My Amicus Brief To "The Grio": What Must The Democratic Party Do To LOSE The Black Vote?

What Must The Democratic Party Do To LOSE The Black Vote?

A few weeks ago my friend Shamara Reily (publisher of the "Booker Rising" blog) submitted an article for debate on the new blog site "The Grio". The article was entitled "How to attract black Republicans: 7 tips for Michael Steele".

The way my mind works is that I take in a concept and think about the argument that is being made. Then I run it backwards. I apply the argument to the real world situation to consider its relevance and proportionality to the problem at hand. All of this with the goal of insuring that the argument is properly framed and that it stands to reason.

Recall that when I heard poet Maya Angelou critique corporations per the motivations of their charitable donations while she was speaking at her corporate sponsored birthday party show that I was in attendance. She said the following: "Money given to a charitable organization with the goal of receiving a tax break cannot be called 'charity' for charity is the giving of your excess resources without expecting anything in return". She got a roaring applause from the "dressed up Black folks" that dominated the audience - including from the "corporate types" who received their tickets to the event from their companies. While I was in general agreement with her words I was troubled at the time because I felt that it was an incomplete statement. I introduced the following words that completed the round trip of her concept and said "Politicians who use an increasing amount of taxes taken from one set of people's wallets as the primary funding source for their various social programs that are to benefit those who are 'without'.....this politician has not acted in a charitable fashion because charity has an element of voluntary transference of such resources. This politician has instead used the IRS as his charitable strong arm."

Thus the "yin and yang" of the thought is complete via my submission. I also commented that we would never likely hear this complete argument from a progressive like Maya Angelou. Thus the completeness of the argument is left dangling until someone else comes along and processes her one half. Thus the value, in my view, of my line of thinking.

In this same spirit I would like to interject my expanded views in regards to the detailed list of "What Must The GOP Do To Attract Black Votes?" which was submitted. In as much as it focused on telling the Republicans what they must do I see the need for the Black community to do one major bit of introspection in conjunction to delivering a list of demands and suggestions to the GOP.

What Is The Purpose Of The "Black Agenda?"

First we must step away from our focus upon the American political system and its relation to the Black community and instead ask a simple question "What is the fundamental goal of Black Political Activism"? After listening to my brothers and sisters of all ideological persuasions I have narrowed this down to a simple list:

• Safe Streets - so that people are free to construct social bonds without the fear of terror from criminals, regardless of their race or motivations for threatening us
  
• Quality Education so that the new generation of young people can populate the professional services roles that are needed in our community as it maintains a desired standard of living
• Thriving Local Economy - which provides jobs in the context of allowing our people to trade their goods and services all the while strengthening our financial wherewithal and employing our mental resources to solve problems and progress our interests
  
• Healthy Lifestyles - where our people can live long, pain-free lives as our daily choices are placed in line with our long term goals
  

These points above are to be thought of as the "Permanent Interests" of our community. We fracture into factions when the issue of the "methodology" of how to actually obtain these points is brought into the picture. I contented that our respective ideologies are the "methodologies". Liberal, conservative or in-between identify the preferences as bound by our moral consciousness in pursuit of these end goals. The American political parties are mere "vehicles" that we ride upon with the hopes that the respective machine will move us forward. They serve as aggregation points of the methodologies listed above as they seek to leverage this into power over the society.

As I critically analyze the state of the various Black communities throughout the nation I am struck by the irony that defines our present situation. Despite the tremendous gains that have taken place in the way of the political domain of the areas where we live in our highest concentrations, our basic interests are still at risk. These risks are not only at the hands of the "historical adversaries" a new internal threat from people from our own flesh and blood has risen up per their lack of bondage to any particular goal except for "doing what it takes to make it through another day".

Today we have more favorable people in power over the key institutional seats that provide civic services and leadership to our communities. Despite this fact there is no assurance that the schools are functioning in alignment with our goals or that the public safety issues will even afford our youth to live to adulthood, bring forth the next generation who can move us forward. Our "future" is setting at the desks in these schools and our future is as precarious in proportion to the present lives of these young people and the concepts that they are being conditioned with.

