This is not your Daddy's Alabama Democratic Party...Or is it?

Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., shares a moment with Peggy Wallace-Kennedy, daughter of former Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, prior to being introduced to the congregation gathered at the Brown AME Chapel in Selma, Ala., on Sunday, on the 44th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march that led to passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Key words... a symbol of change in Alabama.   From where I sit I see lots of symbolism but very little change due to the deep racial divide within the Alabama Democratic Party.  The white wing needs the black wings vote in order to "win" elections, but after they win, they govern like republicans. When the black wing dares complain about their mist-treatment, or demand equal rights they are accused of being divisive, code for shut up, stop whining,  go along to get along.  

The present Chairman is trying to "reinvent the Alabama Democratic Party"  but what does that mean exactly?  Based on actions and comments it means getting rid of Joe Reed and his bunch of people.  There's only one problem with that...getting rid of Joe Red and his bunch of people will return the Democratic Party to the party of Segregation Today.  Segregation Tomorrow.  Segregation Forever.

So who are Joe Reed and his bunch of people?  

The Alabama Democratic Conference, formerly known as the Black Political Caucus of Alabama, was established in 1960. Its leaders were African Americans who wished to encourage all voters, but especially other African Americans, to vote for the democratic candidate, who at the time was John F. Kennedy with vice president Lyndon B. Johnson. The founders of this influential group include Arthur Shores, Rufus Lewis, Dr. C.G. Gomillion, Q. D. Adams, Isom Clemon, and Beulah Johnson. All of these individuals held respectable positions in their communities and were looked up to by the people, especially by other African Americans.

Since the time of its establishment, the Alabama Democratic Conference has only gotten more influential. In fact, it now promotes the democratic party throughout the entire state thanks to having many chapters and other affiliated organizations.

The mission statement of the Alabama Democratic Conference is simple. It is to "organize" and to "unify" the vote of the African American population and also to make the African American vote and opinion appreciated and respected. The organization worked tirelessly for ten years after its inception before these results truly began to manifest themselves. It was a long, hard road, but the members were simply not willing to give up on what they thought as important. Things really changed for this group in 1970 when it began to screen and endorse actual democratic candidates. This brought more attention to and knowledge of the group. The Alabama Democratic Conference also focused on having voter registration drives, monitoring voting, employing African Americans, and helping African Americans to be able to run for office and to hold high positions. Thanks to the group's hard work, there are now more African American elected representatives in Alabama than there are in any other state. While this cannot be due entirely to the Alabama Democratic Conference, it certainly wouldn't have been possible without its dedicated efforts and concern.

There are some (not to be confused with all) white democrats who believe this group and it's leader(s) have served their usefulness and it's time for the Alabama Democratic Party to unite, but that's kind of hard to do when one group takes the other group for granted.  What ever his faults ADC Vice Chairman  Dr. Joe Reed has always been reliable voice for progressive issues in Alabama.

Joe Reed served as Executive Secretary of the Alabama State Teachers Association from 1964 to 1969, where he became nationally known as a champion of employee rights. He was the key negotiator for the ASTA leading up to the merger with the AEA, and subsequently serves as Associate Executive Secretary of the Alabama Education Association (AEA) to this date. Joe Reed is also a member of numerous professional associations.

Joe Reed has served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention eight (8) times; he served as Chairman of the Alabama Delegation during the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. He is Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference (ADC) and Vice Chair of the Democratic Party for Minority Affairs, and he was National Co-Chair for the Committee of Educators for the Humphrey/Muskie ticket in 1968. In 2008 Hillary Clinton outreached to Joe Reed (before Barack Obama was viewed as a serious contender in the 2008 Presidential race), to be her pointman in the area.

