Political ambitions are once again fully displayed on Capitol Hill with the end of the Labor Day recess. But few developments are as troubling as a resurgent strategy of garnering political support by alleging racism.
The latest national politician to strain the pander meter in search of minority political backing is House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.). Gephardt recently repeated his threat to shut down the House of Representatives if GOP members persist in their investigation into last year’s defeat of former Rep. Robert K. Dornan of California.
House rules prohibit Gephardt from delivering on his promise. That is why he is now talking about implementing an alternative strategy. Knowing as he does that GOP members are itching to adjourn as early as Oct. 10, he may seek to pressure the Republicans by trying to keep the House in session as long as possible.
The House investigation is being headed by Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Unfazed by Gephardt’s fulminations, he says he will proceed with the inquiry. Dornan also pledges to continue pursuing his quest to have Congress set aside last year’s election and hold a new one. If he fails, Anaheim City Councilman Bob Zemel is waiting in the wings to challenge Dornan’s successor, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, in 1998.
Gephardt, who is positioning himself for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, came to the defense of Sanchez in a speech delivered in late July. She is the first woman and Hispanic to be elected from California’s 46th District.
“If they (the Republicans) continue in this immoral pursuit,” thundered Gephardt, “the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives will shut the House of Representatives down until this investigation is shut down.” Appearing before the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, he went on to charge that the Republicans were pursuing the issue to drain Sanchez of financial resources in defending her victory, and to intimidate immigrants from going to the polls.
Sanchez’s margin of victory was only 984 votes, but the California secretary of state reports that, so far, 303 people who voted were not citizens, and therefore ineligible to vote. Who they voted for is uncertain. Dornan has been unable to prove that he was denied re-election because of voting irregularities. But to leap from that fact to the conclusion that he and House Republicans must be pressing for a continuation of the House investigation because of a desire to ruin Sanchez financially or to intimidate Hispanic voters is excessive.
Against this backdrop, politicians in the world’s most ethnically diverse democratic system may wish to consider a couple of novel ideas: Don’t accuse your opponents of racism without clear evidence, and make sure the voting laws are rigorously enforced.
White liberals have long allied themselves with various minority groups to overcome racist barriers to voting. But the tendency of some minority leaders to occasionally allege racism where there is none has often been tolerated and even mimicked.
Today, even libertarian “conservatives” are learning to play the game in pursuit of their own objectives. Consider the arguments of big-business organs such as The Wall Street Journal. They increasingly hold that non-libertarian Republicans who are concerned about mass immigration are being racist.
Meanwhile, Dornan is busy being Dornan. “The Democrats better pray I don’t get a special election, because if I’m re-elected I will take them apart line by line for their racist attacks on me and the Republican Party,” he told the Associated Press. Though his charge of racism is nonsense, he is on firm ground when he defends his right to challenge vote fraud.
White liberals and their unlikely libertarian allies should ponder recent history. Demanding the enforcement of the voting laws is not the equivalent of threatening protesters in Selma, Ala., with dogs and cattle prods. Indeed, the sacrifices made by civil rights marchers back then helped bring about expanded voting rights for citizens that are undermined by non-citizens who seek to vote.
Genuine racism must always be confronted. But for leaders and opinion shapers in mainstream America to dilute the vote of Hispanics who are eligible to vote by turning a blind eye to voting by those who are not is the equivalent of saying that “all Hispanics are alike.” Who’s being racist now?
