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Episode #2001
Armed to Vote
Lewis: Mitchell Lewis, host
Blue: Dan Blue, Speaker of the NC House
Alston: Skip Alston, President of NC NAACP
Bolton: Carol Bolton, Asheville Citizen Times
Lewis: Our nation prepares for another presidential election and North Carolina votes for its next governor. Are you prepared to make a decisive vote? We will talk with policy shapers and analysts about issues to consider next on Black Issues Forum.
Voiceover: Funding for this program is made possible in part by UNC-TV members.
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Lewis: Good evening and welcome to Black Issues Forum, I'm Mitchell Lewis. In November, North Carolinians joined the rest of America in voting for the next president. We will also be casting our votes for governor and other offices in state government. The good news is that all citizens have the right to vote. What is not so good is the number of citizens who choose not to exercise that right. Perhaps from fear of making an uninformed decision. Well tonight we will share with you not only some resources of information out there, but some of the issues that you may want to watch for and follow as you consider the candidates. I would like to welcome tonight's guest, first former representative and Speaker of the North Carolina House, Dan Blue. Also President of the State NAACP, Skip Alston, and the head of the Raleigh Bureau for the Asheville Citizen Times, Carol Bolton. Thank you for joining us. Please note that information in this program is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to promote or suggest support for any party or candidate. According to the State Board of Elections, in the year 2000 there were over 6,085,000 eligible voters in North Carolina. Five million, one-hundred and twenty-two of those, or 84% of those registered to vote. But fewer than 3,016,000, less than half of the eligible voters, and about 59% of the registered voters actually cast a ballot. In North Carolina black voter turnout has generally been on the upswing and it has been determined that the black vote does make a difference in elections. Let's talk with you all, now. I'll start off with you, Ms. Bolton. Now, in talking about the Republican and Democratic parties, now, at one time the Republican Party was the party of choice for African-Americans in the late 1800's. What happened to make a change there?
Bolton: Well, I think a couple of things happened. Actually, in the late, up until the 1960 election, I understand that the African-Americans were sort of, there was a stalwart between African-Americans and Nixon, and then of course the Kennedys came in 1960 and I think that really changed the mood about African-Americans toward Democrats. I think about many people in my grandmother's world, there is Jesus, John F. Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy, and I think that association had continued in generations.
Lewis: Mr. Blue, now that it is one hundred years later, and it seems like the Democratic Party is the choice for African-Americans in most cases, why do you think that is? What is the party offering African-Americans?
Blue: Well, Carol raised one point. First, this movement from the Republican Party started in earnest in FDR, Franklin Roosevelt's second administration, because there was discussion and dialogue with a very limited black vote. Of course, there was very little black voting in the South because of the Jim Crow laws and literacy tests and things like that. And that dialogue centered around jobs, it centered around opportunity. And it expanded with Truman through the military efforts that he made in the late 40's, but in 1960 there was a serious dialogue and there was a very serious effort on the part of the Republicans to get black votes. But by 1968 with the adoption of a Southern strategy by the Republican Party, it sort of broke-off that discussion. And as a consequence the issues that mostly concerned the black community are the issues in which the black community was directly, was more involved and concerned about. They were issues that were being addressed by the Democratic party, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and various other, the Fair Housing Act, and various other things, and that dialogue has continued and there hasn't really been a serious effort on the national level by Republicans to address many of these issues that are sort of the core of black participation in the political process.
Lewis: And you mentioned issues, I will start off with you, Mr. Alston, and come back to the rest of you. As being head of the State NAACP, what do you see as some of the issues that African-Americans should be concerned with during this election year.
Alston: Well, our main focus is really education. Our young people, the leaders of tomorrow; we need to educate them today. We are also looking at the economic empowerment of the African-American community. And also, it is not mentioned a lot, who will be serving on these boards and commissions that the governor appoints, that the State House appoints and the Senate appoints? Those people who sit on those commissions, they make a lot of important decisions that you don't read about in our everyday news, but it affects us a little bit in our everyday life.
Lewis: Ms. Bolton, what are some of the issues you see?
Bolton: Well, I see a number of things. I see things actually on generational lines; I'm 31 so it's kind of the hip-hop generation, and I see education, of course, health care is extremely important, and as Skip mentioned, economic empowerment. I would also put environment, because many of our people are living in places that are unsafe, where they are breathing unhealthy air, and they are more apt to live next to industrial centers where there is not zoning, so that is another issue that I think is very critical, and HIV Aids, of course, is extremely critical. That is something that we need to pay attention to more in this State and have not.
