We have
entered a new epoch, facing the same enemy with new and dangerous
designs.
The most
critical task facing Black political activists is to identify, expose
and defeat Black Trojan Horse electoral candidates. They must be
identified early, before money and media have provided them with
credibility within and beyond the Black electorate. We have the capacity
to expose them thoroughly, through rigorous research and relentless
deployment of our own media and institutional resources. At every
opportunity, they should be confronted directly and without civility,
thus demonstrating our outrage at their activities. These men and women
must be ostracized from the political life of the community.
We have a
plan.
Events of
the past year have demonstrated that the Black political movement is
vulnerable to surrogate candidates in electoral contests in which
African Americans are a majority or near-majority.
This
challenge is funded and directed by the Hard Right. It is a new and
ominous threat, intended to destabilize existing Black leadership and,
ultimately, destroy independent Black political action. Moreover, it is
clear that African Americans will be confronted by this determined
strategy for the foreseeable future and with escalating
intensity.
The Cory
Booker mayoral candidacy in Newark was both a test and herald of the
Hard Right's New Black Strategy. Although Mayor Sharpe James was not
ousted from office, the closeness of the contest and the effectiveness
of the financial and other resources brought into play on Booker's
behalf, encouraged ultra-conservatives to believe that the new approach
is practical and promising.
In quick
succession and with great fanfare, Right-funded challengers defeated two
Black congresspersons: Representatives Earl Hilliard (D-AL) and Cynthia
McKinney (D-GA). Although right-wing Zionists played the most public
role in these campaigns, the same political apparatus that was at the
center of the Booker bid in Newark, provided organizational, media and
financial muscle in Alabama and Georgia.
The Hard
Right's own propaganda machinery, through its think tanks, has from the
beginning described the three contests as linked enterprises, with
promises of more to come. These enemies of independent Black action are
hard at work in the African American political heartland, seeking to
groom new candidates. It is from within the Democratic Party that the
next Black Trojan Horses will emerge.
Trojan
Horses, who are creations of our historic enemies, should find no
comfort zone in Black America. But first, we must identify them. By
design, these are stealth candidacies. However, the tools to strip away
the façade are readily at hand. Determined people can overcome the
schemes of wealth.
Genesis of the strategy
The New
Black Strategy was first implemented through the political network
centered on the Bradley Foundation, of Milwaukee, which is author of
much of the Republican Party's social policy positions and funds the
network's most aggressive think tanks: Manhattan Institute, American
Enterprise Institute, Hoover Institute, Hudson Institute and other,
satellite outfits. Bradley works closely with the Olin Foundation, the
Walton Family Fund, the Scaife Foundation and other, traditional
bankrollers of right-wing causes.
As
political organs, these foundations are capable of causing many millions
of dollars of cash contributions and other vital electioneering
resources to be funneled into targeted contests. They are also extremely
influential among the mass media.
Previously,
these foundations' direct, Black-related activities were largely limited
to funding compliant African American academics, and to subsidizing
single-person front organizations such as Ward Connerly's California
operations and Robert Woodson's Center for Neighborhood Enterprise.
Attempts to legitimize Black Republican vehicles such as the Center for
New Black Leadership proved ineffective among the Black populace
at-large.
However,
the campaign for school vouchers, under the direction of the Bradley
Foundation, introduced white conservatives to the possibilities of
grassroots and electoral action under non-partisan cover in the heart of
urban America. The Hard Right had found an issue that, if generously
financed, would make available to it significant numbers of potential
minority office-seekers and ambitious local activists. These "stealth"
candidates and operatives would not be burdened with the Republican
taint.
Cory
Booker, an obscure city councilman and nominal Democrat, emerged from
the pro-voucher crowd, where he caught the attention of the Bradley
network, which put together the sophisticated machinery and massive
funding for his mayoral campaign.
In the interim, George Bush captured the White
House. The Bradley Foundation and other Hard Right funders, who had
functioned as the brains of the Bush-Cheney wing of the Republican
Party, were in position to shape national policy. Vouchers and
faith-based initiatives, both skillfully marketed to create
constituencies among African Americans, became top domestic priorities
of the Bush administration. Both "movements" were invented with Bradley
Foundation money.
