NOW attacked for supporting Black candidate
By Kathy Durkin
The National Organization for Women has
formally endorsed the candidacy of Carol Moseley Braun for
president of the U.S. By taking this step, this major national
women's group has put itself solidly behind the campaign of a
well-known and leading African-American woman.
Moseley Braun has consistently fought for civil rights,
women's equality, social programs for women, children, poor,
working, oppressed people, the lesbian/gay/bi/transgendered
community and the elderly. She has been an outspoken critic of
the Bush administration on many domestic policies, including
the Patriot Act.
Moseley Braun is well-known and admired by millions of
oppressed and progressive people for her courageous stand and
defeat of Sen. Jesse Helms's pursuit of federal recognition of
the racist United Daughters of the Confederacy emblem. This
was, in essence, a struggle about flying the Confederate flag
and the heinous legacy of slavery.
Moseley Braun was the first African-American woman ever
elected to the U.S. Senate, and has held other offices since
she successfully ran for the Illinois State Legislature in
1978. She has always, however, had to deal with criticism and
racist, sexist attacks by right-wing politicians and the
establishment media, going back to the days when she first ran
for office.
In 1998, Moseley Braun's defeat in her second bid for the
U.S. Senate was engineered by Karl Rove, current Bush
administration political strategist, who was hired to mount a
smear campaign on behalf of her multi-millionaire opponent,
Peter Fitzgerald. Though she was exonerated, media attacks have
continued.
Her presidential campaign has been marginalized,
trivialized, ignored and assailed by the establishment media
from the beginning, which, as usual, singles out and criticizes
oppressed people who run for political office. The corporate
media promote wealthy, white, male, mainstream candidates and
push under the rug or make light of allegations of their
financial or other wrongdoing.
In research conducted by NOW over six months in 2003,
Moseley Braun was the candidate least likely to receive mention
in the press, yet her rating in the polls is higher than some
of the white, male candidates (see www.nowpacs.org). Despite
her experience, she is rarely quoted on the issues or
interviewed about her views. Often her name is omitted from
lists of candidates.
Not surprisingly, the New York Times blasted NOW for
endorsing Moseley Braun in a Sept. 14, 2003, editorial
headlined "NOW's Woman Problem." The piece stated that NOW
"trivialized the important role women will play in the coming
election, and made themselves look silly to boot" by this
endorsement. It called her campaign a "vanity affair," and said
she had a "personal quest to return to the limelight." The
Times referred to her reputation as "clouded" and "tarnished,"
referring to unfair charges initiated by Rove.
The editorial also said her campaign is "symbolic," and that
there isn't a "principle that distinguishes Ms. [Moseley]
Braun's candidacy..." In addition to the fact that NOW was
supporting her very sound record on women's rights, and her
high level of qualifications and experience, doesn't an
African-American woman have the democratic right to run for the
highest elected office and doesn't the media have the duty to
take such a campaign seriously?
To NOW's credit, its leaders and members strongly replied to
the New York Times. Gay E. Bruhn, Ed.D., Illinois NOW
president, stated, "In this race, Carol Moseley Braun--Black,
female, credible, qualified--is another rock in the stream. She
deserves our support, we are proud to give it to her, and we
will not be moved."
NOW launched a letter-writing campaign to this allegedly
liberal newspaper supporting Moseley Braun's candidacy. Letters
were also sent by members of the National Women's Political
Caucus, which had endorsed her campaign.
NOW's six-point reply to the New York Times editorial, which
can be found at its website (www.nowpacs.org), states that the
newspaper "assumes that the candidacy of an African-American
woman cannot be serious," and points out that the newspaper
rarely mentions Moseley Braun's campaign but is eager to make
space for a critical piece, "after declining requests to meet
with NOW or Moseley Braun."
But this is certainly not the first time, nor will it be the
last, that a major establishment newspaper like the New York
Times has assaulted the serious campaign and character of an
African-American candidate for president or other office.
The Rev. Al Sharpton has come under frequent criticism by
that newspaper and other establishment print and electronic
media. As a case in point, in a total slur on Rev. Sharpton's
campaign, the New York Times of Jan. 9, 2003, ran a front-page
article attacking him on alleged financial irregularities and
"unreasonable" campaign expenses.
Not only is Rev. Sharpton a representative of the oppressed
communities, but, unlike Moseley Braun, he has strongly opposed
the Bush administration's war and occupation in Iraq and has
spoken at many national anti-war demonstrations. He has also
spoken forthrightly for working, poor and oppressed people on a
multitude of issues in direct opposition to the government's
policies.
What kind of scrutiny have the wealthy, white, ruling-class
candidates been under? Vice President Cheney's financial ties
to Halliburton have not been criticized in the establishment
media as reasons to keep him out of office, nor were these
connections strongly criticized when he ran with Bush. And that
is but one example. The history of capitalist elections in this
country is rife with financial wheeling and dealing, hidden
assets and donors, bribery and corruption. The 2000
presidential elections exposed the disfranchisement of
thousands of oppressed peoples in Florida and elsewhere.
It is only when an oppressed person, a woman, or someone
with views considered too radical runs for office that the
media carry out this type of virulent attack.
None of this, however, changes the fact that imperialist
war, economic crises, poverty, unemployment and cuts in social
services will not be stopped by voting for candidates of either
capitalist party, Democrat or Republican. Only the class
struggle, people's movements and mass mobilizations can make
real social change. And, ultimately, the profit system that
generates all these ills must be exposed and defeated.
n
Reprinted from the Jan. 22, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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