Death Knell of Black Protest Poltics: The Case of Cynthia McKinney

Cynthia Mckinney was defeated last night by Hank Johnson in a run off election in the 4th district in Georgia in which McKinney garnered less votes than in the initial primary and her lowest numbers since her defeat by Denise Majette. There are many reasons for this defeat which we will go into soon, but what the reader ought to know is that the statements reported by a variety of Georgia voters indicates that the era of Black protest politics is all but dead. I'll get back to that point in a minute. First I think it instructive to look back on this event and see what problems there were both internally and externally. First I will begin with the internal.

The McKinney camp should have known better than to run a low profile campaign. This assumes that McKinney had the funds to do otherwise. In 2002 when she asked her famous questions: "What did the president know?" "When did he know it?" and "did any of his friends profit?" all guns were pointed at her. That set of questions became the basis of a non-stop smear campaign lead by the Republicans. Publicly this line of questioning, which was actually vindicated in various news reports in both mainstream and "alternate" media as well as the 9-11 commission, caused the media to label her as a "looney conspiracy theorist". After all, at the time, most Americans bought the line that the President knew nothing of any plots to hijack planes (which is now known to be untrue). We also know that at least two of the 9-11 hijackers were known by the CIA and FBI prior to 9-11. We know that they had concerns about these individuals and we know that these concerns were dismissed by the president. These are now known and vindicate McKinney's questioning. The media implied that McKinney said that the president allowed 9-11 to happen so that his buddies could profit from the war. However, there is no quotation anywhere, in any literature that says that. That said, we do know that the war in Iraq was premeditated. We know, from documentation that 9-11 was seen as the perfect justification to execute the premeditated plan to invade Iraq and we know that the war in Iraq would have been done regardless to whether WMD's were located there or not. We also know that Haliburton, Kellog, Brown and Root among other companies with close ties to the President and Vice-President were awarded no-bid contracts for "rebuilding" Iraq as well as "security forces". In essence the President's "friends" have, in fact profited off of the war, predicated on outright phoney "intelligence" under the cover of 9-11 terrorism prevention logic.

Furthermore, it was McKinney who during a congressional hearing was able to put into the congressional record the fact that there were multiple "war games" taking place on 9-11 which may have contributed to the slow response to not 1 but 2 "missing" planes. I say "may" because those individuals who were being questioned on this matter were afforded "lunch breaks" that allowed them to avoid answering the questions. Therefore; to label McKinney "loony" for actually asking the same questions the 9-11 committee asked; to label Mckinney "looney" when the facts on the ground support her line of questioning either directly or indirectly means that there is some political reason why McKinney needed to be labelled "looney". Part of this is that if McKinney's positions are validated then there would be repercussions for both Democrats AND Republicans.

I'm not entirely sure whether McKinney had done so, but I do not believe that her campaign had done anything substantial to address this issue which in reports around the web and press can be seen as one of the reasons so many were sour on her. For example, this information could have been printed up and mailed to or put into peoples mailboxes over the two years after she regained her congressional seat. A sit down with the constituents on this matter in a manner that could not be spun by the media would have been a perfect means to plant the seed of questioning in their minds about the veracity of the information used against McKinney. It may not have convinced all the people, but it would have put a rational, "I met her and she's not foaming at the mouth" feel to her.

The second problem with her non-campaign campaign was that her staff apparently forgot about the Denise Majette incident. Apparently they thought that Denise Majette won only because of some white majority hiding somewhere in her district. No, She won because a significant part of the black voting population in her district voted for her. McKinney's priority should have been to find out why this portion of the black community voted against her. Sure they may well be "Uncle Tom House Negroes" but as district constituents they should have been allowed to put their concerns to her and she should have addressed them, yea or nay. Again, I don't know the specifics of her campaign, but the low keyness of it would appear to me contributed significantly to her defeat because to many voters she was simply MIA.

The third problem with her campaign was that she missed the debates. I understand that many times the incumbent actually wins these things by denying their opponent validation by refusing to debate with them. When you're popular you can do this. When people are calling you "looney" and you've previously lost your seat, you don't miss debates. Debates are the one place where you can put out information for free and uncensored. These were missed opportunities for McKinney to humanize herself to her critics and, most importantly show that she is not "nuts." Renember that because a large number of folks thought she was "nuts" they would tune in to see what "antics" McKinney would do "this time." Those were opportunities to put a lie to the idea. Speaking of nuts I have to discuss the police incident.

I said in a previous writing that it was a huge, HUGE mistake for McKinney to hit the police officer in DC. It was even worse that it happened during an election year. Her advisors did her a great disservice by not having her apologize immediately. I would say that politically this incident probably cost her the most points. If you read the papers and internet posts regarding her "representability" this one incident comes up frequently. The picture of your congressperson "flipping out" does not do any campaign good. Did the cop deserve to be hit. I think so. They are trained to recognize congresspersons on sight. That whole "she had different hair" thing is ridiculously "racist". The proof of this is in the interviews with some Black Capitol Police who have stated that not only is it common for blacks including congresspersons to be harassed, but Cynthia McKinney had written a letter asking for the DA to be disciplined over "racist" remarks made to black DC police. Therefore it is highly, highly likely that the police "had it out" for McKinney. Personally I am of the opinion, having had similar rude and inappropriate behavior directly my way by police officers, that police officers who are doing something illegal are, at that moment held in no higher regard or afforded any other authority than a private citizen. That said, as I posted before, that the average citizen would be arrested on the spot for the same incident (if not shot), the whole incident appeared to be of a "self important" congresswoman who thought she didn't have to follow the rules all of us are subject to.

