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November 14, 2005
The African American Problem with Democracy
The African American Problem with Democracy has several components, but the abstract is that we don't know what it looks like. Blackfolks have spent half a century chasing the basic rights which enable the pursuit of happiness. What's happiness?
As I continue to pontificate, African American politics is in the limbo between the politics of civil rights and those of social power. Conservatives, (not black conservatives so much) have been trying to tear down the 'Civil Rights Establishment' as part of their battle against the Welfare State. What they haven't done is build up black communities - not that they're supposed to. But in that void, black communities have not been kicked back any graft. So Republicans have done little for black communities because black communities have done little for themselves. Where is the black business network in Detroit? Who knows? Where is the black equivalent of Greektown? My guess is that it doesn't exist. There is no Blacktown. Because there is no Blacktown, there is no identifyable black business community that is known to get patronage from political machines. It simply doesn't show up on the radar of power politics. And instead of a black voter constituency that might be an engine for economic progress, it is a constituency at war with state and local government. There are no black palms to grease because there are no black hands in that game, and that is the whole shame.
This comes as something of a shock and then again, not much. Black populist politics in the post-civil rights era has always had this need to lift more boats than politics was ever designed to lift. So more middle class and successful blacks have bowed out of politics rather than sit around listening to Marxist pontification, and all other kinds of idle talk. What remains are widely shared sentiments around the onerousness of racism (dog vomit), but little else that anything short of the Second Coming will solve.
The irony of a choice for Republicanism is the ire it draws from the same people who reserve none for progressives. There are few progressives who are satisfied by either party, and almost none who engage in partisanship. I see them as not invested, rather like the football widow who sits in the living room during the big game and complains about how stupid football is. And yet, I percieve that Democrats are not hard on Independents at all, with the outstanding exception being the grief recieved by supporters of Ralph Nader. Still, I would call that a manifestation of BDS.
The bottom line is that black Progressives get away with a non-contribution to the democratic process, whereas black Republicans get bashed for participating. I don't want to sound whiney about it, but it is one of those ironies that makes me dismissive of so much criticism I get. Republicans are abused for not fielding black candidates in reputable numbers, but black Republicans *do* win elections. Black progressive ideas appear to be widespread but progressive officeholders? Near nil, if not zero.
I am weighing the price of the exit ticket. While I intend to remain Republican, much in the way that I remain a fan of the BMW automobile, I'm not going to spend a lot of time evangelizing the basic theory. I'm just going to drive the vehicle in the direction I want to go. I've come to regard much of blogospheric partisanship like the flamewars of Microsoft vs Linux. Moreover the extent to which we in the chatting classes focus on politics over which we have marginal influence begins to annoy me. I don't see it as productively focused, but rather a specie of the notion that everyone has opinions and pieholes. More is not necessarily better.
What I don't want is to become like Faye Anderson, not that she is an objectionable person, but one not particular invested in any party. She started doing the black Republican thing and was completely disenchanted. Yet it is where I may end up if I retain my current distance from the partisan machinery. At this end of the political process, I fear not being a part of any solution; that tastes like copout to me.
And so what is the price of being of and on the Right but actually persuing more individual happiness than being part of the Struggle? Time will tell. For the time being, it can be said that I am in the process of selling out to myself. As I do so, I wonder how many folks have done so and where they are today.
Posted by mbowen at November 14, 2005 08:48 AM
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