In 1975, Joe Reed led the efforts to get equitable representation for blacks on the Montgomery City Council. His efforts resulted in four blacks of nine being elected. He served on the Montgomery City Council for 24 years. In the Democratic Party today, Alabama’s black representation exceeds all other states in the nation. For over 40 years he has led the effort to get more blacks elected and appointed to public office, including federal marshals, federal and state judges, members of the boards of registrars, legislators, county commissioners, city councils, and school boards. He drafted two plans that increased black representation in the Alabama House of Representatives from 13 to 27; and in the Senate from 3 to 8 in 1982, and 1992, respectively. He also drew a reapportionment plan that provided for 25% (two of eight) majority black districts on the State Board of Education. Alabama is the only state in the nation where the Legislature reflects the state’s population of blacks and whites.

As long as some (not to be confused with all) white democrats see Joe Reed and his bunch as the problem the Alabama Democratic Party will continue to be Your Daddy's Alabama's Democratic Party.

 Symbolism is nice, but substance is better. 

 I'm just saying....

Taking the black vote for granted Alabama Democratic Party style

Kennedy has my support as long as he's opposed to Reed. Reed is the problem and as long as he's there, white Democrats in Alabama will continue to be on the endangered list. What Reed doesn't realize is that the money that used to come to the party is drying up and there is no budget for useless staffers any more.  yellerdog

What's down is up, what's up is down.  The republican party is reaching out to black voters while the Alabama Democratic Party is trying to figure out how to get rid of them.  It seems the Alabama Democratic Party is doing more than its fair share to ensure that Alabama remains a de facto one-party state under GOP dominance for decades to come.  Sigh

This is the headline that greeted me on al.com this morning.


Democratic Party Chair Mark Kennedy not bowing to Joe Reed's demand to rehire fired staffer

Reading past the headline,  ADP Executive Director and Kennedy confidant Bradley Davidson fired Felix Parker Jan. 7 from his $30,000 a year job as director of voter management. According to sources familiar with the firing, Parker was fired for several reasons but the only one Davidson would confirm was Parker's chronic absenteeism from the job, with Kennedy's blessings. 

Since efforts to reach Reed and Parker were not successful, and reporter Charles Dean couldn't wait to hear from them we don't have both sides of the story.  A quick google search for information about Felix Parker led me to this March 22, 2011 post/comment at Left in Alabama where it appears to have something to do with Kennedy's decision not to sell the voter list.

It may not make him popular with the insiders (4.00 / 1)

But the decision not to sell the voter list to candidates may help both candidates and the ADP. Candidates who have bought that list tell me it's full of holes and inaccuracies. Here locally the candidates have been working with OFA and hope to use THAT list in 2012.
Ideally, some campaign will merge the ADP and OFA files at some point, providing a more complete picture of Democratic voters throughout the state to the benefit of both organizations.
I know I have heard tremendous dissatisfaction from candidates about the fact that in the past, not only did they get little/no support from ADP, they had to pay for the voter list and it was not as advertised when they got it. More than one person has wondered in my hearing "what exactly Felix Parker does all day, because it sure isn't manage the voter file"
By providing the voter file gratis, Judge Kennedy starts off on the right foot with those who would run for office and helps make the Democratic party a positive presence in this state.

 So now we get down to the real nitty-gritty. It's about paying for the voter list, and it's about reaching out to donors who might be willing to give money to a reinvented Democratic Party.  Keyword reinvented.  And what does that mean exactly?  It means, getting rid of Reed and his bunch of people.

And what do you have if you get rid of Reed and his bunch of people?

The Dixiecrats were a political party organized in the summer of 1948 by conservative white southern Democrats committed to states' rights and the maintenance of segregation and opposed to federal intervention into race, and to a lesser degree, labor relations. The Dixiecrats, formally known as the States' Rights Democratic Party, were disturbed by their region's declining influence within the national Democratic Party. The Dixiecrats held their one and only convention in Birmingham.

What do black folks have to do to be included and treated as equals in the American political process?

