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