July 16, 2000

Bush Trolling for White Votes at NAACP Convention

The liberal media that gleefully reported the cool reception of George W. Bush by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) convention in Baltimore missed its significance.

Sure, Bush would like to have a few African-American votes. Indeed, he is likely to get more than Republican candidates usually receive.

A New York Times/CBS opinion poll in May showed Bush with 17 percent of the black vote to Al Gore’s 69 percent.

The recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll indicates that if the election were held today, Bush would get 17 percent of the black vote versus 71 percent for Gore.

The Clinton-Gore black vote in the 1996 election was 84 percent.

Nonetheless, Bush was trolling for white, swing votes in his visit. As the first Republican presidential candidate to speak before the NAACP since his father was booed there in 1983, George W. was wooing moderate voters who decide elections.

Bush waited patiently while four, chanting protesters of the death-penalty were led from the hall.

He got scattered applause when he declared, “There is no denying the truth that slavery is a blight on our history, and that racism, despite all our progress, still exists.”

After castigating Republicans overly much – and wrongly -- on civil rights, Bush moved to the core issue of education. He opined that the teachers’ union and other plantation Democrats stand in the way of education reform which is the key to upward mobility.

Key promise in his address was “to confront the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

If NAACP members understood the significance of low expectations, they didn’t show it. Too bad for knee-jerk special-interest blacks.

African-American parents realize the advantages of school vouchers and other Republican proposals to bring the public school system into the 21st century.

Bush invoked the memory of Abraham Lincoln – the first Republican president – in freeing slaves. However, the governor lamented that Lincoln’s mantle had not been carried forward into the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Wrong.

It was GOP President Dwight Eisenhower who sent Federal troops into Little Rock to desegregate the schools.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act was crafted by Senators Hubert Humphrey (Democrat) and Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (Republican).

On the vote for passage, 82 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of Democrats supported it.

The difference was even more pronounced in the House. There just 61 percent of Democrats voted for the bill in contrast to the Republican plurality of 80 percent.

It is interesting to note that Tennessee Senator Al Gore, Sr., voted against the act.

Chairman then for the NAACP. Roy Wilkins, sponsored a civil- rights award for Sen. Dirksen’s key contribution.

Conventioneers last week singled out by the media for comment mostly sneered at Bush’s speech. The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit NAACP chapter, is quoted as saying, “He gave us absolutely nothing.”

Note the Freudian slip. Too many African-American leaders expect the government to “give” them something.

NAACP president Kweisi Mfume restrained himself to, “We have reached 70 percent of our goal to register four million new voters this year. We need to embrace all the candidates who have embraced us and defeat those who have not.”

It is obvious that Mfume considers Bush in the latter category.

After Bush was escorted to a side door, Presidential candidate Ralph Nader was allowed 15 minutes to climb into the NAACP’s hip pocket. The audience started walking out, and Mfume had to gavel the audience back.

One member explained later that Nader “stands for everything we do, but he has no power.” With friends like that, who needs enemies?

In contrast, the visits of Al Gore, Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill were multi-media extravaganzas.

A band was hired to rouse the audience while their favorite politicians made their entrances down the main aisle to high- five adoring members.

There was some concern for injuries as delegates stood on their chairs to catch a glimpse of Hillary.

Gore wowed the crowd of 3,000 when he bellowed, “I am home!”

“I have come here not just in an election year, but year after year. I have worked with you. I have stood with you. I am proud to have won some battles alongside you.”

In a sly dig to former President Bush – supposedly a hindrance to his son -- Gore roared, “I’m not asking you to read my lips. I am asking you to read my heart.”

The NAACP, labor unions, teachers and other liberal groups have not learned the fine art of politics. They are so intent on hating conservatives they do not create a broad spectrum of supporters.

Blunt instruments worked in the past, but citizens change with the times. Special-interest coalitions that trash new friends fade away.

The NAACP seems headed in that direction.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun-Herald columnist and can be reached at linwms@lindseywilliams.org