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 resident
Bush met yesterday with the Congressional Black Caucus. The meeting
was scheduled to last 45
minutes
but instead lasted twice that long. Bush and the attendees each
seem to have been happy with the meeting, although the New York
Times had to note that the caucus was "deeply suspicious" —
since, as even the densest reader of the Times has by now
learned, no black person voted for Bush in the recent election,
and indeed no black person was allowed to vote in Florida at all.
A word first about the meeting's attendees. "About 30" of the 36
members of the caucus actually attended, according to the Washington
Post. The Post reports that the three black members of
the Florida delegation "boycotted" the meeting. "The president wants
to placate us, but you can't just spin the kind of hurt we felt
in Florida," said Rep. Carrie P. Meek (D., Fla.). (Amusingly, the
White House press pool nonetheless attributed a quotation to Meek
at the meeting, apparently confusing her with Rep. Cynthia McKinney
(D., Ga.).)
Maxine Waters (D., Cal.) also did not attend, saying she wanted
to continue her effort to win votes against John Ashcroft's confirmation
as attorney general. Waters has publicly called Ashcroft a racist.
Finally, the caucus does not include the lone black Republican in
Congress, Oklahoma Representative J. C. Watts. According to Watts's
office, his nonmembership in the caucus was mutually agreed to by
him and the caucus Democrats, because they "disagree philosophically."
Bush gave a short welcoming statement to the caucus, thanking "you
all for coming" and emphasizing his interest in discussing education
issues, in particular. He and the caucus agreed that improving schools
should be Congress's top priority. But Bush spent most of the rest
of the meeting just listening.
There were two exceptions. Bush did bring up the need to "fight
the scourge of AIDS in Africa." This is rather irritating. Why should
the president single out a disease in a part of the world that is
mostly black rather than some other disease somewhere else the afflicts
mostly white, black, yellow, or brown foreigners? One would think
that the caucus would feel insulted or at least patronized by such
a comment — "Why, those people are the same that color that
you are!" — but, to the contrary, Bush's assurance was apparently
welcomed as part of its agenda.
Bush also expressed his concern about outmoded voting machines in
Florida. But there was an interesting item in the Washington
Post this week about a recent study by an economist and political
scientist "who have analyzed voting technology across the nation.
They found no pattern of discrimination. Instead, they determined
that African Americans and the poor were no more likely than whites
or more affluent voters to reside in counties that use the much-maligned
punch-card machines."
Ah, but what about Florida in particular? "Even in Florida, the
technology gap appears to be a crack and not a chasm. The researchers
found that 60.4 percent of all whites and 63.1 percent of all blacks
lived in counties that used the punch card voting system. At the
same time, they found that blacks were slightly more likely to live
in counties that used state-of-the-art optical scanning devices."
That said, there is no reason for Bush not to agree that voting-rights
violations ought to be aggressively
| “There
is no reason for Bush not to agree that voting-rights
violations ought to be investigated.” |
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investigated
and that reforms should be explored that will make voting more efficient
and counting votes more accurate. He doesn't have to be defensive
about this. Even if there were more blacks whose votes should have
been counted and weren't in Florida — the results of the continuing,
informal recounts so far have been underwhelming — there were
indisputably more minorities whose votes shouldn't have been counted
but were (felons, noncitizens, and other unregistered voters).
There is also no reason for Bush not to continue his outreach efforts,
like meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. The demonization
of Republicans by Democrats as anti-minority cannot be left unanswered.
But it must be complemented by two other initiatives.
First, while at the national level Bush makes his more symbolic
overtures, the GOP must redouble its efforts to work with blacks,
Hispanics, and Asians on local, nuts-and-bolts issues. Republicans
can win the trust of blacks as well or better by fixing potholes
than by talking about AIDS in Africa.
Second, when Democrats and their allies play the race card —
calling the Republicans racist because they favor the death penalty
or whatever — they should be mercilessly condemned. It is the
relatively recent rise of racial politics by the left that accounts
for the Republicans' abysmal showing at the polls among blacks,
not a real lack of affinity of interests between the GOP and many
African Americans.
On the other hand, Bush absolutely must not adopt in whole or in
part the racialist agenda of the Congressional Black Caucus and
the rest of the civil-rights establishment, particularly on matters
of racial and ethnic preferences. For instance, Bush's nomination
of John Ashcroft to be attorney general "was the first thing that
came up" with the caucus, said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D., Mich.).
"We explained to him why we couldn't buy Ashcroft in 100 years."
But a principal reason the caucus opposes Ashcroft is his opposition
to racial preferences.
Black lawmakers also would like Bush to make permanent President
Clinton's eleventh-hour recess appointment of Roger L. Gregory to
the U.S. court of appeals. But the only reason that Clinton made
the appointment, and the only reason black lawmakers are supporting
him, is that Gregory happens to be black. Bush should decide whom
he wants to be on the court of appeals, irrespective of race. If
the last three months have not taught Bush that judges are too important
to be bartered away, then he may be as learning-impaired as Jay
Leno jokes that he is.
The New York Times credited Bush with "nodd[ing] his head
to the chorus and sway[ing] at the refrain" during his visit this
Sunday to the predominantly black Lincoln Park United Methodist
Church. Nodding and swaying is fine in church, Mr. President —
but be careful about doing that during a meeting with the Congressional
Black Caucus.
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