A picture is worth a thousand words. One Shipp column is worth a thousand of Sid's posts -- Minority voters need mainstream white support to succeed.
While growing up -- specifically from the years 1959 to 1964 or so -- there was one 30 minute show I rarely missed. During this show producer Rod Serling would take us on a journey one evening each week.
The journey would take us "on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable. Go as far as you like on this road. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!"
Had my friend Bill Shipp been writing the show's scrip in the context of the subject of one of his columns for this week, he might have changed the foregoing a bit to say that the signpost up ahead -- rather than telling us our next stop was the Twilight Zone -- may have just read: "Warning, Disaster Ahead."
Mr. Shipp's column is titled "Symbolic issues undermine minority power." To leave any of it out of this post would be a disservice to the author and readers of this post, akin to the disservice being rendered by the topic of his column. The column:
Even as their voter registration increases significantly, Georgia's black Democrats are losing their grips on the power levers of state government, if not political reality.
Much of their slippage is the fault of their own leadership.
That is tragic. Many Georgians, black and white, have worked for decades to make certain that blacks and other minorities can become full participants in government.
As the election approaches - and more citizens are thinking in political terms - some black legislative leaders have become embroiled in largely symbolic issues that accomplish little more than incense the overwhelming majority of voters.
Rep. Bob Holmes and Rep. Tyrone Brooks, two of Atlanta's most prominent African-American lawmakers, have announced they will introduce legislation to restore voting rights to felons.
They contend black male voter participation is diluted because so many black men are convicted felons. Under Georgia law, those convicts lose their voting rights, at least until their prison sentences have been served and their probation or paroles successfully completed.
What is the obvious solution to this seemingly suddenly pressing problem?
If you answered, "If they want to vote, let them obey the law," you'd be dead wrong in the eyes of Reps. Brooks and Holmes.
They and some of their colleagues say the answer is restoring voting rights to felons on probation or parole.
Let everyone who agrees with that idea raise his hand. See, not many hands go up. Most folks believe felons - people who have committed serious crimes - should earn the restoration of their rights by proving they can obey society's rules.
Holmes and Brooks say one out of seven black males in Atlanta can't vote because they are felon probationers or parolees. "You shouldn't lose your right to vote until you die and go to heaven," Brooks says.
Even so, hardly anyone seriously believes the voter rolls would be significantly increased if felons were allowed to vote. The average convict, just out of jail, is not likely to dwell on his ballot-box franchise.
Besides, black voter registration is climbing sharply, even without the benefit of parolees in the voting booth.
From Sept. 1, 2002, to Sept. 1, 2004, net voter registration among blacks increased by more than 111,000 - 44,000 males (up 13 percent), 67,000 females (up 12 percent). During the same period, net registration among whites rose only slightly, just 4 percent among both males and females. Still, white voters maintain an overwhelming advantage on Election Day. (Those figures come from Secretary of State Cathy Cox's office.)
So why the sudden push to get convicted drug dealers, stickup men, burglars and other wrongdoers on the voter rolls?
It's hard to say, except it fits a disappointing pattern of leadership.
Just a week ago, some minority leaders turned out to support a move to provide driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Talk about a non-starter among mainstream Georgia voters.
Then there's the court battle over the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages. Polls indicate the gay lifestyle is least acceptable in the black community. But some black leaders see the issue in terms of civil liberties. They may be right on ethical grounds, yet their politics are dead wrong, just before the election.
When Roy Barnes was elected governor, he promised to minimize the presence of the Confederate emblem on the state flag - in his second term. For black leaders, that promise was not good enough. They insisted upon immediate action - and they received it. Barnes went down in defeat. That symbolic flag decision destroyed the black-white Democratic coalition that had controlled state government for 40 years and empowered blacks to reach new heights in elective office.
Two years later, some black leaders still don't understand. Minority voters need mainstream white support to succeed. Campaigning for rights for lawbreakers on the eve of an election is not an effective way to mend the old alliance.