Lewis: Mr. Blue?
Blue: In a broader sense, not just HIV Aids, but health care generally and the availability and affordability of health care. Many of the issues, most of the issues that you see today on the national stage and on the state stage, are issues that directly impact the black community and all communities. Another issue, though, that is resonating pretty strongly in the black communities across the country, and particularly across the State, are the efforts that we are making to bring some clear definition as to our involvement in this war in Iraq. It is talked about in the barber shops, it is talked about in beauty shops, even in the little convenience stores, because I think that people see that until there is some grasp in handling control over that, the resources necessary to adequately deal with the educational issues that we are facing cannot be made available. The resources necessary to fully train people, to bring new jobs back, make them readily available to people everywhere, won't be available and you can't have the debate about the jobs being transported out of this country because all of us are very patriotic, all of us want to win this war, but all of us want to end it with a lasting peace. And so, those are the kinds of issues that are being discussed pretty regularly throughout the black community.
Lewis: And not pointing out, say, a specific party, but what do you all see as people who have, you know, your pulses on what is going on around you. What do you see as some of the approaches that could be done to help address some of these problems that you have mentioned, or some of the issues? Mr. Alston?
Alston: When you look at the issues affecting the African-American community, it is not where you are in a person's speech, but where are you in the budget? How much money are you put in for in order to solve some of those problems in the African-American community instead of coming into our community and giving us a good speech. We want to know where we are in your budget so we can make sure that those issues are addressed fundamentally and financially when it comes down to addressing those issues.
Blue: But further along that line I think you see part of the debate occurring, at least occurred last week in the discussion on the Leandro decision, where the Wake County judge had ordered that the State needed to do more in order to ensure that every child had access to high quality education. That issue, I think, impacts black communities throughout the State, not just in the rural areas, to a much greater degree than one may think, because in inner-cities you've got many of the very same issues, that is why part of the lawsuit involved the big city systems toward the end. But the discussion on everybody being in favor of every child having an opportunity through the educational structure to develop his or her greatest God-given potential, translates as a bottom-line proposition to whether you are willing to make that a budget priority to ensure that the quality teachers that are necessary, and as we know are necessary, are made available to kids everywhere, that the support with working with parents that teach them better skills to encourage kids to do more, raising standards and things like that, are things that take resources. And so part of the way that you address that is doing it. The last issue that I would address though, on the war issue, as we discussed. Some of the efforts necessary to deal with that, I think, are obvious. You have got to get greater international involvement if you are going to limit the unlimited resources that the United States is putting into that effort. So, what efforts are there to reach out to international leaders or other nations to get them more involved in trying to win a permanent peace for this war in Iraq? And the same thing on health care; you cannot seriously address the needs in health care and get some handle on runaway prices and the availability of health insurance without getting a handle on the war because resources simply have to be shifted to what is most compelling at the time.
Lewis: Ms. Bolton, any thoughts on that?
Bolton: Well, I've behaved myself long enough, so I am just going to go out there for a minute. [LAUGHTER] Watching the General Assembly in the past three years, I have become very disenchanted with both political parties, no offense to you, Dan, you know how I feel about you, but ... I have been just disenchanted with both political parties and I am questioning whether they can deliver on the promises that they have promised us. For example, Governor Mike Easley put in his budget $4.5, I think $4.7 million, to reduce the waiting list for HIV Aids. By the time the General Assembly had gotten done with it, it was down to $2.5 million. To me that is criminal. You are basically saying these people can get access to these lifesaving drugs and these people cannot. And what I would like to see is, I would like to see grassroots African-Americans come together and devise what their agenda is. I would like to see coalitions formed around different issues. And I think that it is time, I am tired of African-Americans sort of waiting for parties to do right by them, and I think we need to force their hand. So, that is where I am coming from.
Lewis: Mr. Alston, with the NAACP, is your organization, well, are there any projects underway to help educate voters on what is going on and convinces them to go out and vote?
Alston: Yes, we are really taking this election very, very seriously as we do always. But we recognize the fact that this election is either going to set us thirty years back or allow us to go thirty years forward. We know that the next President of the United States is going to possibly appoint three members of the United States Supreme Court. Those decisions will be affecting generations yet unborn. So, we have to make sure that we get our people out. The NAACP will hire five full-time voter empowerment coordinators that are assigned to different counties throughout the State of North Carolina. We have a full-time executive director for the State of North Carolina with the NAACP. We are going to be registering people every day, every weekend, every time we get a chance to. Educate the people on how to vote, when to vote during this two-week cycle before the November 2nd election date. We are going to be way out there letting the people know that voter education, voter registration, and getting out the vote is the way to go for this election.
