I really thought Karen Carter was going to win last night, and not just because of the polls showing her up by double digits a few weeks ago. I honestly thought that the corruption issues surrounding Jefferson would cause blowback against him that would lead virtually any Democrat to victory in this district. How naïve I was, especially considering the city in which I reside. When Carter did not win, the first thing that came to mind was the 2003 mayoral election in Philadelphia. During that campaign, which was neck and neck in early October, John Street managed to blow the race wide open by playing the victim after it was revealed that the FBI had a bug in his office. Riding a wave of Philadelphia sympathy against the federal government at the time--the Bush administration was never popular here--Street ended up cruising to a twenty-point victory. I voted for him myself, after being quite suspicious of anything the FBI and the Bush administration was doing at the time (of course, I would have voted for street anyway, because he won the Democratic primary. I just wouldn't have been so happy about doing so).
There was another aspect of the way Street played the victim, besides a general anti-progressive sentiment against the Bush administration. The revelation of the FBI bug in his office helped to solidify his African-American base during the election. Virtually every member of the Democratic machine claimed that the reason the FBI was wiretapping Street's office was because he was black. In a country where African-Americans have often been unfairly persecuted by governmental authorities, and during a time when the federal government wasn't exactly viewed as friendly toward either African-Americans or dissenters of any sort (the Clinton impeachment was only four years in the past at that point), viewing Mayor Street as the victim, rather than as corrupt, probably wasn't too difficult.
Of course, three years later, John Street's brother, a member of city council, a major member of John Street's administration have now all been indicted. There is now a movie out called
The Shame of A City that details how the actually quite corrupt machine was able to cynically play the victimization card in order to comfortably win the election. I will be attending a screening of the movie sponsored by mayoral candidate Michael Nutter this week. Apparently, when the movie won an award and was re-screened on the final night of the Philadelphia film festival this past spring, every member of the machine showed up, and quite a few of them laughed during a lot of the screening.
My vision of what happened in LA-02 last night may be overly colored by recent events in Philadelphia, but I really believe that this same dynamic is primarily the cause of Jefferson's truly unfortunate victory last night. To a degree even beyond Philadelphia, a city like New Orleans must have a low opinion of the federal government right now, and it also probably does not have a very high view of the Louisiana Democratic machine since its elected officials didn't appear to be much help during Katrina either. Given this, as well as the general distrust of federal authorities within the African-American community, it would not have been hard for Jefferson to portray himself as the victim in this situation, rather than as a corrupt leader who needed to be replaced. Of course, I am certain that, as with Philadelphia, it will not be long before actual indictments are handed down, and the extent of Jefferson's corruption is more fully exposed. This will be a big problem for the Democratic party, both in Louisiana and nationally.
This is a dangerous cycle for both progressives and African-Americans. We have a difficult time removing our corrupt leaders because we view their corruption not as real, but rather as a fictitious creation of a conservative movement looking to make yet another power grab. Our inability to distinguish between legitimate victims of governmental persecution and corruption within our own leadership has the potential to sow the seeds of our own undoing not long from now. Republicans and the conservative movement have made a habit of engaging in unjustified power grabs, and African-Americans have legitimate reasons to be distrustful of media reports and governmental authority (perhaps especially African-Americans in New Orleans). Still, Jefferson should have lost this campaign, and his victory is a blow toward creating the kind of government that would better serve the interests of oft-persecuted communities.
I don't really know what to do except point out the problem. I know that the Philadelphia municipal elections are coming up this spring, and this is one more place where we need to make yet another stand against Democratic machines that have lost their way. I am also not going to hide the fact that I feel more than a little uncomfortable writing about this subject, but the problem isn't going away if we stay quiet. Republicans, especially those in the conservative movement, commonly think of themselves as persecuted by a liberal elite that control powerful institutions such as the media, academia, the judiciary, and the entertainment industry. Because they view themselves as persecuted by these institutions, they have been able to justify a wide range of corrupt activities in order to stay in power. Last night's election results should show that we are in danger of being trapped in the same type of corruption, justifiable because of the forces we view to be lined up against us. When that happens, our movement will destroy itself, and our government will be as unresponsive as ever. Our work will have been for nothing. We can't allow that to happen.
