An essential aspect of this work is to provide a framework for discussion, one that is rooted in the historical experiences of Black America and informed by the struggles of all humanity for social and economic justice. We attempt to describe the forces at work in the national and global drama, so that the reader might peer through the illusions and false-fronts thrown up by racist, corporate disinformation systems – and take intelligent action.

Sometimes, inevitably, we are misunderstood. To date, has not endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate – although we have issued our share of both praise and denunciations. Cheerleaders are wedded to outcomes, and provide the least reliable commentary.

We have made it quite clear that Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic Leadership Council’s favorite, personifies “all that is wrong with the Democratic Party” (February 27). In our April 24 commentary, “What The Black Presidential Candidate Must Do,” we spelled out what Rev. Al Sharpton’s role in the primary battles should be: “to fire up Black people so that they might speak with a louder, more coherent voice” and to run a campaign that causes “the largest possible number of African Americans [to] coalesce behind one candidate in order to prove that there still remains a formidable Black bloc vote.” That’s an endorsement of a mission, not a man.

Last week’s Cover Story, “Two Civilized Men Among the Barbarians: Democratic debate reveals vast moral deficit,” used the candidates’ statements at Pace University to demonstrate that the “American political conversation is becoming nonsensical, divorced from the very purposes of life.”

Measured by the most minimal standards of the modern, industrial world, only two of ten Democratic candidates for President passed civilized muster at the September 25 debate in New York City: Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Rev. Al Sharpton. The rest of the field, to varying degrees, fail to even comprehend modern assumptions of what it is to be human, living among other humans.

A number of letter writers appear to have jumped to the conclusion that advocates a “pox on both their houses” position in 2004 should Sharpton and Kucinich lose the nomination – which they most certainly will. The publishers of have voted for a host of barbarians in our lifetimes, and fully expect to do so, again. Ours was a critique of American political discourse, not a wailing call to withdraw from the field if the civilized few don’t make the cut. If that had been our intention, we would have said so in plain language.

Some candidates are anathema. Joseph Lieberman embodies a racist corporate strategy to marginalize Blacks and labor within the Democratic Party, a formula that ensures a Republican victory. It is, therefore, both practical and principled to treat Lieberman like the plague. However, New Jack Democrat Wesley Clark, in addition to being Bill Clinton’s favorite to “rescue” the Party from its aroused, anti-NAFTA base, is a truly dangerous personality. (See this issue's Cover Story, Wesley Clark: Dishonest To The Core, and Probably Nuts) We said as much in last week’s e-Mailbox column, our first opportunity to comment on Clark’s new book, in which he claims to have walked around for two years with knowledge of U.S. plans to invade “Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan" – yet said not a word about it! Whether Clark is telling the truth or lying, the ramifications leave one breathless.

Sharon Chadwell-Phillips is a newcomer to , who will probably not return.

I have just visited your website for the first time and I am terribly disappointed in the diatribe against General Clark.  As an early on member of the Draft Clark grassroots movement, I can assure you that this man is not a puppet of anyone.  With his experience, education and intellect, he has exactly the qualifications we need in a president.  He is attracting those moderate Republicans who are disillusioned with the Bush Administration and are looking for someone they view as more "middle of the road".  We have transitioned from Draft Clark to the ClarkAction Team.  We are a little behind but we are catching up.  It is so sad that you can't realize that he is the only one of the Democrat candidates who stands any chance of defeating Bush and bringing our country back to where it should be.  By branding him a "liar" and a "loon", you are sounding much more like a Bush front organization than an independent voice.   If you can't help us, at least don't throw around such inflammatory labels.  We're not the enemy.

We expect that Clark’s own words will ultimately destroy his candidacy – if the civilized men among the candidates call attention to the indefensibility of the past two years of Clark’s published version of his life.

From Chicago, Jacqueline L. McKay writes:

The article in Black Commentator about Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton was the most intelligent and accurate piece of reporting I have seen since the campaign started.  It has been amazing to me that both of these articulate and thoughtful leaders have been marginalized by the mainstream press.  It augurs sadly for the state of journalism in our country that the press feels it can decide the relative value of the candidates, based mainly on money raised ( read: bribes) instead of giving voice to actual civic dialogue based on the issues that are central to recovering our soul as a nation. Your website gives me hope that there remain pockets of citizenry that actually evaluate the ideas behind the words of the candidates.

One of the more insidious effects of corporate monopolization of the national conversation is that civilized people are made to feel somewhat crazy. Thus, it is periodically necessary to point out the true insanity of those who war against civilization.

Kevin Wolf gets the message, in Boston.