The External Factors

Having discussed the faults in the McKinney campaign machine itself, I want to address the external issues that contributed to her political demise:

High on the list is AIPAC and other American Israeli support PACS. Somewhere about 2002 AIPAC asked McKinney to be a signatory to some statement about supporting Israel. She refused. Since then McKinney has been in their cross hairs. It is known that Denise Majette received a substantial amount of support from Pro-Israeli PACS and individuals which allowed her campaign to reach proportions that her recognition would otherwise not allow. This time around Hank Johnson received massive amounts of "local" money after he became a viable challenger to McKinney. I question the "localness" of this money given that I can give to an organization in Georgia and then that organization can give to a particular candidate. No one can say that I, from NJ, gave to such and such a candidate. I think that the persons and organizations behind Majette learned a lesson in indirect contributions. I can't prove it so one can take this with a grain of salt but I may decide to investigate this angle further.

The second and related groups are the Republican PACs and Republican operatives who also contributed to Hank Johnson, which he admitted to. That black folk in the 4th district, who are mostly registered Democrats would not find that objectionable is interesting and will be discussed later. clearly though those black individuals were more put off by their perception of Mckinney than by the Republican party. It is to me a breech of political etiquette for a rival party to divert funds to a candidate of another party. it's not illegal, but given that I have been saying that the Democratic Party has been infiltrated, I think such actions as these are further evidence to this claim.

The third group, which is largely a subset or superset of the above mentioned group is the press and internet. For example, on election day a radio station in Georgia apparently ran a story about a McKinney being arrested. Now if I was an undecided voter and I heard that McKinney had been arrested, I would not be voting for McKinney. I have no doubt that those who programmed that event knew exactly the impact it would have on the election. But larger than this is the reports that McKinney supports terrorism. The charge was that members of Muslim organizations like CAIR supported McKinney. Since these organization supported or were sympathetic with the Palestinians or Hamas, then they were terrorist organizations therefore McKinney supports terrorism. In fact Hank Johnson, at a debate said that since McKinney had Arab names on her list of donors, she supported terrorism. Now this clear "racist" remark was not only repeated by numerous Conservative and Jewish press it seemed to have been alright with the black voting block. Hank was not called "looney" for such a remark because in America it is OK to claim that any Arab is a terrorist. There is political cover for such speech. Related to this "all Arabs are terrorists" line, there was the oft repeated report that McKinney had apologized to the Saudi Prince at the time, when Rudy Guiliani refused is $10 million dollar gift to NYC because the Prince said that the US ought to reconsider it's foreign policy in the Middle East. Again and again McKinney was cited as being in league with terrorists because she shares this sentiment. However; this sentiment is exactly the sentiments of a great deal of diplomats and foreign policy experts. Is Jimmy Carter in league with terrorists? Would the press be allowed to smear Jimmy Carter in such a manner? I won't even get into Mr, Guiliani, who thinks its ok to shoot at unarmed black men 41 times. Or thinks that police should shoot and kill a black man who under-cover narcotics officers ask to buy marijuana from but are refused. Overall the press, specifically the online conservative press as well as outlets such as the AJC, and specifically a black female writer for that publication who should have known better had a field day allowing misinformation on Mckinney stay front and center.

The last external factor in this was the Democratic Party or better yet the DLC. One comment you hear from the voters in Georgia (and Connecticut as well) is the "ability to work with colleagues" I agree that the ability to work with colleagues is important. It was Nancy Pelosi who should have returned McKinney to her rightful seniority when she returned to congress as is done for everyone else. This clear example of discrimination was allowed to happen by the leadership of the Democratic Party including the members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Though reported in outlets such as the Black Commentator, the people who could do anything about it were simply MIA. The Black Congressional Caucus, as well as the majority of Democrats were similarly MIA when McKinney was called a "bitch" by a Senate Republican, on record.

So there we have it. A perfect storm of organized subterfuge, self-destructive behavior and outright abandonment that culminated to cost McKinney her seat, which I do not think she will ever get back. More important to me though, is the sign that this defeat indicates for black protest politics. One would have hoped that the increase in affluent black people in Georgia's 4th district would have meant that a stand up person such as McKinney would have a relatively easy time of it being able to raise funds from a local, affluent group of black folks who could insulate her from the racists whites around her who have, as of today called her a "bitch" and a "Ho". Instead we have seen that this affluent class of blacks are far from their humble roots. Instead of "truth to power" they actually voted for a person who made a clearly "racist" remark that in other circumstances would be directed at them. Instead of holding the Democratic Party's feet to the fire for it's blatant discrimination against McKinney, this group has voted for someone less likely to "rock the boat." Indeed these voters have forsaken the letter from a Birmingham jail written by their native son Dr. King Jr. in which he lamented even the black clergy and other leaders for their willingness to "go slow" and "not rock the boat" and to stand up for principle. Indeed it would appear that with their newfound wealth and societal acceptance, they are slowly becoming that which was marched against. To vote McKinney out of office because the police harassed her, when we know that police do, in fact harass black people, is a poor political decision (even though it was a bad decision on McKinney's part). To call McKinney "looney" because she dared to be the first to ask the important questions regarding 9-11 and the Iraq war, is a bad political decision. When the purpose of congressional representation is simply to see how much money the representative can get out of the treasury rather than the sworn oath to uphold the constitution, which no one can say McKinney has not done. then black voters become no better than many of the people of other races they read and talk about in private. And if that is the direction that the "upwardly mobile" affluent class of blacks are going, then Black protest politics, which has been traditionally rooted in steadfastness, truth and fairness is dead and is being replaced with a politics compromise on principle, unethical behavior and selfishness. One only needs to look at Andrew Young, who went from labor activist to a front man for corporate exploitation. My how the potentially mighty have gone to sleep.

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