Anderson@Large

Democrats in the Age of Obama

President Barack Obama reportedly will go on a "farewell tour" in mid-January. In light of Democratic losses since 2009, he may want to fly over some states.

Washington Post political commentator Chris Cillizza recently wrote:

What Democrats expected to be the historic election of the first female president was instead a devastating loss — for Clinton, Obama and their political vision. That reversal of fortune was palpable in the days following the election as Democrats reeled from a knockout blow that they never even saw coming.

When President Obama passes the baton to President Donald J. Trump, Democrats will be left with memories.

A Christmas Wish from Hollis, Queens

During an appearance on CNN’s “Parker Spitzer,” radio personality Stephen A. Smith expressed his concern that “the Democratic Party has taken the black vote for granted for quite some time.”

Smith said:

We don’t sit back and say, “You know what, I’m not going to just give my vote to the Democratic Party.” I want to stand by as an individual, with individual opinions. I want to see what you’re offering if you’re the Republican Party. I want to see what you’re offering if you’re the Democratic Party, and I want to gauge what’s in my best interest. The black community has not done that for decades. Since the days of Barry Goldwater, for crying out loud. Or Lyndon B. Johnson.

Smith continued:

At the same time, who in God’s name told us all that the Republicans are evil and the Democrats are angels? Excuse me. The last time I checked they’re all on Capitol Hill.

Smith is from Hollis, Queens. It would indeed be a merry Christmas and happy new year if black folks played hard to get and demanded competition for their vote.

Election 2010 Postscript

California’s former state treasurer Jesse Unruh once observed, “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.”

It was widely reported the Democratic National Committee budgeted $3 million for African American outreach in the 2010 midterm elections. I am now wondering how much money was actually spent.

National Newspaper Publishers Association Chairman Danny Bakewell told the Final Call:

I talked with Governor (Tim) Kaine myself. We gave him a $2 million budget to begin advertising in every Black newspaper from the first week in September until the last week prior to the election ... I think the Democratic Party spent less than $150,000 in Black newspapers throughout America...

If we’re good enough to elect you, if we’re good enough for you to be able to rely on then we ought to be good enough for you to spend some money with.

Or as Bobby “Blue” Bland would say, Democrats should get their votes where they spend their money.

Power of the Sister Vote

I spent part of Election Day at the Power of the Sister Vote Command Center, organized by the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation Black Women’s Roundtable.

The Command Center was co-hosted by Clayola Brown, Melanie Campbell, Dr. Elsie Scott and Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner. Between Twitter updates, Facebook posts and media conference calls, the center was a beehive of activity.

The sisters were determined to tell our story in real time with field reports from black women who were leading nonpartisan GOTV efforts and monitoring the polls.

And the story is, black voters turned out. Exit polls show African American voters represented 10 percent of the electorate, virtually unchanged from 2006. If the past is prologue, black women represented a disproportionate share of the black electorate.

Indeed, it bears remembering that among all racial, ethnic and gender groups, black women had the highest voter turnout rate in 2008.

To be sure, Democrats were hoping for a presidential year surge in black voters but they have to ask themselves: What did they do to make it happen? Where were the resources to mobilize black voters? A last-minute black media spend is not a GOTV plan.

With the defunding of black voter empowerment groups dating back to 2004 2000, the sisters made a way out of no way. As Rev. Dr. Iyanla Vanzant observed during the “Black Girls Rock: Celebrating the Brilliance of Black Women” awards show:

Black girls rock because we have no other choice.

An intergenerational group of black women will rock the house that Dr. Dorothy I. Height built when they gather for the Power of the Sister Vote post-election briefing. They will discuss black voter turnout, how women candidates fared in congressional, gubernatorial and state legislative races. They will share their views and outlook on what impact the new political landscape will have on issues of importance to women and families.

The panelists are:

• Barbara Arnwine, Esq., Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• Melanie L. Campbell, President & CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener, Black Women’s Roundtable
• Chanelle Hardy, Esq., Senior Vice President & Executive Director, National Urban League Policy Institute
• Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, Executive Director, National Council of Negro Women
• Carol Joyner, Consultant, Labor Project for Working Families
• Illai Kenney, Black Youth Vote! Coordinator, Howard University
• Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Chairwoman, Congressional Black Caucus
• Laura Murphy, Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office
• Dr. Elsie Scott, President & CEO, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
• Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, Co-Facilitator, National African American Clergy Network

I have the distinct honor of moderating the discussion.

