Kevin Gray was interviewed via telephone on C-Span‘s Washington Journal this morning. He made some critical points the Kerry/Edwards campaign would be wise to address if they’re sincerely interested in energising disenfranchised voters who are likely to respond to this VP announcement with little enthusiasm.
On the other hand if their concern for “Two Americas” is just the usual rhetoric and they continue to ignore Gray, et. al., and fail to put forth real solutions to these issues as opposed to empty promises, then for the sake of common decency the Kerry/Edwards ticket should drop the pretense and any further reference to the working class, the poor, and most especially to Langston Hughes and his poem “Let America Be America Again.” That’s my opinion, not Gray’s, a civil rights organiser with years of political experience that has yet to be approached by the party concerning the southern or any other strategy.
Kevin Gray via IPA, July 6, 2004:
Contributing editor for Black News in Columbia, South Carolina, Gray said today: “As beauty contests go, the dull, blue-blooded Kerry — picking a veep who portrays himself as an up-by-the-bootstraps son of a mill worker, who mouths populist themes — is the story the liberal establishment wants to sell. Of course Edwards is also a millionaire and, despite his stump speeches about ‘two Americas,’ the fact remains that he himself lives in Country Club Hills in Raleigh and has a beach house in a gated community far away from the have-nots of our divided country. And, while he is quick to talk about ‘two Americas,’ there is nothing in what he says to really solve the problem. Both Edwards and Kerry gave George Bush a blank check to wage an unnecessary, unprovoked war and, if elected, they will expand the number of troops in Iraq — maybe even bringing back the draft. Both men have criticized the Ashcroft Justice Department but both voted for the incredibly intrusive Patriot Act. They supported Bush’s underfunded ‘No Child Left Behind’ and, as far as Israel is concerned, both stand with George Bush and Ariel Sharon and their shameful, criminal treatment of the Palestinians.”
Gray added: “The attempt to put the DLC [Democratic Leadership Council] face on the party so as to appeal to ‘Reagan Democrats’ will be at the expense of issues that African Americans have traditionally supported, such as opposition to the death penalty and more funds to education as opposed to the prison industrial complex. The Democrats’ election strategy to this point has been ‘Anybody but Bush.’ The selection of Edwards is consistent with that strategy but such a shallow, reactive strategy doesn’t offer a structural fundamental change in American politics away from empire building.”
Resource: John Edwards, like John Kerry, maintained that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the invasion of Iraq. For example: “We know that he [Hussein] has chemical and biological weapons.” (Oct. 10, 2002)
[See: http://www.senate.gov/~edwards/statements/20021010_iraq.html]
The following is a letter sent to The Nation in response to their May 3, 2004 feature Brown at 50:
I was sorry none of the writers looking back at Brown looked forward with a broader vision. The problem today is not only that far too many people of color are still cut off from opportunity for a good life but also that more and more other people are as well. The plutocrats and would-be oligarchs would be only too happy to see middle-class liberals speak solely in terms of racial justice, but at this stage in our history racial justice has to be integrated into a broader program of social justice that recognizes what is happening to working-class and poor people. There are grassroots groups and some unions that are working at it, but many well-intentioned people still need to learn.
*post-title via 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover