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What Senator McCain Should Say

An article by Jonathan Kaufman appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal discussing the ways race will hurt, or help, Obama in the coming election.

Kaufman refers to the usual evidence suggesting that some whites will vote against Obama because of his race, virtually ignores the mounds of evidence suggesting that some whites and large numbers of blacks will vote for him because of his race, and mentions the somewhat less familiar argument that Obama?s race may insulate him from some criticism.

?Race will play to Obama?s advantage as well as to his disadvantage,? says Richard Thompson Ford, a Stanford Law School professor who writes about race and went to Harvard Law School with Sen. Obama. ?Anyone in this campaign will need to tread carefully to avoid an implication that an attack on Obama is racially tinged.?

This may be especially troublesome for Sen. McCain if he tries to bring up issues with historical racial overtones, such as crime or affirmative action.

This is a good point. Republicans have a long and dishonorable history of refusing to take a stand against racial preferences because of a cringing fear that Democrats and mainstream media editorial/news writers will call them racist. If McCain follows this well-trodden path he will significantly diminish his chances of winning Michigan, Colorado, and probably even Virginia.

Taking a principled stand in favor of colorblind equal treatment and against racial preference presents McCain with a wonderful opportunity to do what is both right and politically expedient. It would appeal to his doubtful and uneasy base (a base much in need of shoring up) as well as to independents and large numbers of Democratic voters (as opposed to their leaders).

I wish McCain would issue some statement similar to the following:

I believe ? and I?m sure that Sen. Obama agrees with me ? that race should play no role in this election. Let me be perfectly clear about this: I will not seek, and indeed I do not want, the vote of any person who opposes Sen. Obama because of his race.

I believe with all my heart that every American has a right to be treated without regard to race, creed, color, or national origin ? every American, not just presidential candidates. Thus I urge Sen. Obama to join me in affirming our devotion to that fundamental ?without regard? principle and in recognizing that all Americans should enjoy the same protection under it that he and I claim for ourselves.

Over the past generation, in a curious reversal of both history and logic, many have rejected the ?without regard? principle of colorblind equality in favor of a new theory of color-conscious racial preference. Indeed, in many quarters today ?civil rights? has lost its original meaning of the right to be free from racial discrimination and come to be defined as its opposite, a regime of classification and reward based on race.

That, my friends, is not the sort of civil rights Martin Luther King had in mind when he voiced his hope for the day when his children could be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

It is not the sort of civil rights the NAACP had in mind when it argued over and over, through its great lawyer, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, that

• ?Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society.? (Sipuel v. Oklahoma State Board of Regents, 332 U.S. 631 (1948))

• ?Racial criteria are irrational, irrelevant, odious to our way of life? (McLaurin v. Oklahoma, 339 U.S. 637 (1950))

• ?The Fourteenth Amendment precludes a state from imposing distinctions or classifications based upon race and color alone? (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954)
  

Nor is it the sort of civil rights either President Kennedy or President Johnson had in mind when they signed presidential executive orders requiring the federal government to practice ?affirmative action.? Both of those executive orders required government contractors to take ?affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin....

The preamble to President Kennedy?s executive order implementing affirmative action stated clearly that ?it is the plain and positive obligation of the United States Government to promote and ensure equal opportunity for all qualified persons, without regard to race, creed, color, or national origin... ,? an obligation that I believe is shared by the states as well.

I believe in the without regard principle. I believe the vast majority of the American people believe in that principle. I don?t know whether Sen. Obama believes in or not ? there are many pieces of his record that suggest he does not ? but I?m confident we?ll find out during the course of the coming campaign.

If Sen. McCain would make a statement along the lines of the above, I?d feel as good about it as if I?d written it myself.

Full post as published by Discriminations on June 08, 2008 (boomark / email).