Majette vote grossly inflated.") Their common goal is to fracture the Black vote and, thereby, eliminate from American political debate the essential elements of the broad Black political agenda. If the Black bloc vote is fractured, or can be made to appear unfocused, the media will declare that the African American vote is no longer strategically important. From that point on in national contests, the Black electorate will be treated as less than the sum of its purportedly scattered parts.

Never before have so many freelance and salaried Black vote splitters been fielded within the community, itself. One of them is among your opponents, Carolyn Moseley-Braun. Others work on behalf of candidates and forces within the Democratic National Committee whose sole interest in Black voters is that they not interfere with white candidates' abilities to address white voters. You are the only hope for African Americans as a group to have a strong voice in the Democratic Presidential process, and Black voters are your only hope of wielding clout as a leader of an effective Party bloc.

No diversions

Do not allow yourself to trade in a single Black vote for any number of hoped for white votes. Your mission is to fire up Black people so that they might speak with a louder, more coherent voice, not to water down the cultural or political content of the message. In this sense, your candidacy is largely an internal Black affair, although certainly not exclusionist in spirit or intention. The fact of the matter is, you do not stand to gain many white votes anyway, and the good white people who will vote for you do not need to be pandered to. Your message is progressive, in line with the historical Black social vision. Let white people envision it with you, if they are willing. But you will do progressive politics no service by unnecessarily diverting your energies from your Black base. Progressive politics cannot exist in America without an energetic Black electorate and movement. That's your critical function, in this election cycle.

You will be encouraged to "broaden" your message early in the cycle, so that you will have a larger potential pool to draw from later on, when the field narrows. If you follow this nonsense, you will never get through the primaries. Your message is already broad, and you have made no mistakes of "narrowness." Those who suggest that you go "beyond your base" almost certainly represent smaller, single-issue groupings. In the end, they will most likely still not vote for you. You are not the scavenger candidate - you are the Black candidate. Your potential base is bigger than anyone else can offer. More importantly, you are in this race to demonstrate their power, not your wider appeal.

Put out the call

The Village Voice writer said you "absolutely must get invited to the big debates in January." Ta-Nehisi Coates is correct. But you will get there by virtue of your Black voter support. Let someone dare to bar from the debate a Black candidate with the polled support of more than half the Black Democratic public. That is a fight you will surely win, or bring into utter disrepute those Democrats that collaborate in your rejection. Trust us, none of your opponents wants to go there.

Make the January debates part of your campaign appeal. "If you don't want to see a monochrome debate in January, tell the pollsters you support me!" This message touches the "race person" in most African Americans, and should move even those Blacks who don't particularly like you. And some non-Blacks, too.

Finally, on the Tawana Brawley matter. We've tried to avoid offering specific advice, so we'll make this short. Those who ask that you "apologize" in order to "come clean" are your enemies. They are calling you dirty, and are full of the stuff that preachers cannot name. You are a minister who believed a young Black woman over the words of white men in rural, upstate New York. On Black terms, that's righteous, honorable, and quite enough.

[annyokie]

Thanks! Postin' ain't easy. I've screwed up big time more than once.

[annyokie]

Run, Al, run! Guarantee that GWB will get a second term. None of the Dems will have the 'nads to challenge Al on his BS credentials.

[SauronOfMordor]

Al would be the best thing that happened to the Republicans. I think Al knows this, and wants a couple million in small bills in a couple of suitcases to show up at his place, in exchange for his going away and retiring

I don't think he fully realizes that Hillery might not be amused, and that she might decide there are cheaper ways to get rid of him

[annyokie]

Al is pretty well connected. I keep waiting for him to have Hitlery taken out. Unfortunate car accident or something odd.

Anyway, he is the best thing to happen to the GOP in ages.

[Vigilanteman]

Two good slogans for Al:

1. The one Democrat who doesn't try to hide where he stands.

2. Because the extortion market is too big for Jesse Jackson to monopolize.

[manic4organic]

Tawanna Brawley for Sec. of State!

[mhking]

Look at all that white space! It's just another conspiracy by The Man™! [g]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[gcruse]

Tawanna Brawley for Sec. of State!

Yes!!!  Brilliant!  She's already rolled in sh!t.

