In Historical Perspective

BUSH'S ACCUSING JOHN KERRY OF BEING "A LIBERAL"
SHOULD BE FIGHTING WORDS FOR BLACK VOTERS

By Ofield Dukes
(Former Assistant to Vice President
Hubert H. Humphrey)

(AANewswire)Washington, DC --A president from the south---Lyndon Baines Johnson---will undoubtedly take his place in history as America's most productive civil rights president.

Because of his unexpected but extraordinary support for civil rights, President Johnson was branded "a liberal," thrashed and called "a traitor to the south" by bigoted southern members of the U.S. Congress. This and the unpopular Vietnam war were factors in President Johnson's decision not to run for re-election in 1968.

Several days before his death, President Johnson appeared at a civil rights forum at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas and said one of his regrets, as president, was not being able to do more for American Negro citizens.

At the 1996 funeral of Ronald Brown, the first African American Democratic Party chairman who laid the foundation for the 1992 presidential election of another southerner, President William Jefferson Clinton said, with tears in his eyes, "If it had not been for the heavy vote of African Americans, I would not have been elected president."

Because of his active support for civil rights, President Clinton, too, incurred the enmity and wrath of being "a liberal" and loyal friend of African Americans. Interestingly, an exceptionally large turnout of black voters in the l998 congressional elections helped save Clinton from impeachment.

Now, the main political cadence of President George W. Bush is the "L" word---accusing Senator John Kerry of being "a liberal." Obviously, in George W. Bush's world, the greatest political sin and/or disqualification for the highest public office is being "a liberal."

In any political battle, you don't allow your enemies to define the terms of the battle. Unfortunately, the enemies of civil rights were successful in re-defining affirmative action as based on "racial preferences and quotas." In his affirmative action speech at Howard University's commencements in June, l965, President Johnson spoke clearly and eloquently about "a level playing field," and there was not a single reference to "racial preferences and quotas" in that speech.

Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. and other African American civil rights leaders of the l960's were joined by "white liberals--Jews, Catholic and Protestant clergy, labor officials and college students--in the sit-ins, freedom rides and marches in the south in support of civil rights laws to end racial segregation and discrimination in public accommodations, employment and voting rights. "White liberals" were beaten and some died in this struggle.

And now a president of the United States, flagging at the polls, is using every dubious, desperate and devious means at his disposal in attempting to denigrate the reputation and destroy the credibility of his opposition by constantly calling him "a liberal." This was the shameful centerpiece of the Republican Southern Strategy during the l980's, especially in the l988 presidential campaign.

Keeping this in historical perspective, African American voters must rise up in sheer anger and let our voices be heard on November 2, Election Day. We must say to the world that in America "liberalism" as part of progressive, representative and wise leadership is still a badge of honor.

We can…no, WE MUST HAVE THE LAST WORD ON PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH'S "L" WORD SUBTERFUGE! And our last word comes at the polls on that critically important day of political judgment, Tuesday, November 2.

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