NYT Magazine: Black and Bruised (the black vote in S.C.)

[Dover]

By JOANN WYPIJEWSKI
The African-American vote could make all the difference in South Carolina. But given the way three local Democratic activists are feeling, the party might be in big trouble.

..snip..

Most people don't have a passion for politics to offset the skepticism born of being dragooned into service every election cycle to cover the spot on the political gaming table labeled ''the black vote.'' And skepticism reigns among the Democrats' most loyal constituents on the eve of what is being called the ''black primary.'' African-Americans could account for up to half the vote in South Carolina on Tuesday, so for months candidates have been visiting black churches, dropping in at football games and fish fries, collecting black endorsements and welding themselves to the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. or Bill Clinton, sometimes both.

Some say the outcome here will forecast how the candidates will sell to African-Americans nationwide. As of early January, the most compelling message appeared to be ''sellers beware.'' ..cont'd

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/01/magazine/01VOTERS.html

[Vitruvius]

1. More from the article...

Blacks who vote in South Carolina overwhelmingly want George Bush out. But as one black South Carolinian told me, a party can't just depend on ''a bogeyman'' or identify with a community when it's convenient and expect consistent identification in return.

"The Democratic Party is the party that talks about the black vote and attaining it by any means necessary," Ms. Aiken said. "Now, that does not equate with 'We value the black vote' as much as 'We have to attain it in order to get what we want.'" The routine currency in this exchange is emotion -- for white candidates a little soul power soaked up from a gospel choir and shed just as easily. Candidates parade through church, Aiken noted, but, she said: "Has anyone done a follow-up visit after a campaign? You know, 'I came to your church, asked for your vote, the preacher gave me the pat and we prayed. Now I'm in; I'm going to make one more trip back, at least to thank you.'"

It is commonly recognized that whichever passing churchgoer ultimately becomes the party's nominee, he will not be seen here again...

<SNIP>

Cobb-Hunter, like every African-American I spoke with, has not forgotten that in 2000 the party pulled virtually everything out of the South to concentrate on Florida, then refused to see beyond hanging chads and go to the mat over the tens of thousands of voters, the majority black and Hispanic, improperly labeled felons and stripped from the rolls. "Any message that the Democratic Party wanted to send, they sent in 2000, and '04 is just a continuation of that message," she said. "It's up to the Democratic Party whether they want to change the story. Because if they don't, we will not carry one Southern state. Let me just add that if the Democratic Party is not serious about dealing with the issues of race and class that are so prevalent in this country but particularly in the South, then they may as well write it off, because there's no point in coming in here with cosmetics."

<SNIP>

"The Democrats lost the White House because they forgot the street, the corner, the people who put them in office," George R. Dean, who owns a clothing business in town, offered soon after Aiken said he'd have an opinion or two for me. A member of the Chamber of Commerce, he made a straight-up Keynesian argument for investment in infrastructure, education, the environment, small-business relief, "the needs of the people": "The divide in America ain't black and white; it's the haves and the have-nots, and that's the truth, darling. Until we start disbursing this stuff, as we say in the Deep South, us'en in a heap of trouble."

I'd heard this kind of thing throughout Orangeburg: the Democratic Party is reactive, "spinally challenged," populist only intermittently while the people sink. More than 27 percent of the county's households survive on $15,000 a year or less, a condition of persistent poverty that ensnares so much of the South, especially the rural Black Belt.