Chisholm's example for Democrats
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM died Saturday just before Newsweek hit the stands with the first hint that John Kerry might run again for president. The coincidence was a stark reminder of the buckling Democratic Party. Chisholm, the first African-American woman in Congress, ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 1972. She said she represented Americans who wanted "freedom from violence and war, at home and abroad."
Thirty-two years after her failed bid, the party's nominee was the dallying Kerry, who offered no freedom from the rhetoric of war. In August he conceded Iraq and, in retrospect, the presidential campaign to President Bush. When Bush taunted Kerry with, "My opponent hasn't answered the question of, knowing what we know now, he would have supported going into Iraq," Kerry shot back, "Yes, I would have voted for the authority." Kerry could have said: Knowing what we know now about the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, no one in their right mind would have given Bush the green light for US mass destruction.
Kerry's crumble fit with what Chisholm said in 1969: "Far too often we become cowards when faced with individuals who have strong leadership abilities, individuals who often do not want social revolution as much as they want personal power. Far too often, we follow blindly -- without questioning their motives, without examining their actions. We follow blindly because what they say they want to do sounds right. We follow because we are afraid that those around us will misunderstand our questions and put us down."
Kerry's defeat is reminder that the game of playing like Republicans works only when you have a charismatic figure such as Bill Clinton. He got the Democratic base to swallow hard as he coopted Republican social and economic policies.
The Democratic Leadership Council keeps playing Clinton's game with a weak bench. We got the wooden Al Gore in 2000, who wouldn't even fight fully for his own votes in Florida, Kerry in 2004, and a new Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, who opposes abortion.
There is talk about John Edwards or Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential race. They both voted to give Bush the authority for war. DLC types are mumbling for the next election: "Oh, if only we are softer on abortion, if only we are softer on gay rights, if only we quote Exodus more, eye for eye, tooth for tooth . . ."
Earth to Democrats: Republican Lite tastes horrible and is less filling. Not only did Kerry choke but the Democrats lost seats in both the House and the Senate. The 44 seats in the Senate is the lowest number for the Democrats since the Great Depression. When you cannot hold on to even your Senate minority leader, Tom Daschle, there is a problem.
If the Democrats are to have any relevance, they must borrow Chisholm's theme of "unbought and unbossed." It worked for her for seven terms against political machines in Brooklyn. It worked in coalitions for education, gender equality, housing, and gay rights.
It is not as if Americans are utterly opposed to hearing alternatives. The disapproval rating for Bush's handling of Iraq has crept back up to 58 and 57 percent in respective USA Today and
Some observers think a possible alternative in 2008 is Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, who voted against the Iraq war and has his name on campaign finance reform. But Feingold is already off to a Howard Dean start talking about Southerners.
After a vacation stop in Greenville, Ala., Feingold wondered in a December guest column on
Feingold handed red meat to a red state, saying his drive around Greenville revealed "check-cashing stores and abject trailer parks and some of the hardest-used cars for sale on a very rundown lot." He said the sight "told us the people there were hurting economically and deserved more than they were getting." That resulted in an angry call from the mayor of Greenville and an invitation for Feingold to come back to see the real town.
Americans say in polls they deserve more than what they are getting. Yet Feingold and the Democrats keep failing to articulate what the people deserve in a way that makes them want it. That will change when they adopt Chisholm's credo of being unbought and unbossed and start conducting campaigns that do not duck at every Republican dare.
Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.
