Growing up on a farm, we came to understand the crows. When we ran to the garden to drive the crows out of the corn, the sentry crow would call an alert which was much different from the distress call offered up by a crow when attacked by a hawk. Then there was the distinctive crowing that transpired when a crow observed a predator make a kill. This was a call to assemble and prepare to pick over the bones. Everybody could hear the same noises but it took familiarity with the creatures to understand what they were really saying.
But my professional years took me far from the farm and for better or worse I spent most of my working hours around active and would be elected public servants. These birds also do a lot of crowing and just like their feathered friends, it takes some familiarity with the sounds they make to understand what they are really saying. A good example of this is the distress signal, the distinctive crowing that is made after the politician realizes he or she has lost, but before it is appropriate to say so.
In way of example consider the Hillary Clinton campaign in April of 2008. She was behind Obama by more than 200 delegates and the voting patterns were quite established. Two things were clear: one, it was going to be painfully close and two, Hillary was going to lose. Hillary knew this but she was not going to call it quits at that point because she wanted the cause of a woman for President to gather just as many votes as possible and she wanted the people who supported her to have cards to play at the convention. So she crowed that she got more actual votes than Obama, a somewhat clouded claim by virtue of the uncontested, unapproved Florida Primary. But Florida or no the claim was NONSENSE. Clearly the fact that some states had, acting within the rules, had caucuses instead of primaries did not mean that their input could be discounted. The votes of delegates at the national convention would count equally, regardless of how they were chosen. Confident talk about the so called super delegates was also part of the crowing, but that too was NONSENSE. The elected officials were not going to use their status to deny the nomination to a black man who had won more elected delegates than his white opponent. It was never going to happen and Hillary knew it. But she crowed louder and louder and managed to hold it all together until the last gun was fired.
Here we are eight years later and Hillary is on the other side of the ledger. Now it’s her opponent who is in the position of Tantalus, the fruit of victory just beyond his reach. So he crows that the fact that he is behind in elected delegates should be discounted because Hillary ran up the margin in Southern states and those are the most conservative states. Therefore their judgement should be discounted and overruled by the super delegates. More NONSENSE! The voters in southern states general elections are conservative, Democratic Primary voters in these states however, are among the most liberal and are to a very great extent nonwhites. In fact, according to exit polls the most conservative Democratic Primary electorate among the early states was Oklahoma and Bernie carried that state. As to the super delegates saving Bernie from the results among elected delegates- NONSENSE. In 2008 the majority of these people would have chosen Hillary left to their own devices and yet when the winner of the elected delegates was clear they switched to the new kid, Obama. Bernie has no similar affinity as Hillary earned from years in the trenches together. There are constituencies who will be drawn to a candidate that takes pride in the fact that politicians don’t like him, it turns out that group does not include politicians. Furthermore, these people are not going to put their fingers on the scale to deny to a woman candidate what she won in the field. And they are not going to do anything to devalue the black voters. The Democrats do not win without a strong turnout of people of color and in many places these voters need to be so motivated that they will stand in line for 4 hours or more to get past the obstacles created by Republican legislatures.
It is hard in the heat of battle to appreciate irony but this crowing in denial of defeat is loaded with it. In 2008, Hillary’s excuse was actually an admission of a major flaw in her campaign. In complaining about the weight of caucus states she was calling attention that the new kid had out organized her and at the same time fought her to a standstill in the primary states. Bernie in saying that he lost the southern states because they are conservative is just underlining how disconnected he is from the black community. This is not surprising. He has lived in and campaigned in Vermont. He hasn’t had to win over or serve a large black constituency and he has few home state black allies who could go forth as his advocates in other states. This is a real weakness in a candidate who will have to inspire and motivate black voters in order to win.
I know to some Bernie supporters the fact that most black voters supported Hillary is hard to figure out. Why can’t they understand that Bernie’s message would be best for them? Don’t they understand that they are the worst victims of a rigged system? So Bernie voters let me offer a cautionary note. Black voters understand that as a vulnerable minority, elections matter more to them than most. A Republican Supreme Court might take away a white woman’s right to an abortion, but for a black woman her voting rights as well as her reproductive rights are at stake. This vulnerability makes for careful voting. Such voters care less about the new body design and more about the proven mileage, and it is my experience they get it right more than any other group.
1968 was my first adventure into Presidential primary politics and the big fight was between Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy. Young college people generally were excited about Gene and couldn’t understand why black voters were so loyal to Bobby. Then, Martin Luther King was killed. Bobby’s response was to refuse to cancel a rally in a black neighborhood in Indianapolis even though the police told him it would not be safe. He went there and delivered a heartfelt call for not turning to hate but rededicating our nation to the healing message of Doctor King. McCarthy’s response to the news was to opine that Dr. King “probably had it coming” for going into Nashville amid all the turmoil. I have made it a practice since to approach black voting patterns more as a student than a teacher.
