If our votes are good enough, then our candidates should be good enough, too

[EffieBlack]

Black folk and women folk have been watching from the sidelines for centuries as white men held the monopoly on political power - and often turned around and used that power as a club against us. Black men got constitutional protection for their right to vote in 1865 with the ratification of the 15th Amendment(although it took another century for the federal government to begin enforcing that right). Women (black and white) got constitutional protection of their right to vote in 1920 with the 19th Amendment.

Once acquired, the voting power of blacks and women was directed (and not always by choice) almost exclusively for the benefit of white men, who continued to control and hold virtually all of the major political offices. Until today, almost 90 years after women's suffrage and more than 140 years after the 15th Amendment (and more than 40 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act), despite all of our other political, social and economic gains, women and blacks have been shut out of the top of the political pyramid, which might as well have been marked with a sign: "FOR WHITE MEN ONLY."

Despite this, blacks and women faithfully supported those men, lining up - and, in the case of African Americans, facing beatings, draconian legal barriers, intimidation and worse - to vote for an endless string of white men for president. Every four years, we canvassed, we campaigned, we registered other voters and then we loyally, fervently and wholeheartedly gave our precious votes to the Democratic presidential nominee, regardless how inattentive to our needs, mediocre or unelectable they may have been.

We didn't say in 1972, "We'd better not vote for George McGovern. He's an unelectable white man. Shirley Chisholm should get a chance." We didn't say in 1984, "That white man Walter Mondale can't beat Ronald Reagan." We didn't say in 1988, "It's really time for a woman to run. But since Pat Schroeder didn't get the nomination, I'm not going to vote for Michael Dukakis." We didn't say in 2004, "John Kerry is just too white to run against George Bush. I'll bet Al Sharpton could beat Bush, but since he didn't get the nomination, I'll sit this one out."

No - we didn't trash the Democratic candidates, refuse to vote for them, throw a hissy fit and threaten to hold our breaths till we turned blue because a candidate that WE wanted didn't win the nomination, or scream loudly that it was absolutely ridiculous and shameful that white men continued to have an exclusive lock on the Democratic presidential nomination and thought nothing about asking for our votes but never once offered us a seat at the table. We supported them with all of our hearts and, as a result, are seen as two of the most stalwart and reliable pillars of the Democratic base.

And that's why, for many of us, our hearts swell with pride when we see Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton - even if they're not our first choice - step into the arena and hold their own against the status quo. Yet now, despite all of our hard work, commitment and loyalty, we now must put up with Democrats, of all people, COMPLAINING that an African-American or a woman might actually end up winning the Democratic nomination, INSISTING that NOW IS NOT YET THE TIME for either of them, and PREDICTING that, not only would they lose the general election, but that their loss would be BECAUSE of their race/gender and that such a loss would be an unmitigated disaster not only for the Democratic Party, but for the future prospects of blacks and women in the political world.

Well, to those people I say this:

If Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton win the Democratic nomination, each and every one of you need to get in line and get to work. Women and African-Americans have given our blood, sweat and tears to this party and to this country. It is time for the party (and, by that I mean the people IN the party) to return some of that commitment and loyalty.

If you intended to work your ass off for the Democratic nominee if it was John Edwards or Dennis Kucinich or Joseph Biden or anyone else, then you need to work just as hard for Clinton or Obama, should one of them win the nomination.

Do not tell us that WE are not good enough or not deserving enough or not ready enough to sit at the table with the people who have chased after our votes every four years decade after decade.

If our votes are good enough for you - and clearly they have been, given how fervently the party and its long line of white male standard bearers have chased after our support - then our brother Barack and our sister Hillary should be good enough for you, too.

[Der Blaue Engel]

1. Effie, you are absolutely correct

However, please don't assume that those of us who were supporting one of the candidates who happened to be white men who have now dropped out of the race were doing so because we didn't think a woman or a black man could win. Sure, you'll find examples of such sentiment on DU, but it is by no means the majority of us.

My candidate was John Edwards because I believed he had the best plan for the country, for people of all colors and genders. I am very disheartened that he has dropped out.

But I have no doubt that either Clinton or Obama can and will win the Presidency, and I will support the nominee no matter who it is, just as I would have had it been Edwards.

Don't let the few, the loud, the "concerned" get you down. They don't speak for all of us.

:hug:

K&R

[EffieBlack]

2. I definitely don't assume that . . .

People have all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with race or gender for supporting a candidate other than Hillary or Barack - I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about those folks who are coming out and saying that a Hillary and Barack shouldn't get the nomination because a black or female can't win in the general, that now is not the time, America's not ready for this, etc. THAT's what I'm calling bullshit on.

P.S. I'm a big John Edwards fan and was sorry to see him leave the race, although I understand why he did it.