The Fatal Fusion

The problem, as I see it, is that there has been a purposeful fusion between the political machine as expressed in the American political party system and the Black racial consciousness domain. This racial consciousness domain must remain independent and focused upon these permanent interests that I have highlighted above. It was the Black Establishment - an overlay group to the Black community and which wields great influence upon the "messaging" that gets injected into our community who was responsible for crafting this ill-fated fusion between racial consciousness and political party loyalties. They now have our people thinking that "Real Blackness" is expressed in terms to one's comment to "political progressivism" and or "Democratic Party membership". I would love to see the die-hard progressives in our community to argue the point that the Black community itself has been "progressing" rather than that of the entrenchment of the Democratic Party that has been making all of the right moves. My measure of "progression" takes place not by the evidence of the "increased head count" of Black faces in high places. Instead this must be measured among the actual people and the life that they are able to lead per the list of permanent interests above. In our fused state those who would normally be charged to call out these operatives are unwilling to stop what appears to be forward motion to the untrained eye that is focusing on the wrong point of reference.

Thus my reformed question resides within the domain of the Black Cultural Consciousness Domain and not the binary domain of the American Political System:

"What Must The Democratic Party Do To Have African Americans Depart Them, Instead Choosing A More Organic Pathway For The Attainment Of Our Racial Permanent Interests?".

This is a far more accurate and complete question that must be settled upon by our people.

For, you see, it does not place the question upon the parties in the American political domain (despite the appearance of doing so). It instead speaks of some sort of limits that are resident within the Black community. I "line that cannot be crossed", if you will.

This question speaks of the delimiter in the bifurcated agenda between the Democratic Party and the Black Community. Yet sadly - this question is likely to be seen as OFFENSIVE to the "Democrats who are Black". They enjoy unchecked access into the secured areas of our racial consciousness, able to run their agenda but for the benefit of the forces that they are loyal to. To the second group, the "Black people who have used the Democratic Party as their vehicle" for a particular duration of our journey that required a donkey because of the mud and shifting sands which dictated the previous interval - this question will be clear.

One Can Only Use A Vehicle In The Context Of Its Utility, Not Allowing It To Become His Own Definition

Today our community needs to have those who reside in the Cultural Consciousness space to tell the Black Establishment that the surface which we now walk upon in thus juncture of our journey has changed in its character. It is foolish to depend upon your loyalty to the vehicle which might have brought you along on the land when you now are at the edge of the ocean. Those choosing to move forward per their bondage will likely drown.

In my observation the embedded operatives work hard to plant what I call "Racist Scarecrows" that have the effect of enforcing unity in the Black community at the cost of the construction of "independent thought" and critical analysis. They warn the masses about how we suffered oppression in the past during the time when we were not represented by a party. If we dare venture out on our own, this past will likely return. These operatives seek to retain their positioning (and pride) in this external group. They have no intention of allowing a confident and independent and organically resourceful Black community to emerge. THEY have too much to lose from our reparation.

The Transformation From "Struggle" To Management Toward "Directed Outcomes"

Instead of seeking to "sell" my people on anything in particular my goal is to introduce mechanisms that will allow us to measure the progress. In addition we need new human resource management methodologies to produce more effective strategies and outcomes. "Empirical evidence" and "dispassionate decisions" which are in line with our permanent interests must replace the ability of persuasive leaders to tap into our fears and grievances about the past as their main qualification to lead us into the future. The present state of too many of our communities proves self-evident as to the end results of these tactic. Indeed someone benefits but it is not our people.

CONSUMERISM MUST BE REPLACED BY SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE

We cannot settle for the American political parties offering benefits to us as a people. We cannot be made into consumers. A consumer will continue to use the old formula of the washing detergent that he is offered and be content with his dingy white t-shirt until his benefactor provides a "new and improved formula" for him to purchase off of the shelves for his benefit. The greatest fear of the consumer is that he will be disconnected from his retail distribution source.

Our community must become the scientists who develop methods to resolve the pressing problems that plaque our community. Replace your ideological bigotry as proven by the fact that "most Black people think the same way" with more open and transparent means of proving that your way is the right way.

