The race is on in Hillary's firewall states: Texas and Ohio. And this is the almighty challenge.
I arrived in Houston a few days ago to canvass again for Obama and to do voter protection at the polls. I am having a real getting-to-know-you tour of precincts within the democratic primary from Iowa, to New Hampshire to New Jersey, Milwaukee, and now Texas.
I have barely recovered from the 'flu and possible pneumonia which knocked me out right after Milwaukee. I had previously committed to Cleveland, OH for this week but thought the heat of Texas would be better for me (I'd already had my dose of the 5 degree weather of Milwaukee). Passions are riding high in Texas, and in Houston we're facing the mighty forces of Congresswoman Shirley Jackson Lee.
Yesterday we started at ground zero: all streets perpendicular to MLK Boulevard. Lots of friendly faces who whisper about Congresswoman Jackson Lee’s support for Hillary but state that their vote is for Obama. Canvassing in Houston is a challenge, not only because houses are spaced some distance apart but we find many abandoned homes in-between, foreclosure and tax signs everywhere and this lengthens the time we have to spend on the road between each contact. Several times I've been warned by homeowners when I knocked on their doors to be careful because of crack dealers on the street - I guess I stand out from the folks who have known each other for generations. I’m not alone canvassing however.
I’ve been inspired by a janitor (Rosa) from Los Angeles who is here for the week with SEIU. She doesn’t speak much English, but she is passionately supporting Barack because of what he means to her and her efforts to motivate janitors to get involved in organizing. She talked (with the help of “Memo” and Reed’s translating – two local Latinos who are literally clapping her on) about how before Obama they could hardly get 10 people to a meeting and now meetings have 70 people everyday. This story was repeated by a fired up Asian American man here organizing garbage truck drivers in Houston who talked about how the passion for Obama has helped get these drivers organized and who would be soon voting on their first collective bargaining contract on Wednesday the day after the Texas Primary and Caucus.
Our legs and knees are hurting by afternoon (Sunday), however, it had started to rain. Our mood was starting to change but thankfully we are joined by a wonderful mother (Debbie a Verizon employee) and son (Robby a party promoter) team – he’s 28 and she’s 54 and they are from DC and NY respectively meeting in Houston to canvass to change America. After a particularly long stretch of road Robby told us his key to keep fired up: “sh## … I was singing negro spirituals on that damn street bro – “wade in the water” - how else can you survive this sh##!” We all collapsed in laughter (his mother gave him a clap behind his head in response) and that good humor lasted until we called off canvassing for tonight at around 8PM.
I’m heading back to the hotel to meet Hai, who is Vietnamese American, and who was canvassing the large Vietnamese population in Houston this afternoon, and my friend Byron from Boston, who’s the worse for wear: himself only now getting over the flu. Then gang is all going to Dave and Buster’s tonight for down time. Tomorrow we start at 6AM for the homestretch. I know this is supposed to be Hillary’s firewall, but I’ll relate one last story: on our way back we passed a group of middle-aged Latino men on horseback in the middle of the street. We offered them Obama buttons and told them to consider voting for Barack on Tuesday both in the primary and at night at the causus. Their response: Si se puede! I’m feeling good right now!
Confounding the Racial Calculus
Barack Obama has been confounding the racial calculus of millions of Americans for the last year- including (apparently) the Clintons . It’s difficult being black even in the liberal democratic world. What we have seen in the last couple of weeks is first the outward frustration of the Clinton campaign in trying to understand how they calculated so wrong- and more recently their heinous attempts to restore the racial status quo.
Barack Obama has not only proven that he is a singularly unique Black politician but that he has the awareness and vision and commitment to rise above the sometimes toxic muck of American race relations (particularly within the Democratic Party). The old calculus would have rendered Barack's presidential bid a folly. It has been near impossible for Black politicians to win statewide offices like Senator and Governor. Even today there are just one sitting Black senator (Obama) and one sitting Black governor (Deval Patrick of Massachusetts ).
