EthnicMajority

Tip O’Neil famously said that “all politics is local”. I’m beginning to wonder whether his quote needs to be updated to account for the political strategies being deployed in the Obama era.

They started during the Presidential campaign, with attempts to create racial animosity from African American Reverend Jeremiah Wright, to questioning whether Obama was a Muslim, to doubting whether he is a legitimate U.S. citizen. The “birther” movement continues in spite of clear evidence that Obama is a U.S. citizen and that it is a hoax.

The attempt to reform the healthcare system is the latest example of taking perhaps the most important issue of our time, and reducing it to a fight along racial lines encouraged by enough mainstream Republicans to keep the insanity movement going.

To believe in this movement, you would have to believe that Obama: a) is a socialist, communist, and Nazi, b) is a racist and hates white people, and c) wants the government to make all of your medical decisions for you

You would also have to believe that the health insurance companies always put your best interests first, leave medical decisions to you and your doctor, and aren’t interested in making a profit.

If these are your true beliefs, you need to a psychiatric evaluation, assuming your insurance company doesn’t reject the claim.
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Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court is imminently qualified and her credentials and experience are indisputable. And she is a Latino woman. This is the ultimate “two-fer” for Obama and the Democrats.

The right-wing Republicans were going to protest against any nominee further left than Antonin Scalia anyway, just to show their ever-shrinking base that the party is still alive. In the process, their opposition has irritated scores of women and Latinos. Not a good idea for a party struggling to convince the public that their tent is getting bigger, not smaller.

That’s bad enough, but how do you make the situation even worse? Start by claiming that Sotomayor is racist for her comments a few years ago that her background and experiences made her a better judge. This is basically the same thing every judge says during their confirmation hearing because it is reasonable and logical – except if your experiences include being a Latina and a woman.

It appears that the Republicans are still using the Karl Rove playbook – attack your opponent for your own weaknesses. I await step two from the playbook. Accuse Sotomayor of being: a) a terrorist, b) an illegal immigrant, c) unpatriotic, or d) all of the above.

EthnicMajority Politics page.

After Barack Obama became the country’s first African American President, I wrote on the Blog that we shouldn’t jump the gun on assuming America had become a color-blind society. Maybe I was wrong.

According to a New York Times public opinion poll, two thirds of the public feel that race relations are generally good, up 25% since last July. The percentage of African Americans answering affirmatively doubled during the same time period.

Obama’s election has accomplished what no affirmative action program ever could – convincing the public that diversity might actually be a good thing. Whereas much of the public views affirmative action a modern version of forced integration, Obama was the public’s choice.

Just as the Cosby show in the 80’s portrayed African Americans in counter-stereotypical way, Obama’s performance in the world’s toughest job and the class of the Obama family on display for all the world to see has definitely opened a lot of eyes. And a lot of minds.

Ethnicmajority politics page.

The election of Barack Obama struck a huge blow for race relations in this country, and he is undoubtedly a role model for all Americans, not just African Americans. In spite of a failing economy and global tensions, he remains immensely popular both domestically and internationally.

Role models are so important, especially to young Americans, because they give them something to aspire to and show what is possible. On the other hand, highly visible figures who are not good role models have the reverse effect. They may reinforce negative stereotypes and discourage new generations from entering a profession.

Take a look at two politicians, who next to President Obama, have been the most visible African American figures, Roland Burris and Michael Steele. Burris was appointed to Obama’s vacated Illinois Senate seat by the now impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich despite a cloud of suspicion of “pay to play” politics. After insisting that he never did any favors for Blagojevich or attempted to bargain for the job and refusing to turn down the appointment, it has become increasingly obvious that he did not come into the job on merit.

Steele was elected to Chair of the Republican National Committee after a series of highly contentious votes. His chief competitors for the post were from Katon Dawson, head of the South Carolina GOP, who only recently canceled his membership in a whites-only country club, and Chip Saltsman, the Tennessee party leader whose claim to fame was distributing CDs of “Barack the Magic Negro”. Steele narrowly defeated Dawson on the sixth ballot by 91 to 77, not exactly a ringing endorsement. You get the feeling that the Republican party is in such turmoil, they had to resort to appointing one of only three African American members of the RNC to lead them. And Steele has not disappointed, declaring that he wants to bring some “Hip Hop” to the party. In fairness, Steele’s task may be insurmountable. The closest the Republicans ever come to Hip Hop is Frank Sinatra. Recently Steele criticized Rush Limbaugh’s remarks that he wished Obama’s economic policies would fail as “incendiary” and “ugly”, only to backtrack the next day after realizing how incendiary his remarks were to the party’s right-wing base.

America needs African American role models, especially in this time of great uncertainty. Too bad that for every Obama we get a Burris and Steele.

Ethnicmajority politics page.

Former Washington State Governor Gary Locke has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be the next Secretary of Commerce. Locke was elected in 1996 as the first Chinese American to serve as a state Governor, and served two terms. He is considered a fiscal conservative who should help U.S.-China trade relations.

He joins Steven Chu (Energy) and Eric Shinseki (Veterans Affairs) as Asian American members of Obama’s cabinet.

For more information, read this AFP news article and Seattle Times blog.

A few Republican Governors, most notably Mark Sanford (South Carolina), Bobby Jindal (Louisiana), and Haley Barbour (Mississippi), have threatened to turn down funding for their states from the recently passed stimulus bill. Their belief is that the substantial spending in the bill will hurt, not help the economy.

