Identity Politics and the Death of Common Sense
Writing in the Washington Post, Dan Froomkin quite foolishly asks if Kanye West was right. West, you may recall, famously embarrassed NBC and Mike Myers by asserting that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”.
Froomkin has gotten himself in a lather over a poll that appears to suggest Kanye West is right:
The latest Gallup cuts to the chase and asks: “Do you think George W. Bush does – or does not – care about black people?”
Among blacks, 21 percent say he does and 72 percent say he doesn’t.
Among whites, 67 percent say he does and 26 percent say he doesn’t.
Overall, 62 percent say he does and 31 percent say he doesn’t.
Obviously, that’s a pretty dramatic rift. But consider the absolute numbers: Three out of four blacks, one out of four whites, and one out of three people across the country regardless of race actually believe that President Bush doesn’t care about black people.
Sorry, but the question: “Does the president of the United State care about black people” should be a no-brainer. Of course he does should be the overwhelmingly common answer.
Well, that is dramatic, isn’t it? One out of 3 Americans “actually believe that President Bush doesn’t care about black people”.
Don’t you believe it for a minute.
First, the poll results are not remarkable at all. The Democratic Party and a good chunk of the media have been selling the notion that Republicans are racist (the party of Lincoln, mind you) for decades. (Unasked, because of the completely logical implications, is whether it is racist to consider blacks permanently poor, permanently victimized, and permanently in need of constant reminders of skin color as the determining factor of their lives, as the Democratic Party does). Thus, it is not surprising at all that 1 out of 3 Americans thinks such a ridiculous thing.
I would wager that at least that percentage would say that Ronald Reagan didn’t care about black people. Of course, an overwhelming number of Americans would say Bill Clinton cared about black people – why, he’s been called America’s ‘first black President’ (because we was raised largely by a single poor parent – talk about your racism! Talk about your low expectations!). What is the party breakdown on Gallup’s poll? Froomkin doesn’t provide it. It’s quite fair to ask why not. I think we know the answer.
One Gallup Poll result Froomkin does not mention is this one: George Bush’s response to Katrina is now rated good by 58% of respondents – and that’s before Bush took responsibility today, a move that will almost certainly drive that number up (as will his primetime address Thursday night).
The real story, the story that Froomkin misses, the one that is a true national scandal, is how one political party consistently views people through the prism of identity politics. Black people, unions, women, Hispanics, the poor, the elderly – these are the constituencies of the Democratic Party. Sounds good, right? Very compassionate – until you realize that the strategy to keep these disparate groups on the reservation is to permanently call attention to their ‘victimhood’. The long-term consequences be damned, there are elections to be won.
That 1 out of 3 respondents think George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people is indeed shameful – but the shame belongs to people like Howard Dean who appear in front of all-black audiences and fan the flames of racial division, to the hucksters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who pervert the vision of Martin Luther King’s colorblind society, to the Democratic politicians of New Orleans who were content to spend billions on useless projects, and quick to imply racism when a storm that has been expected for over a century finally arrived. The shame is enduring, and will not recede until we put behind the politics of race and start to address the problems of poverty for all Americans, regardless of skin color.
Then again, we could just pretend it’s all because George Bush doesn’t care about black people…
(shameless self-promotion alert)
It’s like I wrote earlier today, in the Democratic Party of Howard Dean, everything political is personal — it’s not that my opponent has a different idea how to achieve our common goals, it’s that he hates puppies and motherhood:
(end of shameless self promotion alert)
And this is the chairman of the D.N.C. — the chief spokesman for the Democratic Party.
Even so, I suspect if the poll question had been more blatantly phrased (“Is President Bush a racist?”) the number would have fallen to the hard-core 15% who are represented by MoveOn. As phrased, the question could be read as whether the President cares about black people as such — which could be answered “no” with a weaker implication than the other would carry.
There is an excellent, very recent and very long interview, conducted by the editors of The New York Times, with Condoleezza Rice that I just saw today. She was asked about this issue. She spoke eloquently and at length.
“Poisonous.” Well said, Condi.
I hate to inject partisan politics into this… but this being the Decion ‘08 site…
That’s a damn fine interview statement (though I’d love to see the video) — and this is a really good domestic issue for Condi to take point on. It’s one where we’d expect her to be personally angry and it’s one where she’s preaching to a large majority of people who agree with her. The Dems have gone way out on a limb here, and she’s just the one to saw it off for them — and gain domestic policy credibility while she’s doing it. Condi ‘08?
If you take a “glass is half full” approach, what this poll means is that, among a group of voters that support the Democratic Party ninety per cent of the time, just 40% tow the Democratic Party line on this issue. What this poll really menas is that means half of all black Democratic voters believe that Howard Dean, George Stephanappolus, et al. are full of it when they blame racism for the New Orleans Thunderdome fracas or, at a minimum, have serious doubts about the official party line.
Sean P, exactly…those who believe Bush doesn’t care about blacks would also answer yes if the question was “Do you believe George Bush is evil incarnate?” …and Clint, I still maintain, if Condi chooses to run, she’s instantly a contender…
I agree.. I just always wondered how, with her background and in the role of Secretary of State, she’d garner enough domestic policy cred to get there — ironically, those who were pushing the “Condi buys shoes” meme last week practically dragged her into this.
On the topic of polls related to the political fallout of Katrina — Anklebiting Pundits has some Gallup results that you probably won’t read about in the New York Times.
Highlights — on ‘Initial Response’ to the disaster, Bush personally rates substantially higher than every other option on the percentage of respondents who rated his response “good”. Bush’s ‘job approval’ up 6% in the last month. And they asked specifically about the “blame game” but I’ll let you follow the link for that.