Yesterday outsiders who exploited the fact that "a Black man has no rights that a White man need respect". The terror that followed this notion was burned into our inter-generational soul. Thus the largest portion of our efforts was that of defense and the establishment of laws to control the behavior of these external forces. Today as we stand with these laws in place and with favorable people running our institutions it is now time for us to use this clearing in the jungle to produce more organic solutions to our problems. In as much as most of our problems are "human resource" in nature and that our community and prevailing culture provides the largest portion of the indoctrination that these young Black people will have their world view shaped by - it is time to alter the basic framework that we have been operating under as a community.

Thus to realign the title of my post with my argument - The Democratic Party should do NOTHING to provoke us to depart from their protection. Having traveled along with them we have outsourced too much of our own industriousness for the sake of protection and a warm bowl of soup to fill our stomachs. We are "in receipt of benefit" now more than ever before and yet too many of our people have not been made into the professional service providers who could step in and deliver these standard of services that we have become dependent upon if, God forbid, the centralized source were to vanish due to insolvency. The heart of the "double digit Black unemployment problem" is that our communities lack the granular infrastructure to employ the labor and intelligence resources of our own people who live within. This is a direct consequence of the fusion that we have transacted.

The great Fredrick Douglass was articulate about the harm of "too much help" and the damage to our consciousness that it renders. If we are indeed an "equal people" then the totality of our equality must be considered. Thus far we have demanded that society treat us equally under the law and that they lift those who are infirmed up to a certain level per the societal valuation of their lives.

It is now time for the back half of "equality" to be expressed by "equal people". This means that "equal responsibilities" upon and "equal expectations from" must be accepted and then inserted to the society by these equal people. In taking on this burden our cultural confidence is strengthened. The social mores and guidelines that we enforce upon our people will be placed in alignment with our long term goals. Thus we will impress upon the student his need to become a professional so that he can deliver services to his community. Then the violation of the law by yet another youth is no longer a violation of the laws written in the state capital. (ie: "Their Laws")' It is a violation of the community's trust ("Our Laws") and the community will act as if has been assaulted by these deeds.

At this point of consciousness it would matter not the goods that appear on the shelves in our community which are not healthy for us. They these harmful products would eventually disappear because we only purchase items that are in alignment with our long term health goals. Pork products don't sell too well in Muslim communities, do they?

In summary our consciousness must be turned inside out for there to be any chance of survival through this next interval of our history. We need strength at the periphery rather than a benevolent controller at the center offering more care and feeding for us in exchange for our vote. This is a sure pathway to our destruction.

Thus the Black Community will leave the Democratic Party in the context of removing the American Political System from its present central placement in our racial consciousness. This system will be seen as the obstacle for our development that it truly is.

As it stands today in our present consciousness we as a people live vicariously through the victories of the Democratic Party. When THEY win we are happy and we tell the people how our motivation of their victories are going to make us study harder and lose weight because this is how our role models from the Democrats came to victory. Sadly less than 9 months after victory these "resolutions" have fallen by the wayside and many cities in our nation are experiencing a "Bloody Summer" with Black males being the disproportionate victims as well as assailants. Quite clearly we need more effective management techniques than what "magical gravitational pull" affords us.

In as much as we are willing to put our own Permanent Interests on the shelf as we seek to do no harm to the reelection prospects of our "Permanent Friends" - this cycle of violence and destruction of Black lives will continue.

The Black community needs to replace the present "Black Establishment" with a more transparent entity who has their eye on the 4 Permanent Interests of our community rather than on the Red vs Blue balance in Washington DC, their state and their city. We see clearly that even when it turns all blue (Baltimore, Chicago, elsewhere) our Permanent Interests are no more assured.

It is our dependency upon this political system for our basic needs that must be vacated. Our exit from the Democratic Party after not obtaining our permanent interest will be seen once we decouple our racial consciousness from this machine that does not have the purpose of restoring our consciousness and souls. Its only purpose is to obtain and retain POWER in the context of the American political system.

"God Save The Queen" as we all hope that the centralized government does not collapse under its growing rate of insolvency. A people that has failed to build up their own internal scaffolding will surely perish.