Since the start of a new year, we’ve witnessed the passing of national and state elections and await the outcome of various local races. In the last cycle millions were spent and millions of words spoken exposing efforts to reduce voter turnout. Despite the poorly disguised voter suppression tactics, African-American voters diligently went to the polls and delivered heavily for Democrats, who usually fielded better candidates.
Unfortunately, the agenda of neither of the major parties really addressed issues that, while not necessarily unique to blacks, impact our community and youth disproportionately. While there were plenty of passionate election-time appeals about how we shouldn’t forget those who died for the right to vote, there was little real discussion about the lingering institutional and structural injustices around race, class and poverty that they were actually fighting against.
We have to remember politics are more than elections. Voting is just a means to an end. Political art is active engagement and building partnerships with those who support your goals; its science is getting what is necessary to measurably improve the lives of others. Elections matter to the extent that they provide an idea of the issues and people the candidates think are important.
With America becoming increasingly diverse, I wonder if the two major parties alone have the vocabulary or the imagination to turn the rhetoric and goals of the Civil Rights Movement into a political and economic program that deals with 21st Century socioeconomic realities. The Democratic Party is best positioned to do it, but any coalitions between progressives and African Americans in particular will be superficial and short if they don’t begin with honest dialogue about if and how resources will be allocated to help reverse negative trends in education, criminal justice and employment.
If we continue vote but stay silent and satisfied with second-class education, health care, housing and employment opportunities, then the only legacy we leave our children is a 21st Century apartheid behind prison walls. No child’s future should be sacrificed because the dynamics of race are too uncomfortable to confront and the politics of poverty and inclusion are too difficult to wrestle with.
The short-sightedness of many of our own politicians has been one obstacle to progress. Too many so-called leaders are more interested in self-promotion than being serious about the business of political engagement for socioeconomic improvement. We have not effectively presented a concise set of demands for our continued loyalty, nor specified credible political consequences for not getting enough of the grown-up chairs at the political table.
Those who call themselves leaders will have to put aside petty personal ambition and focus on setting the stage for the next generation of problem-solvers. With a new America on the horizon, our politics must engage, mentor, prepare and serve as a hands-on laboratory for action and ideas, especially for our young people. They can fulfill their potential and join their peers as global leaders, but we have no time to waste on politics that lacks vision and doesn’t give young people a chance to learn how to use the tools of civic engagement.
Organized and focused pressure to mentor and place representative numbers of minorities in decision-making positions during campaigns and after elections also has to be a variable in our political calculus. If the voices of all voters aren’t heard at the table, the individuals and groups who collectively set agendas and determine policy don’t have much incentive to broker any deals addressing the daily life challenges of a significant part of their base. Developing an agenda for social and economic advancement instead of settling for individual and temporary electoral victories will not guarantee that we will get what everything we need, but not having a plan guarantees we will continue to get very little.