Lewis: Mr. Blue, just looking at some statistics here, this is from, well, actually 2003 from the State Board of Elections, there are 967,128 registered African-American voters, out of that 828,732 are Democrats, 42,882 Republicans, 94,764 unaffiliated, and 750 Libertarians. Now, I would think by this time the numbers hopefully have gone up a little bit, but with this election coming up and with the issues that you've been discussing, should the Democrats take these numbers for granted?
Blue: Oh, absolutely not. Carol raised a very valid point that I think sort of moves in to the question that you just raised. Not only are the people in the, is it the X Generation? Is that what you think? [LAUGHTER] The X Generation ... and, not only are they feeling disconnected, or at least feeling that they are not being talked to directly by the major political parties, but you are finding an increasing number of African-Americans, not just voters, but African-Americans feeling that way. And so you are finding a shift over to the independent, unaffiliated voter. That 94,000 number was a shocker when I first saw it a couple of years ago, and it is much higher now. And it will continue to grow because people want to be talked to directly. And so the Democratic Party would be absolutely out of its mind to assume that just because historically African-Americans have voted the Democratic ticket that they are going to vote that way again. Skip was talking about voter registration efforts and other ways to get people involved in the political process. What has to happen, to a much greater degree, is the issues that are being discussed, whether it is in direct mail or whether it is on telephone calls, various other ways, e-mail messages and what have you, they have to directly address this electorate. There may be an issue affecting me that is totally different from the one affecting you, and so the techniques that have been developed to sort of ferret out every voter and where they are have to be used exactively in the black community as they are used overall.
Lewis: Ms. Bolton, I don't know if you want to add anything to that, but ... So on the other hand, according to the same statistics coming from the State Board of Elections, there are 3,896,726 registered white voters, and the percentage of Democrats to Republicans, it is almost even, maybe about 200,000 short in a sense where the Republicans are edging out Democrats with 1.6 million to say 1.4 million, and there are 749,000 unaffiliated voters and close to 8,500 Libertarians. What are the individual, what should the individual parties perhaps do to try and perhaps ... should there be an attempt to strengthen African-American support in the Republican Party? I'll just throw you a curve there.
Bolton: Well, absolutely. I mean, I think we need to work with people wherever they are, wherever their ideological bents are. I think that there are opportunities for Republicans to connect with African-Americans, primarily the social conservatives, which they have been trying to do through cultural issues. But the other thing is through economic issues. For example, in Fortune's Small Business earlier this year, they showed that African-Americans were 86% more likely to start small businesses. And we are not talking about your tech firms, we are talking your local detail shops, your barber shops. Those are ways that Republicans can connect with African-Americans in terms of small business incentives and things to help African-Americans in non-traditional ways. And so, those are clearly some opportunities. Whether the Republicans capitalize on that, that is completely different. I think that there is a feeling among some of them that if they do reach out to African-Americans, then they will alienate their base that they use during the Southern strategy as Dan mentioned earlier. So, they are kind of in a quandary.
Lewis: Mr. Alston, as far as being with the NAACP and going with your grassroots campaign to educate voters, you probably run across some voter apathy.
Alston: Yes.
Lewis: How do you go about addressing that?
Alston: Well, number one, we have to give them a reason to vote. And those are the issues that Dan talked about. We need to know our candidates. We need to know the issues. And we need to know that black people, and some whites back in the early days, they gave their life for the right to vote. Blood was shed for the right to vote. We don't have to give our life any more, we don't have to shed any more blood for the right to vote, for we have a responsibility if nothing else, to make sure that their lives were not in vain and that the blood that was shed back then for the right to vote was not all in vain. So, if for nothing else we should do it for those who gave their lives and shed their blood so that this generation today could have the right to vote.
Lewis: And you just brought up a good point because with this being the fortieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, how does that tie in to try and bring people into the voting polls? Mr. Blue?