The fight between Reed and Kennedy comes at a time when the party is struggling to find its way in a state that has now turned deep red. Republicans hold all state-wide elected offices for the first time since Reconstruction. Six of seven congressional seats are in the hands of the GOP and both state senators are Republicans.
Kennedy, a former justice on the Alabama Supreme Court and a man who had little history of deep involvement in party politics, was a surprised choice for chairman when he was tapped for the job two years ago. Kennedy inherited a party in financial debt and seemingly politically bankrupt in terms of its appeal to a majority of voters.

I guess it depends on what your definition of politically bankrupt IS Mr. Dean.  If standing up for democratic principals, i.e. equal rights, human rights, civil rights, women rights, LBGT rights, public education, and labor don't appeal to the majority of voters in Alabama that's too bad.  You get the Bats#it crazy you vote for.

What to do, and where to go? 

Ours is a different era, and I'm not suggesting that the old Southern strategy persists in unreconstructed form. The Republican Party's dominance among white Southerners is not based on the kind of raw, unambiguous race-baiting that we saw decades ago.
What I am saying is that the Republicans have made no serious effort to appeal to black voters. Such an initiative would begin with an acknowledgement of the specific problems that African Americans face -- including the legacy of centuries of oppression and discrimination -- and a proffer of policies to address those problems. But this would contradict the GOP's dogmatic stance that government should be severely limited in its ambition.

“It appears that my worst fears have been realized: we have made progress in everything, yet nothing has changed.”~Derrick Bell

The Shirley Sherroding of Rep. Joe Mitchell (D. Mobile)~Edit

Here we go again....you know the drill....leak an email exchange between Rep. Joe Mitchell and a constituent about gun control to the press and Viola!.... The media enabled spin from substance to rhetoric is in!  Instead of talking about gun control and our constitution we are talking about racial rhetoric.  Sigh

Let's recap.  Retired coal miner and Jefferson County resident Eddie Maxwell sent a mass email to all Alabama Legislators "warning them that even attempting to introduce a gun control bill was, in his opinion, a violation of state law."  Oh really?     
  
Instead of ignoring Maxwell's email, or, sending out the standard thank you for contacting my office blah, blah, blab, blab  auto reply, Rep. Mitchell chose to exercise his first amendment right and respond in the following manner; "Your folk never used all this sheit (sic) to protect my folk from your slave-holding, murdering, adulterous, baby-raping, incestuous, snaggle-toothed, backward-a**ed, inbreed (sic), imported criminal-minded kin folk."

It is unfortunate Rep. Mitchell chose to respond in this manner because the point he was trying to make got lost in the rhetoric.   Call me cynical, but could the reason the media won't let us have a conversation about gun laws is because they like massacres for ratings? 

Now don't get me wrong, I am not condoning Rep. Mitchell's response, but I understand where he is coming from.

Copies of the email exchange were provided to AL.com by state lawmakers who were included in the correspondence. The emails are printed below, edited only to remove the specific addresses.
Mitchell, who is black, did not respond to email and telephone messages from AL.com seeking comment this week. He told the Associated Press today that he was explaining that citizens who descended from slaves and were disenfranchised by the state constitution have a different view of history and the constitution than white citizens.

So, now we have the Alabama Democratic Party,  some democrats, and  some democratic lawmakers falling over themselves disowning Rep. Mitchell, and Mobile republicans calling for his resignation over the racially charged email.  And who wins if Rep. Mitchell resigns?  Not the people who elected him, that's for sure.

• During an intense debate over the public display of the 10 Commandments in 2004, Mitchell walked to a state House window, stuck his head outside and yelled, "Mitchell calling Earth."
• During a heated debate over same-sex marriage in 2005, Mitchell threw conservatives for a loop when he introduced an amendment that would have banned divorce and another that would have made adultery a crime. Both proposals failed, but not before Mitchell made his point that they ought to be supported by a legislative body bent on "protecting the sanctity of marriage."
• Mitchell donned a gas mask on the floor of the state House last year in protest of Alabama’s controversial immigration law. “This bill stinks,” Mitchell said, when asked about the stunt .