Barack immediately started confounding conventional wisdom through fundraising. The Clintons could not imagine that a Black politician completely outside of the party machinery they had lorded over for more than a decade was able to amass a war chest to rival Hillary's. Not only had Barack gotten the support and dollars of legion of white Americans but also many upwardly-mobile people of color. These folks really don't exist in the Clintonian vision of the poor and desperate Black and Brown masses waiting for a white knight to lead them to the promised land (re – It took LBJ…).
And then came Iowa . Like he did in Illinois, Barack won Iowa by having a wider focus and broader vision that the Black candidates who had come before him. Barack spoke to the concerns of urban folks struggling with failing schools and lack of health care. He also spoke to the concerns of rural Americans who face the erosion of communities by big agricultural conglomerates and dwindling populations. He spoke to Americans in general and people responded. He has inspired in Democrats an ability to dream and hope- to believe that while the progressive agenda has been derailed it can once again be put back on track. The Clintons had believed that most Americans had been so cowed by the disasters of the Bush years that they would pine for- hope for- nothing more ambitious than the Clinton years. What she was offering was not the America of their dreams but of their memories. Barack offered something intrinsically better.
But the Clintons don't seem to believe this. From their actions over the last couple of weeks it seems that their remedy to Barack's potential to win this nomination is not to counter him with an even better vision but to revert to race politics. They want to remind Americans that he's black. The Clintons seem incensed that Iowans- and the other Democrats who have allowed Barack to erase Hillary's once overwhelming lead in national polls- didn't just vote on race. "BUT HE'S BLACK- CAN'T YOU SEE !" is what Hillary and Bill have been telegraphing for weeks now.
To a Democratic electorate that seems to have finally begun to move beyond base race concerns the Clintons- the paragons of progress- are dedicated to dragging the party back to the depths of poisonous racial history. And not a moment too soon. Across the country the Clintons are on a remembrance tour- reminding Hispanics of the historic rivalry with Blacks; reminding Southerners of their latent fear of the Black man; reminding white suburbanites in the North and Midwest of the imagery of Black drug-dealers and gangsters that inspired the white flight to suburbs.
And it may be that the simple message of 'BUT REMEMBER HE'S STILL BLACK' will resonate far and wide within Democratic ranks: both black and white. Hillary and Bill are most convincing in their 'civil rights commitments' when it comes to vague imagery (Bill as the 'first Black president'; Hillary as the white partner in an 'interracial marriage') but they get in trouble when specifics come in. Hillary endured an onslaught of criticism when she claimed last year in Selma to have had a life-changing moment when she heard Dr. King speak in 1963. Yet in 1964 she was a Goldwater Girl. Goldwater was no ordinary presidential candidate. In addition to fathering the modern conservative movement that now strangles the Republican Party he was a pioneer of what would become known as the Southern Strategy. Goldwater was at the vanguard of GOP radicals in the early 1960s who saw opportunity in the Democratic Party's embrace of civil rights under JFK and LBJ. Goldwater was one of the few Republican senators to join Southern Democrats in very public opposition to civil rights and equality. Goldwater ran a campaign in 1964 that was in direct opposition to everything Dr. King hoped for. It is shocking that Hillary Clinton- a political astute college entrant who would head the Young Republicans at Wellesley- would not realize that Goldwater's narrow exploitation of white fears of Black equality didn't real gel with the civil rights agenda.
What Hillary and Bill do know, however, is that while the national Democratic Party quickly embraced a progressive agenda from the 1960s on it has been much slower going among the grassroots. Republican presidential candidates from Goldwater onward have gained the support of legions of Southern Democrats by appealing to latent racism over the years. Barack Obama's potency in national polls and his support among white voters across the country may well mark a period of transition as those voters come to terms with their fears of the past and move on. But not if the Clintons have anything to do with it. Perhaps Bob Johnson said it best for the Clintons when he warned South Carolinians that Barack Obama is no Sidney Poitier. In other words he may look and act like the 'Good Negro' but it's just an act; he's really an inner-city drug fiend. And if Latinos- a critical voting block in Nevada but also in Feb. 5 primaries in states like California and New York- were thinking of moving beyond racial suspicions and voting for Barack on the issues the Clinton folks were nice enough to print a poster in Nevada reminding Hispanics of their history of not supporting Black candidates. Hillary Clinton said it’s not to revive racial memories; it's to make a historic statement.