[Der Blaue Engel]

3. And thank you for calling bullshit

I totally agree. Just wanted to make sure you were seeing your allies here. :)

:thumbsup:

[EffieBlack]

10. You're welcome - and thank YOU n/t

:hug:

[emilyg]

4. Kick

[tavalon]

5. I'm sorry, I can't do it,

If the black man were much more of a populist or the woman much less of a corporatist, I could campaign as fiercely as I was going to for Gore and Edwards, the two white men who grew to be populists. It isn't the whiteness, or the blackness or the gender, it's the soul and the willingness to put up a fight against the fascists who already have our government by the throat and have for goddess knows how long. Senator Obama has far more soul than Senator Clinton, and vice versa, would that they could merge, be the Shirley Chisholm of the new century. I loved that woman and could bleed myself dry for a person like her. I'll vote for our candidate this time around and will be glad to see a woman or a black man preside over our country as the grand experiment grinds to it's rapidly approaching end. At least it won't have been just the white men presiding over this thing at once greater and lesser than each of us.

[EffieBlack]

8. I think you're missing my point nt

[tavalon]

12. I'll reread it carefully, then

I have seen your posts before and they are respectable. If you meant something else, I want to dig it out, out of respect. I may come back and ask other questions if I still don't get it.

[tavalon]

13. I focused in on the wrong part, I think.

Of course it's high past time for a black, a woman, a hispanic, heck anyone who isn't a white male. It's just these specific ones I have a problem with. Gosh, when I was a kid, my first doubts about adults came when they told me that a woman could be President someday. I thought, "Gee, that someday sounds really hazy. Did this person just lie to me? Surely, adults don't lie!" I was, as a child, naive to the ways of adults and I idolized them. Obama, now, I've read that mans first book (I skipped the second, suspecting it of being a campaign book) and that man, with better understanding of the evil that goes on in this country, will possibly be one of the greatest statesmen we will ever have. If he's elected now, I fear he will be another Jimmy Carter, who while currently the greatest statesman we have, was completely overwhelmed by the forces arrayed against him while he was President. My greatest dream would have been to have Obama as VP this time around. He would see, close up and personal, but not as directly, what vicious curs he will be up against. Unfortunately, HRC will not pick him because she is too calculating and thinks that for all the boost he would give her, his blackness would be a deficit in the South. I want to believe she's wrong, but I lived most of my life in the South and met many a knuckle dragger who would happily have chained my then boyfriend to the back of their pickup for daring to "mess with a white woman", so I have my doubts about the South accepting Obama, not electing him, because the South has a fine array of black folk who have never been taken in by the bullshit the Repigs have shoveled and would still vote for the Dem Presidential candidate, be it HRC or Obama, and even more happily were he Obama, but HRC's polls might tell her that the south isn't winnable without a white male on the ticket. If Obama gets the nomination, and I am currently of the opinion that this primary "race" has been rigged for HRC from the beginning, I also worry that if he becomes President, one of those aforementioned southerners (not all southerners, just a knuckle dragging few), would decide he needed to "teach that nigger his place" and attempt to assassinate him, based on his color! That's yet another reason I would rather see him in the VP slot and believe strongly that had this primary really been a true election of a candidate, it would have been Edwards/Obama and that would have been a perfect ticket and in eight years, I would have supported Obama wholeheartedly, knowing he had been seasoned to the right wing antics and that the southern idiots would have gotten used to him.

So, I believe he will fail this time around, and HRC may well freeze him out completely (something I really disagree with) but either way, in eight years, I will have more faith that he knows what he's up against and will be able to campaign fiercely for him.

[sandnsea]

6. Nice post

I'm a little tired of the black man or woman can't win posts myself.

[Apollo11]

7. I agree with the main thrust of what you are saying

At the same time, I know that probably 95% of Edwards' supporters were supporting him not because he is a WASP man, but because they thought he would be more progressive and a more effective change-maker that either Hillary or Obama.

John Edwards did a good job of putting poverty and what the Europeans call "social exclusion" (joblessness and low pay, homelessness and bad housing, lack of access to healthcare and good education, etc.) front and center of the debate inside the Democratic Party.

If you watch John Edwards pull-out speech (on the Political Videos Forum), you will see that he is very enthusiastic about helping either Hillary or Obama get elected to the Whitehouse. I hope his supporters will follow John's lead on this.

[EffieBlack]

9. This isn't directed at those who support Edwards because they think he's more progressive

This is directed at those who claim that Obama or Hillary should not be the nominee because they believe their race/gender make them "unelectable."

Specifically: "COMPLAINING that an African-American or a woman might actually end up winning the Democratic nomination, INSISTING that NOW IS NOT YET THE TIME for either of them, and PREDICTING that, not only would they lose the general election, but that their loss would be BECAUSE of their race/gender and that such a loss would be an unmitigated disaster not only for the Democratic Party, but for the future prospects of blacks and women in the political world."

[Little Star]

11. Amen k&r