They actually did. During the Clinton years, unem...

2006-01-04T18:33:07.116-06:00

They actually did. During the Clinton years, unemployment in the Black community fell dramatically around the country. In addition, my education was paid for enough for me to go back to try to finish my undergrad (subsequent Bush policies have made it impossible for me to afford the last 8 classes), the reason I had to stop in 1986 was because the Republican Graham-Rudman cut the program I was in and I had no funding then either. If they would just help me pay for my education, I'd be in a much higher tax bracket... Welfare Reform is not a bad idea, just grossly underfunded, raped by the greed inherent in privatization, and completely mismanaged at every level by a Conservative Congress that doesn't give a damn.

Hope comes from experience. Bush started his 2000 campaign at Bob Jones University. Not exactly a message of reaching out to the Black community. Although the Dems could do better (if they had the power to do so), they are not perfect and I was not implying that they were... I was saying that they cared enough to reach out and that's a hell of a lot more than the Conservatives do. Dem values are American values. Not just for the white male man who makes more than $100,000/year, but for all Americans.

My conclusions were left out for a reason. You will rarely see them in my work. I tell stories as they happen with occasional emotion. The reason is that I want my readers to think about what I'm telling them, rather than telling them what they should think...

I appreciate the post keep coming back.

If "hopelessness and lack of opportunity" tend to ...

2006-01-03T20:11:20.750-06:00

If "hopelessness and lack of opportunity" tend to lead to extreme violence, then the picture painted by Jessica McBride of the boys who beat McClain shows that the hopelessness starts with the parents at least, and it probably goes back further: http://mcbridemediamatters.blogspot.com/2005/12/samuel-mcclain-beating.html

Your story is quite interesting because it implies a lot of possible conclusions, but you don't tease any out. Imagine a reader who holds the following views:

1) Voting (presumably for Democrats) in national elections is not really going to help poor people in any appreciable ways. (Whether you agree with it or not, they got out of welfare policy with Clinton and may talk a good line in campaigns but are just as committed as the GOP to exporting jobs and serving their globalist corporate paymasters.)

2) Many poor minorities believe Republicans mean them harm and Democrats are their friends because this sort of race and class-baiting demogoguery has been effective in the past 30 years for Democrat organizing, leading to the nasty, rather un-liberal results seen in the Newark mayoral election filmed for a recent PBS documentary. (It's called "Dogfight" and well worth viewing.) In reality, few people on either side aim to do harm but do it anyway out of disregard and/or good intentions backing dumb policies.

With these assumptions--which I think are common among many conservatives, Greens, radical leftists, and a lot of black middle class folks--these are the conclusions I see emerging from the story you tell:

You're describing a period of false hope and inevitable depression brought on by a bunch of outsiders (nevermind their good intentions) who organized and employed disorganized, unemployed people in order to get their votes to hold power in much more exalted areas of society, and of course these outsiders eventually went away and so did the temporary jobs, and so did the brief moment of hope, group cohesion, and positive momentum. Why should this happen? Why not realize that these good things can be retained becuase they are not owned by higher Democratic party organizers or utterly dependent on outside funding. Perhaps the organization, cohesion, and momentum fell apart and was always doomed to do so because it was always predicated on the idea that blacks in Milwaukee and elsewhere absolutely need the democrats, outside money and "help" to make a better life. Why not organize people to help themselves, not to elect some white billionare from Massachusetts?

In essence: democrat organizers come in and spread hugely inflated hopes undergirded by crude us vs them simplications. (good people who will help you vs. evil racists who hate you.) When this thin fantasy is no longer believable, part of the fallout is frustration manifested in nihilistic behavior the next year, such as black males killing black males.

Other than efforts to get their pols elected, do you think the Dems could or would ever create so many jobs in Milwaukee?

Comments on Crawford's Take: Happy New Year!

They actually did. During the Clinton years, unem...

If "hopelessness and lack of opportunity" tend to ...