(ThyBlackMan.com) By the time the 2019 election cycle finished, three trends were evident: voter turnout was up; Democratic turnout was higher than among Republicans; and African American turnout was approaching Obama-era levels. In the Kentucky Governor’s race, where the Democrat eked out a victory, turnout was the highest since 1995 and in the Louisiana run-off election for Governor, where the Democratic incumbent scored a victory, one hundred thousand more black people voted than in the earlier primary. Now pundits are trying to decipher what that augurs for the 2020 presidential contest.
Before the general election picture clears up though, we first have to see who emerges victorious from the crowded Democratic Primary field. But what is certain, is that no Democratic candidate since 1992 has won the nomination without earning a majority of the black vote. Right now that appears to be the bulwark for Joe Biden and the Achilles heel for Pete Buttigieg. Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina will provide the early clues.
While we are focused on today’s divisiveness and the troubled state of civil discourse and race relations, we need only look back at some earlier presidential contests to compare and contrast what has changed in America and what has remained the same. The contest in 1964 between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater is instructive in that regard.
The 1960 presidential contest between Kennedy and Nixon had been the closest in American history. In the run-up to the ’64 election, the year before had been a turbulent and divisive one. Starting with the inauguration of George Wallace as Governor of Alabama in January of 1963, race relations were in a downward spiral. During his speech, Wallace laid out his political program as “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” In April, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference kicked off its “Birmingham Campaign” protesting segregation and in May, Birmingham’s Public Safety
Commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Connor, shocked the conscience of the nation and the world as he turned polices dogs and firehoses on the protesters.
Medgar Evers, Field Secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi, was gunned down in his front yard in June and that August, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the largest protest in the nation’s history at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, delivering his “I have a Dream” speech. Four little girls were killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in September and President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, and his alleged assassin shot and killed on national television two days later, in November.
Entering 1964 the nation was traumatized as it was about to elect its 36th president. LBJ, who had taken over after JFK was slain, was a southerner, and the black community was uncertain how hard he would push the civil rights legislation that had been discussed by Kennedy and the Republicans were engaged in a civil war for leadership of the party between its “moderate” and “conservative” wings. Nelson Rockefeller represented the “moderate” East Coast establishment and Barry Goldwater, the eventual nominee, represented the ascendant Southern and Sunbelt “conservative wing.”
The ensuing presidential campaign was fierce. Goldwater, who had been labeled an “extremist”, is most remembered for saying, “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice and moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” His campaign slogan was “In your heart, you know he’s right.” Johnson ran ads that retorted, “In your gut, you know he’s nuts.”
In March of ’64 Malcolm X officially broke with the apolitical Nation of Islam and in April gave his first overtly political speech: “The Ballot or The Bullet.” Much of what Malcolm said then is still relevant today. He started by saying 1964 would be “explosive” because it was a political year and lambasting politicians who only show up at election time asking for votes; like the complaints heard among the current crop Democratic presidential candidates.
Malcolm cautioned that black voters should not settle for token representation saying, “I’m not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner.” He continued, “Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner unless you eat some of what’s on the plate.” Malcolm pointed out that when the country is evenly divided and black voters have a bloc of votes, “it’s up to them to determine who’s going to sit in the White House and who’s going to be in the dog house.”
As he was winding up Malcolm said, “It’s time for you and me to be more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for, what we’re supposed to get when we cast a ballot”, and he advised that we needed to attract new allies by “expand[ing] the civil rights struggle to the level of human rights…” Keen insights and sage advice as we move towards the upcoming 2020 presidential election.
Examining the time between the 2016 election and now, we have seen some dramatic shifts in the cultural and political life of the country. Reported hate crimes are at an all-time high and political
polarization is as high, if not higher, than the time Malcolm was addressing. White House staff have been exposed expressing avowed white supremacist ideology and the FBI Director testified before congress that white supremacist terrorism has caused more deaths in recent years than lethal acts by any other terrorist groups. Elections have consequences.
It is indeed time for “you and me to be more politically mature…” As a powerful constituency, we need to articulate an agenda explicitly stating “what we’re supposed to get” in exchange for our ballots; the quo for the quid as it were. And I don’t believe it’s radically different from what other Americans, potential “allies”, would want or could support. For starters:
- More affordable housing – As cities are rapidly gentrifying, the cost of housing continues to skyrocket resulting in low and moderate income people being forced out. Anyone seeking our votes needs to explain how they are going to address this crisis and growing homelessness.
- Quality public education – Kids in urban school districts continue to fall behind their suburban counterparts, many as early as fourth grade, tests show. In addition to upgraded physical facilities, we need updated curricula that will prepare our children for the good-paying occupations arising from the advent of Industry 4.0.
- Better job opportunities – Black unemployment, while lower, is still double what it is for whites and a recent study by top-ranked consulting firm McKinsey & Company pointed out that the types of jobs currently held by blacks are most vulnerable to being lost to future automation.
- Accessible healthcare – Too many health disparities still exist in communities of color: everything from maternal and infant mortality to certain cancers and other medical conditions like diabetes and hypertension. We need to get access for more people. And access is about more than insurance coverage. It’s also about the ready availability of physicians, facilities, pharmacies and the rest of the eco-system of healthcare providers.
Many, particularly older, African Americans are leery of calls to “tear down the system”, knowing whose stuff will be the first to be torn down and the last to be rebuilt: Think “urban renewal.”
It is forecast that upwards of $10 billion will be spent on political and issue oriented ads in the upcoming 2020 election. Lobbyists, SuperPacs and wealthy donors will be vying to get their wish-lists in front of the presidential candidates. But in the end, it’s still “one person, one vote.” Mindful of voter suppression efforts seeking to depress black voter turnout, we need to be engaged now in vigorous voter education, warding off social media disinformation campaigns as in 2016. We need to begin voter registration drives now, counteracting artificial barriers erected, and ensuring we get every eligible voter out to the polls. Our, and the country’s future, depend on it.
Staff Writer; Harry Sewell
