Michael Steele is getting all of the press, but in Michigan (where I’m spending summer vacation with the family), the name to remember is Keith Butler. Running for Senate on the GOP ticket, Butler’s already got some history in local government–he was on the Detroit City Council. And he’s pastor of one of the largest churches in the state of Michigan.
There are two big issues black Republican candidates have to deal with–both of them obvious. Whites don’t tend to vote for blacks as a general rule, and blacks don’t tend to vote Republican as a general rule. There are exceptions–Republican gubernatorial candidates can get as much as 30% of the black vote depending, and whites will vote for blacks if they don’t feel threatened. Butler really doesn’t have the ear of the Republican Party in Michigan for any number of reasons, but I happen to know that he’s been mildly effective at raising money.
But for me the wildcard is his policy preferences. My father-in-law got a flier from the Butler campaign, and from the flier it’s clear that Butler’s got a stealth campaign for black Democrats. According to the flier, Butler supports:
- Affirmative Action
- Cleaning up the Environment
- Staving off cuts in student loans
Of the things that I can’t get a bead on, he MAY support alternative energy policies, and he MAY support universal health care. Further, he is firmly anti-abortion, and anti-gay marriage.
This is the type of Republican candidate that can make waves. Black enough to understand that Affirmative Action is needed, and that working class folks need government assistance to pay for college. Black enough to understand the devastation laid upon our cities by environmental mis-steps. But conservative enough to support the cultural issues that drive white evangelicals.
I’ve long felt that if the GOP gave up the fight against Affirmative Action and the EEOC, they’d be able to claim the middle to upper income black vote for the next 50 years. Butler may provide the blueprint. But the real problem keeping the GOP from pursuing this blueprint aggressively is simple. Even if we take a very very conservative approach and peg the percent of active racists at ten percent of the adult population, that doubles the TOTAL black population. No way around that.
Professor Spence,
I like the column. It’s solid. My boy Rob read it first and then turned me on to it.
You certainly pegged those competing tendencies happening not only in the minds of establishment politicians, but in those of working people.
If white workers continue to be won over on the basis of their skin color (and the privileges associated with that), they will keep the whole working class in permanent bondage.
White people need to see affirmative action as something that benefits ALL workers and that we cannot truly defeat [institutional] racism unless we institutionalize anti-racism (and discrimination towards women, the elderly, and physically handicapped).
I’m slightly off topic there, but it needs to be said regardless.
Again, great piece.
KB
Thanks Krisna. What you do at Democracy and Hiphop is extremely rare. If you haven’t already, once you’ve gotten a number of pieces under your belt, you all should publish the essays.
But yeah, white workers have some things to deal with. I suspect it’ll be coming to a head soon. One way or another.
No doubt, I really appreciate that, especially coming from someone with a Ph.D.
I’m doing the college thing very slowly. Like, taking one internet class a semester. I don’t know if I’ll ever have a degree, but that would be a nice accomplishment.
However, I am going to keep writing regardless. I would really like to publish some of this stuff. I am certainly open to suggestions. I’ve never really done anything like that.
You’re right, it will come to a head. The hope is that white nationalism doesn’t win white folks over. I feel pretty positive that it won’t, but it is still a historical possibility. James is really dope to me because he gives me hope in the ability for people to make a better society, like what we did in the 30s and what Hungary did in the 50s and what Nepal is doing now. You know what I mean.
I’m going to continue to read your material. And again, I’m super hyped that you enjoy mine. Peace.
KB
Butler is an extremely homophobic, rabidly anti-abortion, would-be theocrat. He’s the American Taliban and stands four-square against every liberal, progressive ideal championed by great Americans from Frederick Douglass to Dr. King to modern day political figures like John Conyers, Bobby Scott, and Sheila Jackson-Lee. If you asked Butler about James Baldwin he wouldn’t hesitate to say he is burning in hell, I have no doubt.
It will be a sad day for Michigan if he gets elected, but thankfully there’s no chance of that.
I understand what you are saying David but disagree with it. He stands against rights for gays, and he stands against abortion. But on a number of economic policies he stands with black liberals. I would categorize him as a fiscal liberal, but a social conservative. This places him closer to the middle of the black electorate than to the tails. If I were back in Michigan voting, I would seriously think of voting for him in the primary–if it’s him and someone like Spencer Abraham? Easy pick, because he’s more prone to be interested in issues that black people are interested in.
But I’d never vote for him in the general election, because his slant on social issues would be more conservative than the other choice.
thanks for stopping by.