2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHow much of has, what Toni Morrison said about Bill Clinton, transfered to Hillary?
Could this be part of Hillary's support in the minority community? Just asking because the 45 years of Hillary bashing must be identified with by other people who get treated poorly everyday.
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Americans-use-to-call-Bill-Clinton-The-First-Black-President
Now, not being black myself, I'm not the first person you should listen to for the following opinion, but I think many literary critics and scholars of African-American studies would agree that if any author alive today has the authority to speak about the black experience in America, it's Toni Morrison. (Read The Bluest Eye, Beloved, or Song of Solomon to see why.)
Here's what she said in a 1998 article in The New Yorker:
African-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonalds-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the Presidents body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and body-searched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear: No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow, albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace, andwho knows?maybe sentenced and jailed to boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your expletives belong to us.
In part, "the first black president" reflects the fact that Bill Clinton, although white-skinned, has lived a life similar to that of many black men in America. But it's also largely a name that reflects the fact that he, as a successful white man, is nevertheless facing an environment similar to that faced by successful black men, where there is a systemic environmental tendency to demean their accomplishments and latch onto any of their failures, no matter how small. In the case of black men who rise out of poverty or troubled households, it's the system of employers or the business community or law enforcement, who all always treated black men as somehow being more worthy of suspicion or scrutiny; in the case of Clinton it's the system of Congress and (especially) the press, who both relentlessly dogged him for his perceived personal failings in a way no prior president had been dogged.
In short, it's a racial analogy to a now-famous comment made by Hillary Clinton earlier that year on The Today Show:
The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for President.
firebrand80
(2,760 posts)The Clinton "brand" still carries a lot of weight for African Americans, and Hillary is benefitting from that. According to the polls, Obama wasn't even getting the black vote at first, it was solidly behind Hillary.
On the other hand, as Obama showed, it isn't an unbreakable bond. Hillary does seem comfortable speaking to black voters, but she's not as good as Bill.
It's clear to me that neither Sanders nor O'Malley are going to be able to move the black vote away from Hillary. That, more than any other reason, is why I think this primary race is essentially over.
artislife
(9,497 posts)h1960ttp://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2015/11/ben_carson_is_getting_a_surprise_boost_from_african_american_voters.html?wpisrc=topstories
(I think one of the most interesting things was the numbers for Nixon in 1960.)
This is a very interesting read.
Carson has a story that Black voters are drawn to, but I don't think he would pull very many votes in a GE matchup with Clinton.
African Americans are the most loyal democratic constituency, that's not going to change for a terrible candidate with no discernible qualifications for office.
artislife
(9,497 posts)but look at the numbers for Nixon, it proves that one shouldn't rely on "loyalty" without knowing what happened in the past, what is happing now and what the future holds.
Many minority groups are starting to chose to focus on issues and to stop hoping for leadership far away to remember them and throw them a bone or two. I don't doubt that hillary will keep the majority of the minority votes, how much is the question.
firebrand80
(2,760 posts)but it won't happen for Carson. He would be a terrible candidate, period.
In the GE when all the African American Democratic support is lined up behind Clinton (including a certain President and First Lady), and Carson's policies and qualifications are put on full display, Carson would crash and burn.
Would he get a few more Black votes than Mitt Romney? Yes, probably. Hillary would still pull 90%+ of the Black vote without breaking a sweat.
artislife
(9,497 posts)Don't expect the number of actual voters to be near the numbers of the 2008 election.
Just don't.
firebrand80
(2,760 posts)Looking beyond Black voters to minority voters as a whole, minority voters were a larger share of the electorate in 2012 than they were in 2008, and will be an even larger one in 2016. So even though they might not be as enthusiastic, there are more of them.
artislife
(9,497 posts)But it is the younger minority voters who don't share the enthusiasm for the machine. I see a lot of boomer minority voters for h. The younger ones are not so in lock step.
firebrand80
(2,760 posts)Many younger voters have no memory of Bill Clinton as President, so they don't have the same connection.
On the other hand, when the GE starts Barack and Michelle will be campaigning for Clinton. This will sway a lot of those voters.
Truprogressive85
(900 posts)artislife
(9,497 posts)karynnj
(59,503 posts)she was in a comfortable middle class intact family. She also came of age as women were getting opportunities they never before had - and as a very smart, well educated at elite universities woman, she was in a very privileged position. In fact, the first ceiling she has had to fight to break is becoming President -- and then she has nearly been handed the nomination on a silver platter twice.
It is insulting to anyone who really was discriminated against to suggest that Hillary Clinton ever was. (As a young educated woman, I entered the work force at about the time that she left law school. It was a time of affirmative action - not discrimination - for women.)