I expect republicans to make hay out of Mitchell's response  and some even trying equate them with Rep. Scott Beason's (r. Gardendale) Aborigine remarks for partisan political gain, but it troubles me when democrats fall for the media enabled weapon of mass distraction.  It's about gun violence control, not racial rhetoric.

It is also troubling to me that the same people who reject Rep. Mitchell's response applaud Alabama Democratic Party Chair Judge Mark Kennedy for emasculating  Alabama Democratic Party Vice Chairman Dr. Joe Reed on his facebook page.

It's impossible to have a unified party when the party is not unified.  Is the Alabama Democratic Party trying to return to it's roots?  Will the republican party take advantage of this rift and return to it's roots?

Time will tell the truth.

Be careful what you wish for...

 Because the finger point gesture establishes superiority, the gesture is even worse if a White person does it to a Black person, due to the history in this country of White supremacist violence and cultural demeaning of Black folks.~Phillis Remastered

Pictures do speak volumes.  Thanks to facebook, and to some extent the Alabama media, I know how some, not to be confused with all,  white Alabama Democrats really feel about black Alabama Democrats....  they want black democrats be seen, but not heard.

Evidently Vice Chairman Reed and others dared challenge Kennedy's management of the democratic party and his proposed budget party during a state executive board meeting.  Reed accused Kennedy of trying to usurp the authority of the board.

“Sometimes when you try to expand your base, and be more open as it relates to opportunity, it’s difficult for some people,” Kennedy said.

Huh?  Is Kennedy trying to expand the base at the expense of the traditional democratic base, minorities, women, labor, and educators?

Sebastian Kitchens

“All over south Alabama, we’ve got to build the Democratic Party, especially with whites,” Reed said. But will white Alabamians considering a move back to the Democratic Party be impressed with those actions Friday, old party bosses undermining the new chairman? How is he going to build the white base in the party using the black wing of the party, the ADC?

The answer is,  NO Mr. Kitchens.  And therein lies the problem.  The only way white Alabamians will consider moving back to the democratic party is if  they kick Joe Reed, and by extension black folks, out of the party, and if they do that, Alabama will officially be a one party red republican state.  Now if that's what you want....

African American  make up 26% of registered voters in Alabama, and are critical to any democratic victory.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if 30% of white democrats would vote with black democrats instead of against black democrats,  ALL democrats would control the state house, the governors office, and the Supreme Court.  I'm just saying.....

Note how the Alabama press and democrats fell over themselves denouncing the racially charged emails of State Representative Joseph Mitchell but are silent about fingers pointed at black faces. 

Today's Must Read
The White Elephant in the Democratic Tent

Update~"On Pointed Fingers at Black Faces" Redux

Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Judge Mark Kennedy shared this picture of him pointing his finger at Alabama Democratic Caucus Chairman Dr. Joe Reed, along with this comment, on his Facebook page.

Note: It has been bought to my attention this picture/comment has been removed from Judge Mark Kennedy's Facebook page. RedEye 

"Ask my two sons, Leigh and Burns, what that look and that finger means!"

To Judge Kennedy and the 68 people who liked this.... it means Dr. Joe Reed is not your son or your child.  He is a grown man with all the rights and privileges that entails. 

I guess it's time for another one of those Teachable Racial Moment:  On Pointed Fingers in Black Faces

Ok, here goes: If you are wise, you will not ever put your finger–or your whole hand– in a Black person’s face, unless you know you want to immediately engage in a knock down, drag out, fight-to-the-concrete physical brawl. It’s actually a well-known signal for “let’s fight right this moment” in the Black community. When I say “ever” I mean not in this present lifetime, or even after death, if you encounter another Black angel in Heaven. Because that angel is still liable to get into it with you and risk being de-winged.
I don’t know when the finger point in the face became such a grave insult to Black folks, but it has been for at least fifty years. And what does the gesture mean anyway?  It means derision. It means disrespect. And above all, it means power to the pointer.

 Be careful what you ask for....

 " Loose (sic) Joe Reed and double...triple the support of the Democratic Party in Alabama."

I'm back!