The briefing will be held on Wednesday, November 17, from 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., at the National Council of Negro Women Headquarters, 633 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC.

To register, please RSVP to Monifa Bandele or Stacie Royster no later than November 16.

A Pox on Both Parties

As the fall campaign heats up, polls show voters’ disaffection is bipartisan.

A new Gallup poll found voters hold Democrats and Republicans in equal disdain:

Both parties' ratings are on the low end of what Gallup has measured since the question was first asked in 1999. The Democratic Party's current job approval rating is just three points above its low of 30% measured in December 2007. The historical low rating for congressional Republicans is 25% in December 2008.

Since early 2009, approval of the Democrats has generally trended downward, while the Republican approval rating has been mostly flat. This has resulted in a fairly notable situation in which the two parties in Congress currently receive similar ratings.

While voters harbor no illusions about Republicans, in a two-party system when incumbents fall out of favor, the opposition party wins. That’s why the Democrats’ message about the “Party of No” is falling on deaf ears.

So Republicans don’t have to offer new ideas, new policies or much of anything. They can simply remind voters that ain’t nobody here but us Republicans.

Healthcare Dueling Videos

The Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee have dueling YouTube videos.

While Democrats lead in the view count, Republicans lead in dirty tricks. The RNC redirected the calls to Democratic headquarters.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele bragged:

I thought it was a good idea. Don’t sit there and think you’re going to direct a bunch of angry liberals to call the RNC when I know full well what that’s all about. I get the joke. My response was, talk to your own party, because they’re the ones ginning this up.

The healthcare reform debate also features shouting matches.

Opponents of President Obama’s overhaul of the healthcare system are organizing for an August offensive. And YouTube will be the theater of operation.

I remember during the 1989 August recess, a group of senior seasoned citizens angry about proposed changes to Medicare surrounded the car of then-House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, who had to put the pedal to the metal.

Some of the ordinary Americans expressing doubts about healthcare reform will have 15 seconds of YouTube fame.

But none will come close to the ordinary dude featured in the “Evolution of Dance.” With more than 130 million views, it’s the most popular YouTube video.

Counting on Democracy Redux

It was back to the future as disenfranchised voters took to the streets of DC and chanted:

What do we want? Democracy
When do we want it? Now!

This time the scene of the crime hearing was the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, where the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee met to reconsider its decision to strip Florida and Michigan of their delegates for moving up their primary.

I nearly missed the hearing. There was a computer glitch and my name wasn’t in the system. Thanks to the intervention of a young staffer, I narrowly avoided being tossed out of the Press Filing Center. Too bad the same can’t be said about the woman from "East Hampton" who was escorted out by security after she refused to leave.

With my credential in hand, I could finally settle down. The atmosphere inside the ballroom was mostly civil -- at least for the first five hours. The DNC prohibited any signs or demonstrations so the audience was limited to applause, boos, hisses and catcalls.

Though they played their cards close to the vest, committee members signaled it was not fair to disenfranchise voters for their political leaders’ willful defiance of party rules. As Florida Sen. Bill Nelson testified:

Almost two million voters turned out who violated no rule, committed no crime, did not move the election forward. The Republican legislature did but the voters are the ones who are being punished…In Florida we are sensitive about having our votes taken away.

There was a record turnout of more than 600,000 voters in Michigan. Former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard, who backs Hillary Clinton, observed:

People who voted didn’t do anything wrong.

After nearly five hours of impassioned testimony from representatives from Florida and Michigan and some testy exchanges during the Q&A, the committee recessed for what was supposed to be an hour-long lunch break. The hour stretched into two, then three. By the time committee members were filing back into the ballroom, I was heading out the door to catch Amtrak home to Brooklyn.

I was on the train listening to Alberta Hunter's "Amtrak Blues" when I found out the committee decided to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations but gave each delegate only half a vote. So that's what they were chewing over behind closed doors during their extended lunch break.

It remains an open question whether the committee's half-loaf of delegates will satisfy Clinton, who wanted the whole loaf (to seat both delegations with full voting strength). Clinton adviser and rules committee member Harold Ickes informed the panel:

Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the Credentials Committee.

If the angry chants of "Denver, Denver" are any indication, Saturday may not be the final chapter in the Democrats' epic nomination battle.