[Pukka Puck]

Al is great and I hope that Ralph Nader makes another run also.

[dufekin]

I hope that George W. Bush or another senior Administration official makes a run for the Presidency in the 2004 election cycle. Thusfar here are the Republicans in the race: (Has anyone ever HEARD of any of these candidates?)

Albertha Moultrie Brinson (R-New York)
F. Dean Christensen (R-Arizona)
Thomas S. Fabish (R-California)
Lowell "Jack" Fellure (R-West Virginia)
Hoover Mark Gee (R-California)
Donnie Kennedy (R-Louisiana)
Mildred "Millie" Howard (R-Ohio)
Derrick C. Johnson (R-Oregon)
Louis J. Rapuano Jr. (R-Connecitcut)
Keith Slinker (R-Pennsylvania)

[section9]

This is fabulous!

I'm just as happy as a pig in sh#t reading this horsecrap.

This tells me that Big Al's support can be much more profound and far reaching within the black community than JJ's ever was.

Which can only lead to a Clash of Egos within the black community.

However, here's what's even more important. The black community is in thrall to the "progressive" wing of the Democratic Party. As long as they remain faithful core Democrats, the John Kerry's of this world will have to genuflect to the likes of Al Sharpton. This allows us to target Jewish, Asian, and Hispanic voters even more, as well as white males (who we have) and greater numbers of white females.

This writer reflects a lot of the current thinking among black leaders in the Civil Rights community as well as among the black leadership class across the country, I suspect. The key to understanding this man's advice to Sharpton is that he believes that Sharpton should campaign as the black candidate and use that to bargain within the Democratic Party from a position of strength. A revealing passage is repeated below:

The fact of the matter is, you do not stand to gain many white votes anyway, and the good white people who will vote for you do not need to be pandered to. Your message is progressive, in line with the historical Black social vision. Let white people envision it with you, if they are willing. But you will do progressive politics no service by unnecessarily diverting your energies from your Black base. Progressive politics cannot exist in America without an energetic Black electorate and movement.

This strategy is entirely exclusionary, and intentionally so. If successful, it makes Sharpton a powerful voice within the Party, an individual that the Clintons would have to come to terms with. But what's more, it shows an enormous unwillingness on the part of the black political class to reach outside of the black community to the larger community of white Americans and their swing votes. It's a bit like watching a bunch of college Trotskyites try to undermine other members of various left wing coalitions.

I don't like to write off the black vote, but I'm not willing to sacrifice the principles of the Republican Party in order to gain black votes which will never come my way anyway. At this time, I would be very surprised if Bush cracks 15% of the black vote in 2004. He will come close to twenty percent if Condi Rice is his running mate.

The only time I can see blacks coming our way in big numbers is if we run a black at the top of the ticket. That could happen if Condi starts getting promoted and is placed in line for 2008. But not before then.

And Alan Keyes doesn't count, people. Nice guy, and I agree with some of what he says, but he scares the pants off voters with his Come to Jesus style of speaking.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[AZLiberty]

Article: "You are a minister who believed a young Black woman over the words of white men in rural, upstate New York. On Black terms, that's righteous, honorable, and quite enough."

AlFuller781: Finally, righteous Black honor explained.

It's called racism.

[goldstategop]

I wonder though how a black liberal would fare in a debate with a black conservative. It would make for pretty interesting fireworks. If Al's stupid enough to take the Village Voice's advice as political strategy than as the satire it comes as across as, then he'll be the ultimate minority candidate. For what it's worth, I can live with that. No way will Fat Al win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination simply by appealing to the black vote alone. All it does it earn him Extortion Time on national television just like it earned Jesse Jackson similar exposure back in 1988. And hearing him in prime time at the Democratic National Convention in Boston is going to cost the Dems more swing votes than it will produce in firing up their base. That's why Fat Al is such a blessing in disguise for the GOP and why so many of us are cheering and stomping for him to run.

[Rudder]

The largest possible number of African Americans must coalesce behind one candidate in order to prove that there still remains a formidable Black bloc vote.

Why?

Does the same dictum apply to the white candidate?

[Fzob]

Look at all that white space! It's just another conspiracy...

You figured it out. :)