Prometheus 6

If you think there's a choice between Senators Obama and Clinton and are deciding between the two, I recommend this from The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.

It is true that Senator Clinton’s campaign speeches include expressions of support for the plight of poor blacks. But it is her formal political platform that tells the story. The words “black” or “minority” never enter the text of her official program for America. Given Hillary Clinton’s well-known progressive views on social and racial issues, one would have expected to find key words in her platform such as “inner-city schools,” “reduction of poverty,” “revitalizing America’s cities,” “increased access to job training,” and “support of Head Start programs for youngsters from low-income families.” One would have expected too that Senator Clinton’s platform would address such issues as community development programs for inner cities, increased support for minority college students, support for black farmers, programs to create capital and encourage entrepreneurship in black communities, and tougher penalties for hate crimes. Yet all of the standard campaign promises that a liberal Democrat typically offers to blacks are completely absent from her announced program.

The explanation is clear. Senator Clinton, as was the case with her husband before her, is furiously moving toward the political center and redefining herself as a moderate. In her announced program there is not even a dollop of written concern for guarding or advancing the aspirations of blacks and other minorities. The reason is that many of her most important voting constituencies are unfriendly to efforts to help blacks. Many of the groups on whom she depends for a successful run for the presidency tend to be conservative on racial issues. They include white ethnics, farmers, union leaders, small business owners, blue-collar workers, conservative Democrats, white parents of public school children, and that very large group of voters called Reagan Democrats. Jewish interests that have suffered in the past from the burden of restrictive racial quotas are especially hostile to most government programs targeted to assist blacks.

It’s safe to say, too, that many white Americans, who are at the core of the Clinton pool of voters, believe that many of the problems of blacks are self-inflicted. They tend to the view that government programs to help blacks are ineffective and a waste of money. Many among Clinton’s likely supporters consider that antipoverty programs, even when cast as racially neutral, are really black programs in disguise. True, it is acceptable to Clinton voters for the senator publicly to empathize with the severe problems of black America. But any explicit program that spends public money to help blacks always has the potential to severely damage her chances for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. In short, the leaders of the Clinton campaign appear to believe that if she announces any form of a black program, she kills the support of voters she needs.