McCain's Gamble

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain is trying hard not to get lost in all the attention the country is devoting to the hard-fought Democratic presidential nomination contest. He is taking an unusual step in this regard for someone from the Grand Old Party (GOP): he's touring mostly black, poverty-ridden communities, such as last week's trip to the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, to speak out against poverty and other societal ills. These are the kinds of communities that most Republicans couldn't find with a map and a Sherpa, so his "It's Time for Action" tour is notable. While he should be commended for trying to address these issues and reach out to black voters, the reality is that he is fighting against two important factors: history and his own Senate record.

Historically, Republican policy makers have not been particularly interested in the economic realities of the poor. From tax cuts to wealthier Americans on the mistaken notion that those new funds would be invested in America for the benefit of all, to vociferous fights against social programs that helped the poor, the GOP earned its reputation as the party for the rich. And McCain was there virtually every step of the way. The Reagan-driven massive shift of jobs to cheaper labor markets abroad took place on McCain's watch. He supported the supply-side economic policies, also known as Reaganomics, that gave $750 billion in tax cuts and reduced support for human service programs by $280 billion. African Americans and the poor were disproportionately and negatively impacted by the economic policies of the 1980s, so there is a certain irony that McCain is touring areas and decrying poverty while his congressional history supported some of the policies that exacerbated the problem.

The GOP has also antagonized black voters over the years through public policy and political symbolism, so it's no surprise to me that McCain has a steep hill to climb. From Willie Horton to "reverse discrimination" to voter purge programs to the "welfare queen" to the "Southern strategy," and beyond, his party has perversely used race to demonize African Americans and black candidates to win elections. As I note in my book Republicans and the Black Vote, the Republican Party built its rise to national dominance during the 1980s and 1990s on racial animus and symbolism. Add to that McCain's vote against both the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Bill, and a relatively weak Civil Rights Act, and it's difficult to see how McCain or any Republican can now be taken seriously on these important issues.

So, given party history and McCain's record, you'll have to forgive me for skeptically viewing McCain's tour as a serious attempt to raise attention to the issue of poverty and reach out to black voters. I see it, first and foremost, as a well-choreographed attempt to neutralize Independent voters who may move to the Democratic nominee if the GOP is seen as gratuitously hostile to minorities and the poor. Secondarily, it may be seen as an attempt to win black support, particularly so if Senator Hillary Clinton emerges as the Democratic nominee. Clinton, in the eyes of many black voters, can only win the nomination by stealing it from Senator Barack Obama. A Clinton nomination, then, could provide McCain with an opportunity to peel off some black support and that of of White Independents.

So McCain can travel to Selma, Alabama, Youngstown, Ohio, or New Orleans, Louisiana in an attempt to soften his image and that of his party, but history suggests that he won't get very far in the process.

Michael K. Fauntroy is an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University and author of the recently published book Republicans and the Black Vote. A registered Independent, he blogs at: www.MichaelFauntroy.com.

Comments

[Taan]

If you want four more years of Bush squared, vote for McCain. Democrats will have the Congress and McCain will have the veto and nothing will get done as the nation slowly slides into a terminal funk.

[UCLAdy04]

McCain is totally disingenuous. For him to sit up there and criticize Bush's delayed response to Katrina when part of that delay was due to serving John McCain birthday cake is the height of hypocrisy. McCain will say and do anything and the media continues to let him get away with it.

[Nommo]

Anyone read Matt Taibbi's article in Rolling Stone?

[SUSZANNE56]

I might except that McCain is sincere about these people welfare if this were April 2006 and not an election year but it's been almost 3 years and he finally found his way to the ninth ward in New Orleans. But al least his visit there puts N.O. back in the spotlight where it belongs.

[HuffingPuffing]

John McCain LOVES black people. Just loves 'em... wishes he could be one of them. He feels their pain, he loves Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King, he sings gospel at home, eats collards for a tasty snack...
Ah, but then on November 5 he'll turn back into the mean-spirited, squinty-eyed bigot he's always been as his record in Arizona shows. He doesn't fool us - we've been fooled too often.

[fignozzle]

he will reject nobody because he has no thoughts.

[ajax2]

Will McCain reject the endorsements of racists David Duke, Trent Lott, and Tom Delay? I don't think so.

[kravitz]

First, he has the knitting ladies greet him like a white man in an african tribe. Then he announces a tax policy even the Times notes raises the deficit the highest amount in the shortest time. And does not help the poor. His wife is his sugamama. And her daddy is connected to the Phoenix 40, a group with ties to the murder of journalist Don Bolles.

And you're telling us we should Like this McCain guy? Here's part of why not.

Hotel reclaims name in effort to memorialize journalist's death
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0516ruelas16.html
Bolles, who spent years investigating the mafia and uncovering schemes of the city's powerful, got a call from a source who said he had information on corrupt state officials. He told Bolles to meet him at the Clarendon. When Bolles arrived, a woman working the front desk handed him a phone. It was the source suggesting they meet someplace else. Bolles went back out to his car, not knowing that a thug had placed dynamite underneath it and that a plumber with powerful friends was ready to detonate it by remote control.

[kravitz]

Sen. McCain Wants To Be President
http://www.usvetdsp.com/story22.htm
McCain also thinks President Clinton, who dodged the draft rather than serve in Vietnam, is the perfect presidential role model. He recently told the press that Clinton "is the best politician I have ever seen."