Blue: Well, several ways. I think that you have to connect with people. Last week a tour came through Raleigh, Raleigh and Durham, as a matter of fact, a sort of Civil Rights project, trying to get stories and oral history of those who engaged or participated in any form at all, in the Civil Rights movement. And that doesn't mean those who were on the front line or anything, but your experiences in going to a segregated café or restaurant. And so the way that you do it is connect people with their history. As Skip was pointing out, the value in voting and the reason for voting. It is the most fundamental of all the American rights. That is the right to participate and choose your own leaders. It is the right that people spill blood for, not only in Civil Rights struggles, but in wars across the last two hundred plus years, to determine our own fate. And the way that you determine your own fate in a democracy is by participating. We simply have to explain to people the historical reason for it, but also the projected reason for it. If I can point out to you why your child is going to be better off and is going to have a greater opportunity to be whatever it is that he or she has potential to be, if you go vote and you vote a certain way, then you connect. And so we simply have to be able to deliver a message that people can directly connect to and understand that all of this philosophical stuff that I've just talked about is very good, the reason that people should participate but also that there is a selfish reason that you ought to participate. It advances your well-being, it ensures that you are going to get a job, that your family will be better off than you were and that you can keep advancing forward.
Lewis: Ms. Bolton, I am going to shift gears just a little bit.
Bolton: Okay.
Lewis: How can people become informed about issues as far as going out there to the polls? What type of resources would you suggest to them to look into?
Bolton: Well, there is so much information out there. I mean, if people don't see the information, it is because they don't want to see it. And of course because I work for a newspaper, I think newspapers are a valuable resource. Even if you can't buy, if you can't afford a subscription, the libraries often have them from all across the State. Of course there is the Internet, which the libraries also have. There is television; we have twenty-four hour, non-stop news. So there is ... and also, going to places like the NAACP, the local chapters. Churches often will have some discussion or there will be somebody in the church who is also an elected official or they work in the precincts, and they are very good places to go.
Lewis: Now, this question is for the three of you, and we are getting close to our time here, about less than four minutes. Now that Senator John Edwards is the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, what impact do you think that will have, say, nationally as well as here in the State as far as the election is concerned? Mr. Alston?
Alston: I think it is going to have a great impact. This is John Edwards' home town. And we want to be proud of our home town guy that is running for Vice President of the United States of America. And we need to get out and vote, not only for him, but to be able to put someone with his mentality into the White House so that it will have a trickle-down effect in order to affect the people right here in North Carolina. Not that the people will turn out, not only for John Edwards and John Kerry, but not for their local politicians here locally, because politics is local and what affects you locally also affects you at the national level also.
Lewis: Mr. Blue?
Blue: Also I think that John's presence on the ticket, John Edwards' presence on the ticket, ensures that an organization that he had in place from six years ago when he ran for the United States Senate, and that he had been developing and nurturing over this last four or five years, will then reach out also to try to get more people involved. The message that it will be delivering will be a more down-home message because we know John here in North Carolina. But also the entire, the entire strategy employed by him and his presidential run, and it is not just a strategy, it is what he believes, it is what he has talked about over the years of having average people play a real role in determining who their leaders are going to be so that those leaders in turn will address the issues that affect average working people. Not be isolated and not focus simply on that percentage that can buy their way into politics. So I think that in North Carolina, its values, our values in this State, are the same values that John Edwards has projected across the country. And those are the things that will get people charged up. We believe in decent health care for everybody. We believe, as Carol mentioned, we do a lot of politics in churches because we spend a lot of time there, you know, we are a very religious-based people here in this state. We believe in the kinds of issues that you saw at the Democratic convention. And John Edwards would be a great person to spur that message across the country so that they know what North Carolinians really are.
Lewis: Ms. Bolton?
Bolton: I have sort of a critical view. I think that the greatest help that John Edwards on the ticket will have would be to the races down-wind on the ballot, primarily the governor's race, the U.S. Senate race, and some of the House and Senate races because the base will be energized and will be motivated to vote. And they will probably vote more straight ticket. In terms of nationally, I am not so sure whether North Carolina is in play or not; I get mixed signals. I was at the Democratic National Convention, and while North Carolina got to sit up at the front of the convention hall, I wasn't always convinced that North Carolina was as important as it was made to be seen. So, I think it is going to be a mixed bag and I think we will find out on November 2nd.
Lewis: And we will have to stop it right here. Thank you so very much for joining us. For the up-to-date coverage on the upcoming election and information you can use, you can follow UNC-TV's statewide coverage on North Carolina Now nightly at 7:30. If you would like a transcript of tonight's show plus resource information on this year's election, visit us online at UNCTV.org/BIF or you can call us at (919) 549-7167. Join us each and every Friday night at 9:30 for more on the issues that concern you. Thanks for watching. For the Black Issues Forum, I'm Mitchell Lewis. Good night.
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Voiceover: Funding for this program is made possible in part by UNC-TV members.
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