(ThyBlackMan.com) Four presidential elections have passed since Barack Obama’s won the presidency in 2008, and we are still experiencing the backlash from his first election. As a U.S. senator from Illinois, Obama rose rapidly to power and became the most successful Black presidential candidate having won the Democratic nomination and then the presidency.
While Jesse Jackson did not reach the White House, his presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 became a turning point that significantly shaped the path for future Black presidential candidates. Jackson’s campaigns mobilized millions of new Black voters and energized grassroots participation across communities. They increased political activism and solidarity within the Black community resulting in many previously uninvolved Blacks becoming engaged in electoral politics. Extensive voter registration drives led to dramatic increases in Black voter turnout. For example, in New Jersey’s 1984 Democratic primary, Black voter representation nearly tripled compared to 1980.
The coalition-building methods pioneered by Jackson under the “Rainbow Coalition” joined together diverse groups such Blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, women, labor unions, and low-income Americans. This was a strategy that had a profound and direct influence on Barack Obama’s successful election campaigns. Using the Jackson model, Obama’s election coalition united racial minorities, women, younger voters, progressives and urban / suburban moderates.
In 2012, President Obama was the first Democratic president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to win two terms with more than 50 percent of the total popular vote. Unlike previous Democratic victories, President Obama was able to achieve victory with a historically low percentage of the white vote. According to the national exit poll, President Obama achieved victory by carrying 93 percent of Black voters, 71 percent of Latino voters, 73 percent of Asian American voters and only 39 percent of white voters.
The Obama coalition, driven by people of color, showed it could potentially become a formidable voting base if momentum was built and extended well beyond the Obama years. In addition to being a voting bloc of diversity and inclusion, the coalition promoted a populist, progressive vision of middle-class economics and social advancement for all people. This is the ultimate nightmare for Republicans who recognized and understood the long-term threat this type of coalition would pose to the conservative cause and to future state and national elections.
The voting patterns from the Obama election victories were crystal clear. It was evident that early voting with its flexible hours and increased number of days made it much more convenient for the working class, minorities, students, hourly workers and the elderly to get out and vote. The voter turnout by these demographic groups was seen as a major threat rather than true democracy at work. For the Republican establishment, early voting worked too well for the wrong group of voters. The party that thrives on American patriotism had no problem destroying the idea of free and fair elections when elections outcomes were not in their favor. Voter suppression obstacles which were developed to make it more difficult for certain demographics to cast their ballots was not enough. State legislatures, by way of gerrymandering, wanted a sure guarantee that future congressional election outcomes would be to their liking.
After the 2008 election of Obama and the blue wave which gave the Democrats the presidency, the House and a supermajority in the U.S. Senate, state legislatures took note and were motivated to redistrict congressional maps to benefit Republicans. The strategy worked. While Obama won re-election in 2012 by a smaller margin, Republicans won 234 seats to the Democrat’s 201. The Republican maintained an advantage in the number of seats despite the Democrats winning more votes nationwide (1.4 million).
Gerrymandering is back on center stage out due to desperation of losing control of the House. Donald Trump and the Republicans have sensed Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries could be the next Speaker of the House after next year’s midterm election. As a result, Texas state lawmakers were “asked” to redraw its congressional districts to give the Republican Party five more seats in the House. The Democratic state lawmakers who fled the state to deny Republicans a quorum were right to do so in protest of this power retention move. Other Republican-controlled states such as Missouri, Ohio and Indiana could follow Texas and rework their own congressional maps.
Fair play doesn’t mean anything when both sides don’t play by the rules. Blue states in the past executed similar gerrymandering strategies – not out of preference but as a response to remain competitive at the national level. The further eroding of standards is also at risk with this “win at all cost” strategy. Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama showed us what can happen when people of color are united for the right cause. Gerrymandering is a form of divide and conquer that causes the individual parts of the Jackson / Obama coalitions to have less power when they are underrepresented by design. The Texas Democrats are defending against what could possibly be a permanent-party control of the House. While the end game is uncertain, these Texas lawmakers are true patriots.
Written by David W. Marshall
Official website; https://davidwmarshallauthor.com/
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