Election 2000 Protests

Contact: BRC National Co-Chair, Manning Marable; mm247@columbia.edu or jdj16@columbia.edu; 212-854-1489 or 212-854-7010

RACISM AND THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY

The biggest loser in the presidential election of November, 2000 was the principle of democracy. The electoral contest between the two major candidates of the capitalist parties, George W. Bush and Al Gore, was essentially decided not by the people, but by the Republican-controlled Florida State Legislature and by five conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. In effect, Gore was elected by the voters, while Bush was selected by the courts.

Evidence of massive voter fraud and the deliberate disenfranchisement of Black voters continues to mount. Hundreds of African-American voters were turned away at various polling places, when sheriff's deputies checking voter IDs falsely asserted that the race indicated on the card did not match the race of the person trying to vote. In predominantly Black Florida precincts, roadblocks were set up only a few hundred yards from voting places, where police demanded that African Americans get out of their automobiles and show identification. Over 8,000 voters in Florida were denied the right to cast ballots because they were erroneously listed as ex-felons, who are not permitted to vote in that state. In at least four minority schools in Miami that had been used as polling places, ballot boxes full of votes were left behind, and only discovered by school employees a day after the election. Similar instances of Republican inspired voter irregularities and "dirty tricks" once made infamous by the Nixon administration have also been documented. In Michigan, Virginia, and Florida, for example, thousands of black households received telephone calls the weekend before the election from people claiming to represent the NAACP, urging them to vote for George W. Bush. Since the NAACP is officially nonpartisan, such calls obviously were orchestrated by the Bush campaign.

Despite such illegal tactics and widespread racial disenfranchisement, African Americans turned out to vote against the Republican agenda in record numbers. Black voters supported Gore over Bush by 90 to 8 percent. Bush's dismal performance with African-American voters was the worst in recent history, with the sole exception of Barry Goldwater's puny 6 percent of the Black vote back in 1964. And African-American voters in Texas, the Black folk who knew Bush better than anybody else, gave their governor only 5 percent of their votes.

In many states, African Americans were the core constituency that led successful struggles to defeat conservative Republicans. Whites nationwide favored Bush over Gore by 53 to 42 percent, and generally voted for Republicans in senatorial and gubernatorial races.

But in race after race, Blacks represented the critical margin of victory. In Maryland, for example, white voters favored Bush over Gore by 51 to 45 percent. But Black voters endorsed Gore by 90 percent, and their overall turnout surged to 22 percent of Maryland's total vote. With this crucial Black support, Gore won easily by 17 percent. The identical pattern occurred in Michigan, where whites supported Bush 51 to 46 percent, but African Americans endorsed Gore by 90 percent, thus giving the state to the Democrats. In Florida alone, African-American turnout increased from 527,000 in 1996 to 952,000 in 2000.

From the vantage point of Black radicalism, this remarkable political response by the African-American community in the 2000 elections did not represent an endorsement of the political agenda of "New Democrats" like Al Gore and Joe Lieberman. It was not a sign of approval for the devastating policies of the Clinton administration, such as the 1996 Welfare Act. It was the unambiguous and clearly recognized act of self-interest and self-preservation. It was the defeat of the politics we oppose the most, rather than the triumph of the politics which we truly want. Black people understood that the parade of black and brown faces at the Republican convention last summer was a farce, the "illusion of inclusion." Most knew that Bush opposes affirmative action, and presides over a state that has a minimum wage of only $3.15 an hour. They knew that he had picked a running mate who had voted against releasing Nelson Mandela from prison, and who had opposed sanctions against apartheid. The Republican ticket was the symbolic party of white supremacy, and that's why millions of our people waited patiently on long lines, from St. Louis to Harlem, from Jacksonville to Oakland, to vote our own interests.

In an honest election, the Right would have been easily defeated. But because we do not live in a genuine democracy, the minority reflecting the interests and "lifestyles of the rich and shameless" used the courts to steal the election. Nationwide, 4.2 million American citizens, including 1.8 million African Americans, have been disenfranchised for life due to prior felony convictions. Institutional barriers and electoral restrictions make it difficult for millions of other citizens to vote. Several million ballots are routinely discarded, not counted or even destroyed in presidential contests, and the media and major capitalist parties do virtually nothing about it. Our winner- take-all election system makes it virtually impossible for third parties that reflect the real interests of African Americans, Latinos, working class and poor people to have any meaningful impact on national and Congressional races.

For these reasons, the Black Radical Congress believes that the Black Freedom Movement and our progressive allies must ground our political struggle against the illegitimate Bush regime around the fight for democracy. This is the fundamental political division that confronts the American people. The Far Right and the corporations hate and fear real democracy. This is why there remain so many institutional barriers to ballot access, and the undemocratic disenfranchisement of millions of poor and minority voters.

The Black Radical Congress endorses and supports efforts by organizations such as the Independent Progressive Politics Network to promote a "Voters' Bill of Rights," and a national campaign for democracy. Our first demand in such a campaign must be the strong enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. Section Two of that Act makes it illegal for any state or local government to use election procedures that in effect disenfranchise racial or ethnic minority voters. The provisions of the Voting Rights Act that require federal observers and complaints examiners to investigate widespread cases of racist voter fraud should be immediately instituted in Florida and other states. Local elections officials who have been found to intimidate and exclude Black voters must be vigorously prosecuted.

The Black Radical Congress calls for a ban on all "soft money" contributions in elections, the billions of dollars that routinely control the outcomes in most races. We support the extension of full voting rights to every citizen-to every prisoner currently incarcerated, and to all ex-felons. We believe that voting should be made much easier. Moving elections to weekends or making them national holidays would encourage greater voter participation. State laws should be liberalized to permit smaller Third Parties to gain ballot access. We also need to move away from the anti-democratic winner-take-all system toward the goal of proportional representation voting. The only way that minority groups will gain their fair share of seats in a city council, state legislature or in Congress is through some form of proportional voting.

The Black Radical Congress believes that the most blatant and indefensible violation of democracy in the U.S. today is represented by Washington, D.C. The District of Columbia has more voters than several states, but has no voting representation in Congress. We say D.C. must have complete home rule and statehood!

The Black Radical Congress joins with other progressive organizations, including all racial, ethnic, gender and class groups, who are committed to the struggle for democracy. The time for action is now. We must demonstrate in Washington, D.C. on January 20th, to tell the world that Black America will not tolerate the dismantling of our hard-fought democratic rights. The BRC declares that the Bush regime is illegal, fraudulent, and based on the rampant racist exclusion of millions of Black voters. We are committed to building a broad-based pro-democracy movement that has the capacity to achieve real democracy in the U.S.

Black Radical Congress National Office 
Columbia University Station P.O. Box 250791 
New York, NY 10025-1509 
Phone: (212) 969-0348