The anger is particularly intense because many civil-rights leaders see Bush (who lost the popular vote and won only 9 percent of the black vote) as something of a pretender to the throne. They sincerely believe the election was stolen, that their huge investments in voter registration and mobilization were undermined by an unfair result. And they resent Bush acting as if he has a mandate to toss aside their concerns, especially when it comes to the nation’s chief law-enforcement official, whose portfolio encompasses everything from voting rights to hate crimes to police brutality to criminal-justice policy. They openly wonder whether the new administration will compromise the very rights many have spent their lives defending. How can Bush possibly deliver on his promises of inclusion and compassion “when his attorney general is a man we have every reason to believe will not enforce civil-rights laws?” asks the Rev. Joseph Lowery.
Civil-rights leaders are also loath to give Bush much credit for appointing a cabinet they freely admit is the most ethnically diverse in history. For one thing, they see more opportunism than statesmanship in Bush’s selection of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Such appointments gave the relatively inexperienced Bush the opportunity to “gain stature by associating himself with men and women of higher stature,” noted Henderson. And since Powell and Rice will have nothing to do with domestic policy (the paramount concern of most civil-rights activists), they cannot modify what critics fear will be a regressive social agenda. Even the universally acclaimed designation of Rod Paige as secretary of Education has done little to appease the anger at Bush. As Al Sharpton explained it: “Someone like John Ashcroft as attorney general is tantamount to canceling three good appointments.”
Bush’s supporters see such complaints as little more than the whining of partisan, race-baiting crybabies and reject the notion that civil-rights leaders speak for black America. “The civil-rights community is out of touch with reality. With them, race trumps everything… Unfortunately the civil-rights movement has become an arm of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party,” complained Robert Woodson, a black conservative who heads the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise.
Bush himself dismisses the carping as “politics.” “Obviously, I’m comfortable with having strong African-Americans in my inner circle,” he said during an interview with NEWSWEEK. “Over time people will get to know who I am… And I’m confident that if they give me a chance they’ll see me as a person who truly is compassionate about folks who need help. I’m compassionate about subjects that I believe will help people help themselves. One is education, of course.”
Education is the one area where even some of Bush’s detractors believe there may be some common ground. Hugh Price, president of the National Urban League, accepted Bush’s invitation to join his education transition task force. “If the president is determined to raise the reading levels of our children, I’m all for that,” said Price. Nonetheless, in a brief conversation at the end of the task-force meeting at Blair House, Price suggested to Bush that Ashcroft withdraw.
It is Bush’s prerogative, of course, to ignore such unsolicited advice. He can even continue to ignore most of the nation’s traditional black leadership. He certainly didn’t need them to get the presidency. And he probably doesn’t need them to govern–not, that is, unless he really intends to reduce America’s political and racial polarization; not, in other words, unless he is truly serious about uniting people not already on his team.
