Letters to the Editor
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Ah, yes, Barack Obama, the Bill Cosby of the Democratic Party.
When you cite Obama, you definitely pick the right example of the death of racial identity politics, at least among African-Americans (white Republicans still practice racial identity politics, but we're not supposed to notice that). Barack Obama is about the most deracinated black politician ever. Next to him, J.C. Watts and Alan Keyes look like Huey Newton and Angela Davis.
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What's wrong with being the Bill Cosby of the Democratic Party?
When the Bill Cosby show was in it's heyday, TV viewers got to see black Americans living a decidedly, positive upper middle class life. It was only a TV show, but it was a consistently upbeat and positive image in contrast to many people's prejudice's and fears. Barack Obama is a real person, not a TV character, an accomplished speaker and a growing power broker in the Senate. Obama's power will grow with his popularity. Obama's popularity is based on the quality of his policies and his beliefs - not the color of his skin. I think that's good. No one should reject or accept anyone simply because he or she is black. Isn't that the society we want?
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White Libs fueled "racist" defense
This is hysterical....the author blaming blacks for crying "racist" every time someone tried to fire a shirker or otherwise reform local government. Why leave out that the phoney cry of "racism" succeeded because stupid white libs encouraged and applauded same? Doesn't anyone around here have any historical memory? Phoney defenses of racism would never have succeeded without the idiots who claimed they were trying to help the blacks.
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Obama, liberal?
No one, Obama included, who voted for the recent bankruptcy legislation can be described as a liberal whose domestic policies protect and defend the middle and lower economic classes. "Opportunist" is more like it.
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Chris Thompson's selective history in "Rise of the New Black Leaders"
Chris Thompson does a lot of jumping around in this article, and it helps him to promote people he likes and to trash those he doesn't like without much evidence.
First, Maxine Waters has done more than merely raise the very significant issue about crack in the course of her career. Recently, she led in the founding of an anti-war Iraq caucus in the House including over 60 members. She may not be a perfect political leader, but she is hardly a narrow-minded black machine politician as portrayed.
Similarly, Barack Obama has had a charmed rise in politics, obviously encouraged by the Democratic establishment. His "Truman" politics of being hawkish on foreign policy apparently appeals to Thompson, but it is sharply at variance with the vast majority of Democrats, especially BOTH black and latino Democrats. Obama is an eloquent speaker who has positioned himself to have a position similar to Murtha on Iraq, but with some resonances that reach in the direction of Hillary Clinton. This relatively hawkish position at this point is in my mind regrettable, and reflects less a Trumanist strain in his politics that a desire for a unified Democratic Party, and to place himself at a point of brokering that unity.
One must not confuse the issues of opposing corruption with other biases that run very strongly throughout Chris Thompson's piece. I myself was active in the Oakland Mayoral campaign of 1989, and the campaign was between Elihu Harris, who clearly represented a greater continuity with all the cronyist politics Thompson decries, and a reformer in the Dellums mode named Wilson Riles, who Thompson conveniently never mentions.
The reasoning from a 'black middle class' in the suburbs to a different kind of politics that is less corrupt confuses many different issues as well. There have been figures like Dellums, Riles, Mel King in Boston, and -- yes, Maxine Waters who have been crucial reform minded politicians with urban bases. On the other hand, there have also been machine politicos. In Memphis, the machine is particularly bad, with one of their key figures, Harold Washington, sporting the most rightwing position of any member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Thompson seems intent on condemning left-leaning black leaders like Waters, or treating Dellums as a has-been, while promoting others that selectively resonate more with his agenda -- all under the BANNER, rather than the true substance, of anti-corruption.
There are many more flaws in the logic and the substance of this article, but these are a few.
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Atlanta?
I find it interesting that you single out Atlanta as a location where politics sidestepped "a phase of cronyism and incompetence." Though Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young led the city with character and honesty; Bill Campbell has been charged with practically every crime possible of an elected official. And though Atlanta's politicians have been successful in raising a Black Elite (the highest concentration of black millionaires), it also has the highest rate of child poverty in the nation. It seems identity politics are going strong in Atlanta.
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Another Black Leader: Deval Patrick
I don't think any conversation about a new generation of black politicians rising across the nation should ignore what Massachusetts Democrat Deval Patrick has accomplished as he runs for governor. Starting off as a relative unknown last March, the former civil rights and corporate attorney has energized a base of progressives across this state in a way that few thought possible. Over the last several months he has outraised the presumptive frontrunner on the Democratic side -- an uber-centrist Democrat who supports the death penalty and appear to oppose gay marriage. In particular, same-sex marriage is an issue of national consequence, as those opposing it are garner their powerful nationwide forces for a ballot initiative fight in this state that the man in the governor's seat will oversee.
Mr. Patrick has been running a tremendous campaign, and in a state not widely known for the racial or gender diversity of its politicians, he has turned conventional wisdom on its head.
I would urge Salon and all progressives to take note that what people want more than anything is for good candidates who say what they think, who aren't afraid of their ideals, and who are willing to put themselves through the brutality of a political campaign. Barack Obama didn't win because he is black. He won because he is good. There will be more like him, and hopefully the next in line will be Deval Patrick.