The Hard
Right now had its ducks in a row: They prepared to tap billions from the
federal treasury to build conservative Black constituencies through
vouchers and faith-based programs. Meanwhile, the cultivation of
stealth, Trojan Horse candidacies within the Democratic Party would
provide a mercenary core of African American officeholders who could be
advertised as credible, alternative "leadership."
Where Black
Republicanism had failed miserably, Black stealth Democrats are poised
like a knife aimed straight at the heart of the Black consensus.
The
victories in Alabama and Georgia - and near-success in Newark - further
emboldened the Hard Right. In the mass media arena, they have achieved
unqualified success; the corporate press have adopted the Bradley
Foundation-inspired analysis of Black America as their own. African
Americans, the media declare, are deeply divided on critical issues -
especially vouchers - and no longer owe allegiance to a "civil
rights-oriented" agenda. By extension, historically influential Black
organizations no longer "represent" African Americans, particularly the
middle class. Black office-holders are hopelessly out of touch with
their constituents, while conservative Blacks are numerous and
growing.
Unless the
broad ranks of Black political office-holders, activists, and
influencers join in loud and vigorous rejection of the Trojan Horses
among us, the Black electorate will also come to believe the Right's
hype. This, of course, would signal the end of Black consensus-driven
political activity as we have known it.
Not
the same old right-wing
It is
important to stress the attitudinal change within right-wing ranks that
has made possible the emergence of their New Black Strategy. This
relatively recent internal transformation among the enemy is more
significant than the willingness of some talented Blacks to function as
surrogates for the Right. Careerists and opportunists have always been
among us, but their services were not previously so highly valued; nor,
in the past, was their company so welcomed at right-wing
functions.
Grudgingly,
the Hard Right evolved. Their strategy is no longer tokenist. In a
sense, the Hard Right has decided to "normalize" its behavior toward
Blacks, i.e., to employ funding, media, and sophisticated
institution-building strategies in the Black community similar to those
that have historically succeeded among whites. This is precisely what
makes the New Black Strategy so dangerous: it is far less encumbered by
past, racist inhibitions against intimate and expensive relationships
with significant numbers of non-whites.
Throughout
the post-Sixties explosion of African American electoral gains, the Hard
Right kept its hands off intra-Black contests. This period will
henceforth be remembered as a kind of benign Jim Crow, during which
African American politicians were spared the need to confront the full
weight of right wing financial, media and organizational clout on Black
turf. That day is over.
The
national Republican Party's embrace of the Bradley-pioneered strategy
has vastly enhanced the reach and effectiveness of the Hard Right
network. Contracts, appointments and all manner of emoluments are now
available to Black operatives who prove useful in local campaigns - win
or lose. The foundations no longer have to bear the burden of wholly
subsidizing their Black puppets. The inducements available to entice
Black Democrats to abandon the consensus have increased many-fold. The
white Right is no longer stingy to its Black collaborators.
Further
complicating the landscape, this year the evangelical and secular Right
celebrated a post-911 alliance with Jewish groups in solidarity with
whatever government rules Israel. Whether this reciprocal alliance is
limited to Rightists who happen to be Jewish or extends into more
mainstream pro-Israel organizations, is unclear. However, the evidence
from Alabama and Georgia indicates that Jewish organizations that had
previously observed the hands-off rule regarding interference in
intra-Black contests have become interventionist - on the same side as
gentile Rightists.
(In the
Newark mayoral contest, where foreign policy issues were not at stake
and the Jewish population is small, Booker operatives and their allies
in media repeatedly attempted to inject Black-Jewish "conflicts" into
the race.)
In
practice, the alliance of right-wing Jews with the corporate Right and
the Christian Right should have no effect on our course of action.
Purging the Trojan Horses from the Black body-politic is essentially an
internal affair. If we succeed, we will end up with the same allies we
started out with, but also a far healthier political environment. As we
clear the phony Democrats out, we will also clear our collective
heads.
Where to look
In defense,
African Americans must awaken precisely that quality which the Hard
Right seeks to destroy: our historical will to speak for ourselves. On
that ground, there are no honest divisions among us. Although tolerant of the
widest range of political expression and styles, African Americans can
be trusted to recognize and rebuke their enemies when they are
pointed out to them.