On the other hand, Reps. Holmes and Brooks and their chaplain, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, may enjoy standing on the outside and looking in while they whip up support for issues guaranteed to galvanize their adversaries.
The journey would take us "on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable. Go as far as you like on this road. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!"
Had my friend Bill Shipp been writing the show's scrip in the context of the subject of one of his columns for this week, he might have changed the foregoing a bit to say that the signpost up ahead -- rather than telling us our next stop was the Twilight Zone -- may have just read: "Warning, Disaster Ahead."
Mr. Shipp's column is titled "Symbolic issues undermine minority power." To leave any of it out of this post would be a disservice to the author and readers of this post, akin to the disservice being rendered by the topic of his column. The column:
Even as their voter registration increases significantly, Georgia's black Democrats are losing their grips on the power levers of state government, if not political reality.
Much of their slippage is the fault of their own leadership.
That is tragic. Many Georgians, black and white, have worked for decades to make certain that blacks and other minorities can become full participants in government.
As the election approaches - and more citizens are thinking in political terms - some black legislative leaders have become embroiled in largely symbolic issues that accomplish little more than incense the overwhelming majority of voters.
Rep. Bob Holmes and Rep. Tyrone Brooks, two of Atlanta's most prominent African-American lawmakers, have announced they will introduce legislation to restore voting rights to felons.
They contend black male voter participation is diluted because so many black men are convicted felons. Under Georgia law, those convicts lose their voting rights, at least until their prison sentences have been served and their probation or paroles successfully completed.
What is the obvious solution to this seemingly suddenly pressing problem?
If you answered, "If they want to vote, let them obey the law," you'd be dead wrong in the eyes of Reps. Brooks and Holmes.
They and some of their colleagues say the answer is restoring voting rights to felons on probation or parole.
Let everyone who agrees with that idea raise his hand. See, not many hands go up. Most folks believe felons - people who have committed serious crimes - should earn the restoration of their rights by proving they can obey society's rules.
Holmes and Brooks say one out of seven black males in Atlanta can't vote because they are felon probationers or parolees. "You shouldn't lose your right to vote until you die and go to heaven," Brooks says.
Even so, hardly anyone seriously believes the voter rolls would be significantly increased if felons were allowed to vote. The average convict, just out of jail, is not likely to dwell on his ballot-box franchise.
Besides, black voter registration is climbing sharply, even without the benefit of parolees in the voting booth.
From Sept. 1, 2002, to Sept. 1, 2004, net voter registration among blacks increased by more than 111,000 - 44,000 males (up 13 percent), 67,000 females (up 12 percent). During the same period, net registration among whites rose only slightly, just 4 percent among both males and females. Still, white voters maintain an overwhelming advantage on Election Day. (Those figures come from Secretary of State Cathy Cox's office.)
So why the sudden push to get convicted drug dealers, stickup men, burglars and other wrongdoers on the voter rolls?
It's hard to say, except it fits a disappointing pattern of leadership.
Just a week ago, some minority leaders turned out to support a move to provide driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Talk about a non-starter among mainstream Georgia voters.
Then there's the court battle over the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages. Polls indicate the gay lifestyle is least acceptable in the black community. But some black leaders see the issue in terms of civil liberties. They may be right on ethical grounds, yet their politics are dead wrong, just before the election.
When Roy Barnes was elected governor, he promised to minimize the presence of the Confederate emblem on the state flag - in his second term. For black leaders, that promise was not good enough. They insisted upon immediate action - and they received it. Barnes went down in defeat. That symbolic flag decision destroyed the black-white Democratic coalition that had controlled state government for 40 years and empowered blacks to reach new heights in elective office.
Two years later, some black leaders still don't understand. Minority voters need mainstream white support to succeed. Campaigning for rights for lawbreakers on the eve of an election is not an effective way to mend the old alliance.
On the other hand, Reps. Holmes and Brooks and their chaplain, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, may enjoy standing on the outside and looking in while they whip up support for issues guaranteed to galvanize their adversaries.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 9:05 PM
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