McCain, however, does not think so highly of the POW/MIA families and activists who openly challenge the U.S. government's POW/MIA policy, many of whom walked the halls of Congress during the Vietnam War years demanding America's prisoners of war, including POW McCain, not be forgotten.

McCain, as a member of the 1992 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, took the lead in demanding a U.S. Justice Department investigation of the POW/MIA activists and their organizations. He accused the activists of fraud because in some of their fund-raising literature the activists claimed the U.S. government knowingly left U.S. POWs behind after the Vietnam War and that some remain alive today.

McCain openly attacked the activists telling the press, "The people who have done these things are not zealots in a good cause. They are the most craven, most cynical and most despicable human beings to ever run a scam." The Justice Department did investigate the POW/MIA activists and their organizations and found no reason to charge any POW/MIA activist.

[j.gold]

"Clinton, in the eyes of many black voters, can only win the nomination by stealing it from Senator Barack Obama"

A lot of white people think this too.

[sytgrl]

Although this may be true for many voters, I think that many black voters are also upset with Clinton's behavior not towards Obama, but towards the black community in general.

[RepublicanBrain]

Simple economics, and common sense does not support the Democratic plan for the poor.

The only way to grow the economy is to innovate. That's what other nations are doing. America can capitalize on green energy, or something like that (global warming becomes irrelevant at this point. One can do something about green energy without believing the IPCC, a truth Democrats need to start capitalizing on.) Become a leader in something new, make it something everyone wants, and you prosper. That does require capital.

Simply giving money to the poor makes little economic sense. The poor, for the most part, don't support business. They use the money for personal matters. Not saying personal matters aren't important, but to make things better for everyone, rather then for some, investment, not splurge, is required.

It is creation of a nanny state and a permanent underclass which constitutes this problem. There is quite the precedent for simply providing people with things and it ending in ruin. Look at Mao's China, Stalin's Soviet Union.

The Republican strategy for the black vote is simple: "You're equal, and we're going to treat you that way." We don't believe in preferential treatment; rewards and set-asides for being born black. Equality of opportunity is what is required by law.

McCain believes more in equality and justice more then anyone else. Becuase he doesn't pander and give gifts for the way people were born. Evidence? Being anti-Roe.

[aflem]

"Equality of opportunity", do you really believe that everyone in this country has equal opportunity? Have you been to an inner-city neighborhood? You are right about giving people money and that they usually don't spend it in ways that would help them the most. Just giving them money won't help but investing that money in educating the poor will help them the most. It's like the old say "you can give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime". In that respect the Democrats are helping the poor because they are the only ones even talking about education.

[RepublicanBrain]

Equality of opportunity is the only thing you can attempt to guarantee, and it's certainly a lot more equal then the equality of outcome the Democrats preach.

I have indeed been to many inner-city neighborhoods. It's not the safest place to be. Investment in education only goes so far, though. It's not just education someone needs, it's a need for it. Thus, the need to invest in more business. Education is not enough.

[kramskoi]

"required by law" means nothing when in some black minds it is a "separate but equal" issue that did'nt work after Reconstruction and does'nt work today...that's a strategy for losing the black vote as i'm sure you are well aware of...i live in louisiana and i did'nt see John McCain's face on the local news in the aftermath of Katrina...but he is welcome to "pander" for something he has'nt a chance in hell of getting.

[RepublicanBrain]

What people perceive it to be impacts their votes, but this isn't about how someone votes, this is what something actually is. Perception and reality are two very different things.

"Separate but equal" is illegal. It also has nothing to do with the way programs are done today. Forcing a company, school, or other institution to take someone of color because they are someone of color does nothing other then make it look like diversity. Personality, not genotype, is what makes people different.

[oldpotsmuggler]

The basic Republic position with regard to the black vote is "if you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose. Let's throw some crap their way, hope something comes of it, and then get back to playing footsie with the dittoheads, and throw up our usual propoganda wall to snare as many of the gullible as we can get."

On the toher hand, they don't usually have to play into the face of a massive foreign policy disaster combined with an economy that flat out stinks.

[Cramus]

McCain should enjoy the calm before the storm. Things have passed him by. It sure seems that the press is giving him a free pass because they are so obsessed with the democrats. He really makes no sense. His economics have no validity for the middle and lower class. His foriegn policy is crazy. He seems stuck in resolving his Vietnam issues through the Iraq occupation. He consistently dosen't know who is who. He's old and pathetic at this time in his life. He definately is not a maverick anymore. He definately has been living as an elitest himself, especially since he married thiat wife of his. A debate between him and Obama, sure would be interesting. Hillary would have any easy time demasculating old man McCain. Therefore, enjoy the calm...........................I'm sure by going to all these out of the way places, for him, he is actually avoiding the relationships he has in his own party. Shame on him using the troops and the American people to deal with his own unresolved issues with the Vietnam war. His time was in 2000, but unfortunately, he got bushed by a ugly Republican party. I'm sick of crazy screwed up individuals leading this country. Bill Clinton doing what he did in the Whitehouse was pathetic. George Bush is an idiotic pawn for a powerful elite and thus becomes a war criminal. You would think we could do better!

[FreeSpeech200854]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/27/193256/345/258/491964

[PioneerKing]

Mr. Fauntroy:

You are not the only one who did not fall for McCain's crap. As you may have noticed McCain only drew nominal amounts of people of color.
Michael if you want to know about the real Sen. McCain ask your father; that is if he hasn't already told you about his encounters with McCain on the Hill.