But my professional years took me far from the farm and for better or worse I spent most of my working hours around active and would be elected public servants. These birds also do a lot of crowing and just like their feathered friends, it takes some familiarity with the sounds they make to understand what they are really saying. A good example of this is the distress signal, the distinctive crowing that is made after the politician realizes he or she has lost, but before it is appropriate to say so.
In way of example consider the Hillary Clinton campaign in April of 2008. She was behind Obama by more than 200 delegates and the voting patterns were quite established. Two things were clear: one, it was going to be painfully close and two, Hillary was going to lose. Hillary knew this but she was not going to call it quits at that point because she wanted the cause of a woman for President to gather just as many votes as possible and she wanted the people who supported her to have cards to play at the convention. So she crowed that she got more actual votes than Obama, a somewhat clouded claim by virtue of the uncontested, unapproved Florida Primary. But Florida or no the claim was NONSENSE. Clearly the fact that some states had, acting within the rules, had caucuses instead of primaries did not mean that their input could be discounted. The votes of delegates at the national convention would count equally, regardless of how they were chosen. Confident talk about the so called super delegates was also part of the crowing, but that too was NONSENSE. The elected officials were not going to use their status to deny the nomination to a black man who had won more elected delegates than his white opponent. It was never going to happen and Hillary knew it. But she crowed louder and louder and managed to hold it all together until the last gun was fired.
Here we are eight years later and Hillary is on the other side of the ledger. Now it’s her opponent who is in the position of Tantalus, the fruit of victory just beyond his reach. So he crows that the fact that he is behind in elected delegates should be discounted because Hillary ran up the margin in Southern states and those are the most conservative states. Therefore their judgement should be discounted and overruled by the super delegates. More NONSENSE! The voters in southern states general elections are conservative, Democratic Primary voters in these states however, are among the most liberal and are to a very great extent nonwhites. In fact, according to exit polls the most conservative Democratic Primary electorate among the early states was Oklahoma and Bernie carried that state. As to the super delegates saving Bernie from the results among elected delegates- NONSENSE. In 2008 the majority of these people would have chosen Hillary left to their own devices and yet when the winner of the elected delegates was clear they switched to the new kid, Obama. Bernie has no similar affinity as Hillary earned from years in the trenches together. There are constituencies who will be drawn to a candidate that takes pride in the fact that politicians don’t like him, it turns out that group does not include politicians. Furthermore, these people are not going to put their fingers on the scale to deny to a woman candidate what she won in the field. And they are not going to do anything to devalue the black voters. The Democrats do not win without a strong turnout of people of color and in many places these voters need to be so motivated that they will stand in line for 4 hours or more to get past the obstacles created by Republican legislatures.
It is hard in the heat of battle to appreciate irony but this crowing in denial of defeat is loaded with it. In 2008, Hillary’s excuse was actually an admission of a major flaw in her campaign. In complaining about the weight of caucus states she was calling attention that the new kid had out organized her and at the same time fought her to a standstill in the primary states. Bernie in saying that he lost the southern states because they are conservative is just underlining how disconnected he is from the black community. This is not surprising. He has lived in and campaigned in Vermont. He hasn’t had to win over or serve a large black constituency and he has few home state black allies who could go forth as his advocates in other states. This is a real weakness in a candidate who will have to inspire and motivate black voters in order to win.
I know to some Bernie supporters the fact that most black voters supported Hillary is hard to figure out. Why can’t they understand that Bernie’s message would be best for them? Don’t they understand that they are the worst victims of a rigged system? So Bernie voters let me offer a cautionary note. Black voters understand that as a vulnerable minority, elections matter more to them than most. A Republican Supreme Court might take away a white woman’s right to an abortion, but for a black woman her voting rights as well as her reproductive rights are at stake. This vulnerability makes for careful voting. Such voters care less about the new body design and more about the proven mileage, and it is my experience they get it right more than any other group.
1968 was my first adventure into Presidential primary politics and the big fight was between Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy. Young college people generally were excited about Gene and couldn’t understand why black voters were so loyal to Bobby. Then, Martin Luther King was killed. Bobby’s response was to refuse to cancel a rally in a black neighborhood in Indianapolis even though the police told him it would not be safe. He went there and delivered a heartfelt call for not turning to hate but rededicating our nation to the healing message of Doctor King. McCarthy’s response to the news was to opine that Dr. King “probably had it coming” for going into Nashville amid all the turmoil. I have made it a practice since to approach black voting patterns more as a student than a teacher.