But just to cover her bases the Clinton folks have gone to court in Nevada to prevent caucusing at the casinos where thousands of Democratic union workers- heavily Latino and Black- are working on Saturday while the caucuses are being held. The Clintons thought it was a good idea when the plan has made last year but changed their minds when an expected endorsement from the powerful Culinary Workers union went to Barack Obama instead. (A federal court judge rejected a temporary injunction and the caucuses will be held in the casinos).
Iowa made a lot of Americans feel good about the direction of race relations in this country but those good vibes may have been premature. That the Clintons of all people would think it pragmatic- and acceptable- to use race in this way is telling about how far we truly need to go. A truce on the race issue seems to be holding but unfortunately some damage has been done.
I believe Barack Obama has the ability to overcome this damage. His victory will be a testament to the progress we have made as a nation and an inspiration to our children who can still believe they can grow up to be President.
Much is being made about Barack Obama's comments on Ronald Reagan. I believe that President Clinton was an effective President on some things, even though I do not support his Don’t Ask Don’t Tell or DOMA policies or his sleazy behavior in the White House for which he was impeached by Congress and for which he lost his license to practice law.
We are dealing with two presidential legacies on process: A Reagan Revolution that changed America and moved this country dramatically to the right, and the Clinton legacy that somewhat crippled our party and continue to energize the evangelicals and others in a continuing divisive battle (even among friends) that has drained so many well meaning people.
The fact that that some Democrats are inflamed that one of their presidential candidates may have ANYTHING remotely positive to say about Ronald Reagan’s style just proves the validity of what Barack Obama said about Reagan’s influence on American politics. What Senator Obama speaks to is the process by which Ronald Reagan was (1) able to reshape the American political landscape and (2) the means by which he did it.
Barack is not offering an affirmation of either the means or the ends, nor he is praising them, he is merely stating cold, hard political fact. That Reagan was transformative is obvious, and don’t take it from Barack Obama, just listen to the many things rivals Edwards and Clinton have stated about the Reagan legacy in recent days (or even on Clinton’s website). Reagan made major changes in all sectors of government, influencing all aspects of American life, and as Democrats, we can wholeheartedly agree that many of them were detrimental, but we are foolish to ignore that they happened or how happened.
We are still dealing (and suffering) because of them. And how was Reagan able to make these major changes? What many people have taken issue with Barack’s comments about is Barack’s contention that America was ready and wanted these changes. Well, when a President wins 49 of 50 states, that pretty much says that whether wrong or not, the country wanted what he was selling and bought into it more than any other President since Johnson won 44 of 50 states in the wake of JFK’s assassination in 1964. In fact, not only did Reagan’s ideas thoroughly shape the 1980s both in America and around the world, but they fundamentally shaped Democrats and the Democratic Party. Everything from the Democratic Leadership Council to the ‘Third Way’ centrism that brought ‘the new left’ to power in Britain, Canada, and Germany in the 1990s, stemmed from the left’s response to the breadth of Reagan’s power in changing both the country and its politics.
And the fact that HIV and AIDS (and other things) were left to fester during those eight years of Ronald Reagan and yet the Republicans still convinced the American People on their goodness for America, show just how important it is to understand our political climate.
I’ve been involved in HIV and AIDS issues since my college days in ‘80s and remember bringing Michael Callen to the university to speak about surviving AIDS. I wish back then and since that we had a candidate who understood our issues and had the same effective ability to inspire and mobilize the American People that Ronald Reagan did. Except that I wanted such inspiration to take us in a difference direction which is clearly what Barack Obama wants - and is singularly able - to do.
Maxim Thorne, Esq. maxim@maximthorne.com