The Hard
Right isn't in hiding - it is in power! It spends freely, in amounts
that wave like red flags in even the most upscale Black communities.
These people are massively buying their way into office and
influence. We and our allies can discover the points-of-purchase - the
direct financial lines to the Trojan Horses. The process can be tedious,
but it's not all that complicated. (Cory Booker was identified and
out-ed in the premier issue
of The Black Commentator, despite his down-with-the-hood
pretensions.)
The
handiwork of the Hard Right is easy to detect. Black Trojan Horse
candidates are stealthy, carefully masquerading as cautious
Democrats, but their paymasters betray them at the top of their lungs.
Hard Right web sites and paper publications brag constantly about their
actual and potential minority assets. They can't help themselves
because, for the Right, the creation of an alternative Black leadership
is a public ritual.
Whether he
or she knows it or not, The Black Trojan Horse is placed in public view,
at significant expense, for display purposes. They are there to
be pointed out and regaled as brave dissidents, fighting the entrenched
Black "establishment." Although powerful financiers and corporate and
foundation executives sit at the center of the Right's machinery, they
work through a public network of organizations, giving the appearance of
a political "movement." Sponsors champion their favorites for membership
in the club; they are introduced to the people that count. The ritual
begins within the orbits and organs of the Hard Right. We just haven't
been collectively looking in the right places - which is understandable;
the strategy is only a few years old. Study the Right, and you'll find
the Trojan Horse before he/she becomes a media darling.
Campaign
contributions are arranged long before the race; by the time you see the
money, a fatal dose may already be in the pipeline. However, in order to
secure cash commitments to their Black protégés, the
right-wingers must communicate among themselves in ways that can be
easily overheard. There are no secrets, only people who have neglected
to listen.
Cory
Booker's October, 2000 luncheon speech to the Bradley Foundation-funded
Manhattan Institute should have alerted everyone to the road he was
about to take in his quest to become mayor of Newark. However, no
African American had ever taken that route; these were the Right's first
steps towards direct intervention in Black electoral politics. Booker's
core financial and media backing was assured before he left the room.
The Right's communications network followed up with a chorus of praise
for the first-term councilman, preparing the larger field of
contributors. Booker's name was on every Right operative's lips. Yet,
the funding and media juggernaut that rolled into Newark 15 months later
caught the Black and brown city completely by
surprise.
Earl Hilliard didn't know what
hit him, either. After his June 25 defeat by Arthur Davis, Hilliard told
The Black Commentator: "I just found out this past week, that there were
people who were sent to Alabama that were on the payroll of corporations
who were doing all the necessary ground work and preparations and…when
they put the money in, the money came like, WOW! It came almost at one
time, over a period of about 30 days." The congressman from Alabama's
Black Belt saw, too late, the footprints of the Hard Right's New Black
Strategy, an assault that the public perceives, incorrectly, as a mainly
Jewish operation.
In fact,
the Right is quite ecumenical, having cemented a pact, this spring,
between the corporate Hard Right (including the Bradley, Olin, Scaife,
Walton foundations, etc.), the Christian Right, and the Jewish Right.
Everyone knew the pro-Ariel Sharon train was barreling down on Cynthia
McKinney. However, as Stephen Zunes wrote in the August 25 issue of
Common Dreams: "[McKinney's] opponent's campaign coffers were enriched
by contributions from individuals and PACs affiliated with big business
and other special interests that surpassed that of the 'pro-Israel'
groups.... Majette's top contributors include a sizable number of major
Republican donors and very few names commonly associated with a Jewish
ethnicity."
There is no
need to look for pro-Sharon Jewish money behind every attempt to unseat
progressive Black officeholders. The American Israel Political Affairs
Committee will shout its involvement from here to Tel Aviv. Look,
rather, to the established networks of the Hard Right foundations and their think tanks. Gathered there
are most of Black people's enemies, scheming under one, big umbrella.
Follow their grants and associations and you will find aspiring Black
Trojan Horses, awaiting their assignments and checks. Some will be
preparing to run for office, others in line for appointments.