While sticking to your principles is admirable, the problem is that: a) these governors are considered to be leading Presidential candidates in 2012, and b) their states have a large African American population who could significantly benefit from stimulus funding.

This smacks of political opportunism, a notion not lost on Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn (South Carolina), who has been the most visible questioner of the governors’ motives.

So basically the Republican strategy appears to be one of acting as obstructionist to everything President Obama wants to accomplish, even when they agree with 95% of it. They are gambling that the country’s and perhaps the global economies will fail, and Obama will get the blame for it.

There are two major flaws in this strategy. First, openly rooting for your country and your President to fail as many right wingers are doing is inherently unpatriotic and there will be a significant political price to pay for that. And second, even if the Obama plans fail, there is no evidence that the Republican plan would have succeeded. Outside of criticizing Obama’s plans, the Republicans have done little to come up with their own solutions, other than to advocate tax cuts for the wealthy, which have already proven to be a failure.

I don’t know whether the stimulus will work or who will be President in 2012, but I do know one job that will be filled: Monday-morning Quarterback.

My thanks to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for filling the “race in politics” void while President-elect Obama is vacationing in Hawaii. Blagojevich, who has been charged with trying to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder, has refused to resign and instead chosen to make things difficult for the Democrats.

By defying both public and political sentiment not to name Obama’s successor, appointing former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the Senate seat appears to be a deliberate act to inject race into the political mainstream – again. On the surface Burris, who is African American seems ably qualified to replace Obama, the only African American in the Senate. However given Blagojevich’s legal problems and the tainted nature of Burris’ appointment, the Democrats are now forced to oppose the process and the man that came along with it. Clearly this was Blagojevich’s intention when he made the appointment.

For his part, Burris looks pathetic and must share the blame for being an enabler of Blagojevich’s race-baiting strategy. A career politician who has failed several times to be elected to his state’s highest offices, he sees the Senate appointment as his last and best shot at the big time, and is willing to sacrifice his integrity to get it.

When it comes to race and politics, it always takes two to tango.

Today President-elect Barack Obama appointed a Hispanic American, Bill Richardson to be his Secretary of Commerce. Obama has also appointed two African Americans to high profile posts – Eric Holder to Attorney General and Susan Rice to UN Ambassador. And he has appointed three women – Rice, Janet Napolitano to Homeland Security, and Hillary Clinton to State. While everyone would expect Obama to have a highly diverse administration, the bar set by his predecessors is already pretty high.

According to the Associated Press, George W. Bush’s first cabinet had four women, two African Americans, two Asian Americans, and one Hispanic American, while Bill Clinton’s first cabinet had three women, four African Americans, and two Hispanic Americans. And while Obama is off to a pretty good start, there is still pressure on him to increase diversity in his appointments.

Many Hispanics were disappointed that Richardson did not get Secretary of State, and are pushing for the appointment of Rep. Xavier Becerra for U.S. Trade Representative. Notably absent are any Asian American appointees. Asian American groups are pushing for ex-Washington State Governor Gary Locke, Illinois Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, and California Congressman Mike Honda.

While Obama is a noted proponent of diversity, he also values experience, as evidenced by several appointments who served in previous administrations. No doubt his administration will be diverse, not just in ethnicity and gender, but also in background and viewpoints, which should serve him well.

Yes, Barack Obama is America’s first Black President, and African Americans overwhelmingly voted for him. But this is nothing new. African Americans would have overwhelmingly voted for whoever the Democratic candidate was.

Obama received broad-based support from all of the traditionally Democrat-leaning groups. But where he really gained support was younger voters and Hispanics. Not that Hispanics weren’t already leaning Democratic in previous elections, but in this election they chose Obama over McCain by 67 to 31 percent.

Frankly I am surprised that Hispanics have not voted Democrat in similar proportions on a more regular basis. Democrats are generally more pro-immigration, pro-labor, pro-middle class, pro-diversity, and pro-social welfare programs. African Americans figured it out long ago, and typically support Democrats at a 2-1 ratio.

Hispanics are responsible for almost all of the population growth in the country over the past two censuses and this doesn’t appear to be likely to change anytime soon. This, coupled with higher voter participation and more Democratic voting tendencies does not bode well for the Republican party – or the American people.

One party rule is not necessarily a good thing if it leads to too much government and too much bureaucracy. What we need are choices. If the Democrats are too far left, and the Republicans too far right, how about a third party with moderate positions?

If Barack Obama gets elected next week, there are a lot of people who think this is proof positive that America is now color-blind, or at least that racial discrimination has been reduced to a minimal level.

While electing the first African American President would be ground-breaking progress in race relations, let’s not overreact. Should Obama win, he will have had to counter the roughly 6% of the public who would not in any circumstances vote for him because he is black. In comparing him with John McCain, it is amazing the race is even close.

Might the “Obama effect” lead to an end to affirmative action? I think this is very much a possibility. There are several examples of high-profile people of color in the Bush administration – Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Alberto Gonzales, Norman Mineta come to mind. If an African American is elected President, there will be significant pressure to abolish Affirmative Action programs under the mis-guided assumption that they are no longer needed. Several states have passed ballot initiatives prohibiting race conscious programs, and more are certain to try it if Obama is elected.

Just because there are a few high-profile minorities in positions of power does not mean racial discrimination does not exist in the workplace. Affirmative action programs exist to correct evidence of historical discrimination, and should be sun-setted when racial parity is achieved for the entire workforce, not just the top position.