The Democrats' tent isn't really all that big

by HOWARD M. BERLIN

8/17/2003

Democrats like to brag their party embraces diversity and they have the "big tent." So why can't or won't Democrats field creditable black candidates for statewide and national offices?

I exclude Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who are racial shakedown artists and do more to divide Democrats than bring them together. As a political independent, I am fascinated by how this party has maintained this odd symbiotic relationship for as long as it has.

A few weeks ago NAACP honchos Kweisi Mfume and Julian Bond chastised three Democrat presidential candidates for not making the obligatory visit to their annual convention. They were expected to pay homage to get the blessing of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Apparently NAACP is tired of white Democrat leaders taking black votes for granted and getting very little political power in return for their habitual support. But what are their alternatives?

Just what has the Democratic brotherhood provided in return in the way of diversity? There are 38 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, all Democrats and all members of the House. Some probably would not have been elected if their districts were not gerrymandered.

Justice Thurgood Marshall first occupied what was to become the Supreme Court's black seat. Why didn't President Bill Clinton, an honorary black brother, nominate a single black or Hispanic for the two Supreme Court vacancies that occurred during his eight-year tenure? So much for the Democratic Party's purported diversity.

As for the House leadership, the last high-ranking black Democrats could point to was Pennsylvania's William Gray, who served as majority whip from 1989 to 1991. That was 12 years ago and they have had bupkiss in the meantime. From 1995 to 2003, J.C. Watts of Oklahoma was the sole black Republican congressman and the black caucus wouldn't even let him participate. He was elected chairman of the House Republican Conference.

There have been only four black U.S, senators and three of them were, get this, Republicans. The last was Edward Brooke from liberal Massachusetts. Hiram Rhodes Revels and Blanche Kelso Bruce were both from Mississippi, a state that just a few decades earlier fought to keep slavery.

Woe is to the African-American who slips the mold. When one does, other black people proclaim them sellouts, Uncle Toms and worse. Singer Harry Belefonte accused Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired four-star general and the highest-ranking black person ever to serve in government, Republican or Democrat, of being a "house slave." He inferred that National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice was one too.

Why don't Democrats support black candidates on the gubernatorial level and beyond?

Virginia's Douglas Wilder became the first elected black governor in 1990. He felt the sting of his fellows when he declared that his election showed African-Americans did not need special treatment to win office.

Carl McCall was New York comptroller but couldn't get any state or national party support in his 2002 race against incumbent Republican Gov. George Pataki.

With less than 8 percent of African-Americans registered as Republicans, they don't have a lot to chose from. But what is the Democrats' excuse? Columnist Bill Maxwell once wrote that "black Republicans fail to understand that white Republicans will never accept them as equals." Apparently white Democrats won't either.

Howard M. Berlin, of Wilmington, is an electrical engineering college educator and a member of The News Journal Community Advisory Board. Send e-mail at w3hb@yahoo.com.