In your excellent commentary on what passes for debate among the Democratic candidates, I especially appreciated these remarks:

”Americans think they are guardians of civilization. In reality, they don’t even live there. The proof is plain for all to see in the statistics on wealth and public service disparities, infant mortality rates and, most damning, incarceration levels that certify the U.S. as the world’s gulag (25 percent of the planet’s prisoners). This is barbarism writ large, since these conditions exist as the direct result of public policy, rather than as a consequence of general deprivation or factors external to the nation.”

With the exceptions you pointed out (Rev. Sharpton and Rep. Kucinich), the Democratic field would never stop to consider – indeed, cannot even imagine – that we are now a factor external to the nation of Iraq. We spread there the same spoils of our extremely limited definition of democracy as are "enjoyed" here: curtailed rights, overwhelming militarization, private and corporate looting of public property – all in the name of "liberty," "freedom," pick your cliché.

I have plumbed depths of disgust with this administration and it's loyal non-opposition that I did not know I could reach. Thanks for pulling me back out of the well each week.

Stephen Glaze is a Morehouse College assistant professor of English. He’s also conversant in Latin, when appropriate.

Thank you for the article pointing out the moral vacuity of current democratic political discourse.  I too am tired of the mealy-mouthed temporizing of our politicians, and of the supercilious grins of cynics who think social justice a naïve dream.  Of course, “health care for the people, not for profit” is an eminently civilized motto, and should be the motto of all health care professionals.  We could apply the same motto, mutatis mutandis, to the other professions, and should: “justice for the people, not for profit,” “education for the people, not for profit (as an end for the student or the institution),” and so on.  I have been saying this for years, but with the predictable result.

While your journal is called The Black Commentator, it might be given a broader title, for it contains much of relevance to everyone.  I am not a Black reader, but I see much of value to me in your publication.  Our current troubles may contain a ray of hope.  So much is wrong with our society now that unless we all work together for the benefit of all, we are doomed again to reap the harvest of evil begun so long ago with that other “bad trade policy.”  The new ones are just reflections of the old, as they derive essentially from the same motive.

Glazer is referring to Sharpton’s perfect retort to the NAFTA crowd:  “African Americans are here on a bad trade policy.”

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The barbarians’ task isn’t easy. Domestically, they must continually build a consensus based on illusions. Cindy Schwartz sees right through them.

We are living in times in which plain sense and goodness bring tears to the eyes. Reading "Two Civilized Men Among Barbarians" I felt like a parched, withering pilgrim gasping through a desert of mirages, who suddenly totters upon a wellspring of cool water. Not surprisingly, I feel the same way every time I listen to Rep. Dennis Kucinich and the Reverend Al Sharpton speak.

Thank you for pointing out what barbarous insanity feeds the notion that Kucinich and Sharpton are kooky, off-the-page-radical for insisting on the most basic tenets of a civilized society: universal healthcare; living wages; dignity and well-being for everyone at every stage of life; unpoisoned air, food, and water; and the rule of right over might.

When one stops to consider the extent to which the promotion of peace, justice, truth, and modest prosperity for all have become the province of fringe politics in the United States, one sadly realizes that America has degenerated into this world's largest cult. Americans in mass have come to scorn their own liberty and welfare, hypnotized as they are by the dreams of a few greedy megalomaniacs. I am grateful to Black Commentator, as well as to Kucinich and Sharpton, for telling it like it is. Myself, I intend to cast a vote for civilization in the next election.

At the end of every conversation that is based on the “cult's” terms, there is nothing left but war and internal repression. Thus, we wind up with the "we have no choice [in Iraq]" Democrats - who cannot speak or think outside the language of conquest and “the white man’s burden.”

John Eden is all choked up in Jesup, Georgia.

Once again, reading your words I find myself fighting back the choking sensations of rage and frustration as truth slams into me. You are truly two civilized men yourselves! Thank you for giving my thoughts and feelings such clear and powerful expression.

You have hit the very "heart of the beast." I read a lot of "progressive" commentary and criticism, but you guys consistently and incisively nail the real issues in this society in a way that no one else seems willing or able to do. Thank you for helping me keep believing in my own sanity! I see this stuff and I wonder why it's not part of the national dialogue. Your reminder that there really is no national dialogue, only this Alice-in-the-Queen's-Court insanity where the basic assumptions of what it is to be human are laughable notions, helps me to keep a grip.

"Formulas that leave concentrations of wealth untouched" is the dirty secret at the heart of all our political discourse. Thank you for outing it!

We received far more mail from Kucinich supporters than could be accommodated. Here’s one from Ed McKee, Jr.

I would like to thank you, not only for giving Mr. Kucinich credit for his leadership on the [real] issue's that confront America today, but also for your leadership in bringing these issues to the public light.  I hold little hope that we can bring about the changes needed to be a truly just society in my lifetime. But if we do not begin down that road our grand children and theirs will live in a world where a human life is worth less than the profit margin they can provide their corporate masters.