But that's
not the whole herd. The Democratic Party's right wing is organized
around the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the faction that most
slavishly courts big corporations and seeks to distance the party from
unions and progressive Blacks. (Yes, this is the faction that spawned
Bill Clinton, Al Gore and vice presidential candidate Senator Joe
Lieberman.) Every African American politician associated with the DLC
should be considered suspect, and closely watched. There is no reason
for them to be there except to make deals with the party's right wing -
which believes that Gore lost the 2000 election largely because he
became too closely identified with Blacks and labor.
In some
areas of the country, the DLC is the gray area between the Republican
and Democratic machineries. Cory Booker's only close New Jersey
party ties were with the rump DLC, or "New Democrats," who lauded him as
a future star of the national party.
(Black
Congressman Gregory Meeks of Queens, NY, is active with the DLC. The
large bulk of the Congressional Black Caucus is aligned with the
Progressive Congressional Caucus.)
The DLC was
formed in the South to keep big business and white conservatives from
allying themselves entirely with the Republicans. Georgia Senator Zell
Miller is a prominent DLCer - he threatened to become a Republican early
in the Bush term, a step that would have made little difference in his
politics. Miller is the sponsor of Denise Majette's political career.
There is little doubt that she will join the DLC; we predict the same
for Arthur Davis.
The
Progressive Policy Institute serves as the DLC's think tank, and
describes itself this way: "The Institute's core philosophy stems from
the belief that America is ill-served by an obsolete left-right debate
that is out of step with the powerful forces reshaping our society and
economy." The statement could have been written by any corporate-funded
outfit, and fits perfectly in the mouths of Black stealth candidates
signaling - but not too loudly - their rejection of the historical Black
consensus.
We must
watch who comes and goes at DLC functions. The place is a potential
breeding ground for Black Trojan Horses.
In fact,
we've got to do a lot of watching, and more.
The
Tasks
Flush with
two real victories and one imagined triumph, the authors of the Hard
Right's New Black Strategy have doubtless kicked the campaign into
higher gear than initially planned. In addition to the usual centers of
intrigue (the DLC, for example) and the on- and off-line publications of
the Right, it will be necessary to monitor regional and local media and
newsletters to determine who is being courted by whom. Again, when the
cash actually arrives, it will be too late to nip the Trojan Horse
candidacy in the bud.
To some,
such monitoring of the associations of African American politicians and
aspirants may smack of paranoia, creating an unhealthy political climate
in African American communities. Just the opposite: it is the stealth
candidates, the Black Republicans masquerading as Democrats, who lie
about their backers and agendas and steal the people's right to an
honest choice. Even if America as a whole isn't ready for real campaign
reform, it is within our power to enforce some degree of transparency in
our own communities.
Not only
are eyes and ears needed, but organizations of Black elected officials,
overwhelmingly Democrats, should set up special committees on the alert
to right-wing activities among the Black political class. Special
attention should be paid to local school voucher groups, who have access
to (Bradley Foundation-funded) training centers for activist cadre and
electoral candidates. The school board candidate is only a check away
from City Hall.
Monitors
must be serious people, however. The honest, conservative-leaning Black
candidate is not necessarily a tool of the Hard Right. If his pockets
are light, he's certainly not with that crowd.
Once
stealth candidates (or bought-off incumbents) are identified, they must
be exposed. This will require both documentation and dogged
perseverance, making full use of whatever media is available. When media
fails to listen, relatively small groups of people are capable of
making news, through demonstrations and other actions that demand
coverage.
It must be
emphasized that there has never been a campaign like the right-wing
offensive that is currently directed against us. We will have to be
creative in our response, while the Right and its hirelings rely on
stealth, the sheer power of money and the manipulations of the corporate
media.
The Black
Commentator is working with others to create a center to defeat the
stealth candidates and their sponsors. We have established Trojan Horse
Watch to begin this process. Once organized, we are confident our
collective resources will be sufficient to identify the stealth
candidates, expose the Hard Right's schemes in the early stages,
confront the front men and women at every venue and, ultimately, shape a
political environment in which they cannot operate.
This is a
self-determination project, in need of your skills, your energy and your
commitment.
Contact: publisher@blackcommentator.com
Your comments are welcome. Visit the Contact Us
page for E-mail or Feedback.