Well, that is if you subscribe to columnist DeWayne Wickham’s way of thinking; which is possible if you squint your eyes and twist your mind.
Wickham’s latest masterpiece appeared today in USA Today (Aug. 31, 2010, p. 11A) and was, naturally, titled, “Jackson, Sharpton Rallies Carry More Influence Than Beck’s.”
Which is why, I suppose, the media has spent so much time attacking Beck’s rally.
Anyhoo, the gist of Wickham’s little essay is that suddenly old players like Jackson and Sharpton have the ability to “spur” the “core constituency” of the Democratic Party, blacks, to get up off the couch and stop watching SportCenter (to borrow a phrase from obama) and head to the polls in November to rescue the Democratic Party.
I use the term ‘black’ due to a Radio One poll in October 2008 that found 42% of those polled prefer to be called ‘black’ rather than African American (www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/liggins.vote/index.html).
I’m all for giving this ultra-minority a voice.
While Wickham says the Jackson/Sharpton rallies will create Hope and Change V2.0, he predicts that the Tea Party “will be short-lived.”
Where were Jackson, Sharpton, and their “core constituents” a month after obama’s election when Democrats were losing two seats in black districts in Louisiana – including New Orleans? Wickham’s charges were missing in Georgia during a December 2008 Senate run-off election which was run by a Republican by 15%. Why were Jackson, Sharpton, and Wickham not spurring their “core” to vote in 2009 during governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey where surveys were showing drops in black voter turnout upwards to 40% as compared with the general election in 2008? (http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/62967-democrats-ponder-a-big-drop-in-turnout-among-black-voters).
Wickham is placing much faith in an unreliable voting block and two uninspiring men with racial chips on their shoulders.
The Tea Party, Wickham says, is a “21st century incarnation of the anti-immigration Know-Nothing Movement of the 1850s.” Thus the crux of his death knell.
Here Wickham, like so many, confuse the extreme nativist ideology of the Know-Nothings with the reasonable, conservative anti-illegal immigration belief of the Tea Partiers.
The difference on this point is as wide as a Reagan victory over Jimmy Carter.
Due to the majority two-party hold on our politics, and given the fact that members of both major parties and states like Michigan are fighting to keep a formal Tea Party party off election ballots, we most likely will not be able to compare electoral successes between the two movements.
The Know-Nothings, prior to imploding due to their extremism, did have some electoral success.
Formally known as the American Party, the Know-Nothings actually won 62 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 1854 midterm elections.
They made their way onto the 1856 Presidential ballot with candidate Millard Fillmore, who received nearly 1 million votes.
This, and more, from a party that basically morphed its way into being seen as a joke.
However, Tea Party support has led to more elective offices for their supported candidates than has the support of obama for his chosen candidates.
Wickham wastes his time comparing a formal political party built on an extreme anti-immigration ideology with a group aligned to support candidates that support various conservative issues.
Wickham and Sharpton are filled with vigor when liberal groups march and coalesce for a candidate and a cause, but are threatened and become hypocritical when conservatives choose a similar path to make their voices heard.
I’m just surprised Wickham didn’t bring up Sarah Palin.
Read more: http://www.myspace.com/iosoluno/blog?bID=538747843#ixzz0yFC2lwix
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