Kucinich Iowa Director John Friedrich is a busy man, but he took time to drop us a line.

Your piece on Kucinich, Sharpton, and the Presidential race was probably the most insightful one I have read to date. Comprehensive, holistic, human. And I read WAY too much about this campaign!

We hear that. Virginia Kucinich coordinator Paul Tamney wrote to appeal for “registered voters in Virginia to sign a petition to get him on the ballot.” Kucinich needs 10,000 signatures by the December 12 deadline. Tamney’s address is [email protected]

Occupation as Reparations?

Danzel van Zyl is a Black South African lawyer currently working with the Africa Program of the International Human Rights Law Group, in Washington, DC.  He takes exception to our insistence that the U.S. has no right to impose anything on the Iraqi nation.

The U.S. did commit a crime, but it cannot choose convenient and profitable methods of atonement, especially while the crime is still in progress. A sovereign Iraqi government would likely repudiate many of the arrangements now being made by the U.S. on their nation's behalf. However, we are certain they would accept a multi-billion dollar check for reparations, if offered.

Van Zyl’s employer, the International Human Rights Law Group, is a decidedly upscale outfit. Its board is comprised of partners from such high-powered political firms as Covington & Burling, Arnold & Porter, and Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering.

Graham gone, but not forgotten

University of Maryland political scientist Ron Walters took presidential aspirant Senator John Kerry (MA) to task in these pages, last week, for “Fence Sitting on the War and Race.” Dr. Walters characterized Kerry’s position on the Iraq war as “weak,” and gave high marks to Howard “Dean who, like Sharpton, also has taken the strongest positions on race and racism.”

Walters wrote the piece prior to Wesley Clark’s entrance to the race. Candidates Lieberman, Graham, Gephardt and Kerry, said Walters, “all sided with Bush on the war, but now want to have it both ways.”

That drew a response from a reader named Robbie.

Ron Walters makes a factual error when he asserts that Senator Bob Graham sided with Bush on the slaughter of Iraq, and for the need to blast 10,000-plus Iraqis into a mixture of viscera and the rubble of 12 years of repeated bombings. Rather, Senator Bob Graham was among the 32 heroes in the US Senate who along with St. Paul of Wellstone voted against what Graham calls "a blank check for George Bush to make war." Graham is alone in calling for the impeachment of Chimpy because he says that the Republicans set the standard in 1998 and that that standard was exceeded long ago.  He is realistic that that won't happen, because as he said to me personally  "two words, Tom Delay."

I have met all the candidates personally, except for Braun, Sharpton and Clark. I have heard Braun speak in person, however, from about 20 yards away.  Clark is a lifelong Republican and he is certainly no peacenik. I have been most horrified by John Kerry "Saddam Hussein did have weapons of mass destruction!" and by Joe Lieberman "I think that we really ought to think about getting rid of Yassir Arafat." I heard him say that in a back yard party meeting on Sunday, September 1.  It was not long after that that the Israelis began to publicly say the same thing. Lieberman also claimed that the war was on Saddam Hussein and that the motivation was to "liberate the Iraqi people."

While I like Bob Graham and that he holds the memory of Paul Wellstone up as someone we need to emulate, I work actively only for Dennis Kucinich who I have met three times. I have spent hundreds of bucks and hours of work supporting his campaign.

Robbie gets to meet all these characters because he lives in Iowa, the Mecca of Democratic presidential pilgrims.  Apparently, Robbie is enjoying himself, immensely. He is correct about Graham’s No vote on the War Powers Resolution, but neglects to mention the Senator’s yearlong instigations to attack Syria. This weekend, Israel fulfilled Graham’s wish. Two days later, Graham dropped out of the presidential race for lack of funds or support in the polls.

Bradley, the Beast

We are compelled to break with the format of the e-Mailbox column to mention the National March on the Bradley Foundation, scheduled for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, October 10-12. Bradley is the Mother of All Hard Right Foundations, the evil inventor and financier of the school voucher “movement,” benefactor to Charles Murray, author of the infamously racist “The Bell Curve,” and architect of much of the Bush regime’s social (racial) policies.

“The Bradley Foundation is at the center of a web of right wing and neo-conservative think tanks pushing ideological and ‘market’ solutions to the problems of public education,” says Matt D. Nelson, Executive Director of Education For The People! “Black and Latino communities that have been the target of these right-wing educational, social, and economic experiments reject Bradley's social laboratory.  Our combined efforts at the 'March on Bradley' will expose and oppose Bradley's privatization and 'Bell Curve' agenda."

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