The Plantation Strikes Back

Dr. Potomac detects new signs of unease, jumpiness and anxiety among the Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (is there a more felicitous turn of phrase in the American political lexicon?) announced last week the formation of a taskforce to help Democrats learn how to communicate with the religious folk of the nation’s vast, red middle. And she chose to lead this effort –wait for it – Rep. Jim Clyburn. Now, Congressman Clyburn, is no doubt a very decent fellow. It is worth asking, however, if Clyburn is the answer, what was the question?

A la Karnac the Magnificent, Dr. Potomac holds the envelope to his forehead and sees..."How do we stop the seepage of older, culturally conservative African-Americans away from the Democratic party?" It has been noted that African-American voters converting to the GOP was an important factor in Ohio, the swingiest of swing states last year, where the President exceeded his already very respectable showing among African-Americans nationwide. Cultural questions are major factors here, with African-American pastors objecting strenuously to the gay marriage lobby’s efforts to coopt the African-American struggle for civil rights. People who faced down Bull Conner and were thrown out of segregated luncheon counters tend to be a little cranky with college-educated, dual-income same-sex yuppies drowning their resentments in double-skim lattes at the corner Starbucks. (Dr. Potomac further suspects that African-Americans will resist any effort to dilute the authority of their churches and pastors, long the only institutions and leaders that were fully “owned” by the community. As the sign on the African-American church in my neighborhood used to say -- before the neighborhood Blues objected and had the sign dismantled and removed over the pastor's objection -- “God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve.”)

One other factor may be at play here, and that’s the President's effort to open federal grant programs to faith-based and community organizations. After four years, increasing amounts of federal social services grant dollars are flowing into programs and projects directed toward small ministries many of which are headed by African-American clergy and community leaders. These organizations are gradually coming to understand the President really means it when he says he wants to help and wants to do it in a way that doesn't put their churches under a federal supervisor. Trust is slowly, incrementally being built between two social strata that haven't found much common cause to make over the past 40 years or so.