When Missouri Senator-elect Claire McCaskill declared victory over Republican incumbent Jim Talent, I finally went to bed. It had to be two o’clock in the morning. I had to be bone tired. As a news junkie, national affairs commentator, and political analyst, part of me knows why I was glued to the television throughout the night. I was gleeful at the public repudiation of George W. Bush and his war in Iraq, and delighted at the Democratic sweep of the House of Representatives.

Part of me, though, wondered how much of a difference this Democratic sweep would mean for the material conditions of African American people.

The first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, my former Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), after all, has released a six-point program that she says will be implemented in the first 100 hours of Democratic leadership. It includes some very important measures – like an increase in the minimum wage, a reduction in the student loan interest rate and better rates for prescription drugs. In includes a “feel good” olive branch, the promise of civility with the other side. But the 6 for ’06 thrust that was rolled out in the middle of this campaign does not say a word about survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Somehow the continued displacement of a disproportionate number of African American New Orleaneans has lost any national urgency.

Because of the seniority of some African American elected officials, we will chair key committees. Those who will chair are far more progressive than some of the newer members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Thus, it is very likely that Congressman John Conyers will use his Chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee to investigate irregularities associated with the war in Iraq, and with the many ways the Bush White House has abrogated our civil liberties. It would be great if he would hold impeachment hearings – there are certainly
grounds. But if the Democrats want to play the civility card, he probably won’t. I expect Charlie Rangel to put the brakes on Bush tax-cutting in the Ways and Means Committee and to push the social agenda as much as he can. Wouldn’t it be great, though, if we had the CBC of old, the fighting Congressional Black Caucus that produced alternative budgets during the 1980s?

The Caucus is one down because Harold Ford, Jr. won’t be back. The Blue Dog Democrat will be replaced by Steve Cohen of Tennessee, the white candidate who narrowly beat Nikki Tinker in the primary. Cohen says he will join the Congressional Black Caucus because his constituency is African American but, dude, you know, it ain’t the same thing. Ford’s absence in the Congress might have been compensated by his presence in the Senate, but he narrowly lost his race to the vicious and malicious Bob Corker, who played the race card and the family card with his commercials that played on Ford’s single status and the possibility that he might (gasp!) date white women. While Ford’s centrist politics were sometimes galling, he’d have been a lot better Senator than Corker. And Barack Obama sure could stand some company. You might have thought Obama was running for something, much as he crisscrossed the country to help his “good friends”. He was a hit in Massachusetts when he spoke for Deval Patrick, the governor-elect of that state. He spent some time with Harold Ford in Memphis, ran thorough Indiana, and a few other states. While it is exciting the watch the Obama juggernaut, it’s important to note that the 2-year Senator has yet to introduce major legislation, or to become a spokesperson for significant issues. His book, The Audacity of Hope, is well written and provocative, but it will take more than a book, a few magazine covers, and a lot of charisma to turn this novice Senator into a serious Presidential contender. And when you fly too far above the radar, you are likely to take a bullet or two. Already, a Chicago tribune editorial has questioned Obama’s ethics on a real estate purchase. The high-flying Senator should expect more scrutiny.

The GOP black men running for statewide office all got spanked almost as hard as their President. The notorious Ken Blackwell didn’t even clear 40 percent in his race for governor. In Pennsylvania, Lynn Swann did nearly as badly. Michael Steele came closest to taking Democrats out, even with the Republican Party’s dirty tricks (they bussed homeless men from Philadelphia in to Prince George’s County to pass out literature that implied that Kweisi Mfume supported Steele). Steele deserves credit, though, for reminding Democrats not to take African Americans for granted and for personally running a clean, affable, quirky (he had a puppy in many of his commercials, and had his sons “reveal” that he liked Sinatra), although opaque campaign. The telegenic and well spoken Steele is, quiet as it’s kept, a Bush-Cheney Republican who was recruited by the party to challenge Democrats. A solid advocate for minority business issues (the only thing progressive black folks can agree with him on), he did well enough in this race (and as of Wednesday morning, refuses to concede) that he increased, not diminished, his clout both in the Republican Party and among African Americans.

These 2006 mid-term elections were watershed elections. The question is whether people voted for Democrats or against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the war in Iraq. If it was a vote against, Democrats have a lot to answer for in the next 2 years. If they squander the opportunity to be decisive (and history suggests that they might), they’ll set Republicans up for a victory in 2008.

African American people should be glad, but not rejoice too much, in this Democratic victory. Will it change the way we live? Improve the lives of those still affected by Katrina? Only if we take this victory as a first step, not a last one. Only if we remind Democrats that, in many instances, we were the margin that guaranteed their victor. Now, Democrats must respond to our policy concerns.

BC Editorial Board member, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, PhD, is an economist, author, and national commentator, President of The FuturePAC, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of the Economic Policy Institute. Click here to contact Dr. Malveaux.

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