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One of the profound points being made by Dr. Hill (which I backed up immediately) was the fact that the Democrats, in their appeal to black voters, have not taken the time to establish any kind of trade-off with our community. There's been no consistent effort to directly address massive black unemployment, excessive numbers of foreclosures, disparities in the educational system, mass incarceration or any of the other issues that matter to us. Now, for some reason, the Democrats think that African Americans will forget that they've been forgotten.
To make matters even more interesting, a slew of black bloggers were recently brought to the White House. Their party favor was a personal video address by President Obama himself. Fortunately, some of the bloggers have made it clear that they are not interested in being used by the White House just to get Democrats elected. I am proud of the fact that they responded to the request from the Democrats with questions of their own. As black bloggers push to get the black vote out, they should also continue to carefully scrutinize the degree to which the Democrats have shown an interest in the issues that matter to African Americans.
One of the points being made by another guest on the show is that the ads used by Democrats to rally black voters are an emotional appeal, rather than an appeal toward tangible political concerns. Instead of being able to explain what they've done for the black community, the Democrats are simply hoping we will vote to protect Obama. As Dr. Hill described it, they present the ad as "President Obama got a good job and now these white folks are trying to get him fired."
One of the things that the Democrats need to understand is that for many black voters, support for President Obama and support for the Democratic Party are not always one in the same. The use of Obama's race as a token appeal to keep black voters on board is a highly transparent way of using superficial issues to maintain black support. If Democrats want black voters to be inspired, they must find a source for that inspiration.
Much of politics is based on a concept called "quid pro quo." This is defined as the idea of "getting something in value in return for giving something of value." The African American community gave their hearts to the Democrats. We lined up thousands of volunteers across America. We showed up in record numbers to help them obtain power in Congress. The Democrats have not, unfortunately, returned that same loyalty. In fact, I find it strikingly ironic that while the Democrats refused to address specific policies designed to help the black community, they have no problem creating specific campaign ads to extract African American votes.
Charles Blow (from the New York Times), made a clear and meaningful point that the Democrats seem to hope that black people will "vote because Mr. Obama told me to." Blow also communicated that this form of campaigning is borderline distasteful and insulting toward the African American community. Rather than appealing to our emotional loyalty toward Obama, the Democrats might be better off presenting real policy work that's been done to improve the condition of black America. Anything less would be both ineffective and unconscionable.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.