Tavis Smiley BLACKS COULD STILL HIRE TRUMP
Don’t be too sure that Clinton has a lock on African-American voters
With Hillary Clinton racking up more overwhelming victories in Super Tuesday primaries thanks to the overwhelming support of African-American voters, the conventional wisdom is that she has the black vote on lockdown. That might be wrong.
Clinton has already been endorsed by most members of the Congressional Black Caucus, many black mayors and other notable black elected officials from California to the Carolinas.
Additionally, she’s getting not so subtle signs of support from Obama White House insiders and a few shout-outs from President Obama himself. Initially, the president promised to remain neutral until the primary season was over, but he recently appeared to ever so gently open the door to an endorsement of his former secretary of State sooner than expected.
POLITICAL CALCULATIONS I never thought Obama would wait that long, not after what Bill Clinton did for him at the Democratic National Convention in 2012 to help energize his re-election campaign. Politics is funny. First, they run against each other in a nasty campaign with racial overtones, then they feign friendship and work together, then Bill gallops in to help Barack win a second term, and now Hillary needs the president’s support to win the presidency herself.
The conventional wisdom is that blacks have forgiven the Clintons for their attempt to diminish Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and now they’ve got Hillary’s back. Except everyone knows that in this presidential election cycle, conventional wisdom left the building long before the train left the station. If Donald Trump is indeed the Republican nominee, it might be a miscalculation for the Democratic Party to take black voters for granted.
For starters, charisma and likeability aren’t transferable. While the chance to elect the first woman president is indeed tantalizing for many, in black America specifically, it’s not exactly the same as watching an African-American first family taking up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Indeed, even women haven’t as yet rallied en masse around Hillary the way black folks did around Obama.
Second, the number of black voters we assume will dismiss Trump because of his anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim attacks might be inflated. While I certainly have had my say about Trump being a “religious and racial arsonist,” not everyone in black America agrees with me.
I have been taken aback by many conversations I’ve had with black folks who don’t find those comments by Trump necessarily or automatically disqualifying.
BLACK FRIENDS OF TRUMP We will see whether his initial refusal Sunday on CNN to disavow the endorsement of David Duke, the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacy might anger black voters. Interestingly, CNN ran a story two months ago about a white supremacist group doing robocalls for Trump in Iowa. He didn’t denounce them then and seems not to have suffered for it.
Third, though it is true that black/brown political coalitions have had successes, it is also true that there have been plenty of occasions where the interests of black and brown voters didn’t align. In California, where I live, Latinos are still smarting from the lack of black voter support in 1994 to help defeat the anti-immigrant Proposition 187.
Fourth, it’s telling how quiet black elites have been, those who travel in social circles with Trump. There have been some exceptions — Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover come to mind. I’ve talked privately to some of Trump’s black friends, and to a person, their critique of him is highly nuanced. Men and women from black America’s most privileged class either genuinely like this guy or they’re afraid of being caught in his social media meat grinder. Those whose job it is to comment on politics have been strong in condemning Trump, but those who earn their wealth elsewhere have been quiet. It’s going to be interesting to watch how these BFOTs ( black friends of Trump) support the Democratic nominee even as they try to remain neutral on Trump.
Finally, it’s mind-numbing that a reckless member of the billionaire class has somehow convinced everyday people that he is their savior. But all rich guys aren’t created equal. Trump’s policies might not be that different from Mitt Romney’s, but they apparently sound different to workingclass voters. For many blacks, it’s fair to say that, at the moment, Trump is no Romney.
Consequently, there is no reason to believe that if Trump is his party’s nominee, he won’t make a play for African-American voters. Who knows how many he might skim? In a close election, it might not take a lot.