Given the fact that Harold Ford nearly won in TN, a red state, I suggest that this country is ready for a Black Vice Presidential candidate. I propose that John Lewis is the best person for this job. This is not merely a matter of him being Black, but a matter of him being well-qualified because of the fact that he was one of the main forces behind the Civil Rights Movement along with Martin Luther King as well as his service in the House as well.
First and most importantly, John Lewis is a Democrat who votes like a Democrat – not someone who votes like a Republican. That is the sort of thing that has cost us elections in the past.
Secondly, since he is from the South, places like Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee would immediately be in play. Blacks would turn out in record numbers all over the nation, giving us a crucial edge in close states. We could take back Ohio, since we are back in power in that state and we will have a secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, who can actually administer the elections properly. Georgia would be in play since it is a rapidly growing part of the country, especially in the Atlanta suburbs. We could see places similar to Fairfax, VA turn blue for the first time since Jimmy Carter was running.
Thirdly of all, as we have seen from the Virginia elections, racism is no longer effective as a political tactic – Allen lost the election over that. By appointing John Lewis as VP candidate, we could see these results replayed all over the country – people would get fed up with the backwards-looking views of the GOP and would see them for what they were – people who would be drunk with power and who would be out of touch with the 21st century.
As we have seen from the landslide victories of Obama and Deval Patrick, this country is ready for a Black Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate who acts like a Democrat and who can also appeal to the middle as well. The more the racism of the GOP is exposed, the more people outside the South will see them for what they are and decisively reject them and confine them to one small corner of the country – the Deep South – along with Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska.
The GOP will be between a rock and a hard place. If they go with Guliani or McCain, they risk losing their base to Jim Gilchrist, who will certainly run for President if one of those two gets nominated. In addition, we could portray McCain as a shill for Bush and a serial flip-flopper and Guliani as a corrupt politician who would be incapable of reforming the country and cleaning up the mess of the Bush administration.
On the other hand, if they get a right-winger – Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback or Newt Gingrich – they risk imploding like Katherine Harris did in Florida or the Illinois GOP did in 2004 or the Kansas GOP has done over the last few years. The Moderates – the Lincoln Chafees and the Charlie Evers and the Log Cabin Republicans of the world – will desert the GOP in droves like they did in those elections.
Not only would John Lewis as VP help us in the short term, it would help us in the long term. As one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, he would inspire many young Blacks and minorities to run for office similar to Barak Obama and like Paul Hackett would for Iraq War veterans. Like Wes Clark gives us credibility on national security issues even with FOX, Lewis would maintain credibility on equality and civil rights issues with the Black community and prove to them that we are not just pandering to civil rights issues on election day.
It could be argued that Lewis would set the Rovian dogs of war on us and there would be all sorts of negative attack ads which could sink this campaign. But Lewis would know how to handle these attacks because he has been through much worse during his days with the Civil Rights Movement.
Lewis would preach a brand of left-wing economic populism that would compliment Al Gore’s populism nicely. The problem with Al Gore the first time around is that the party sent out mixed messages – on the one hand, we had the populism of Al Gore, which appealed to a lot of people. But on the other hand, we had the dour Conservatism of Joe Lieberman which turned people completely off. But with Lewis as VP, we would not be sending mixed messages to the people. Instead, we could neutralize the 3-G issues – God, Guns, and Gays – by preaching the brand of economic populism and libertarianism that won us the elections in Ohio, Montana, and Virginia.
And as we have seen, climate change will become an increasingly big issue over the next few years. Ever since Inconvenient Truth was released, Al Gore has been training grassroots volunteers all over the world and here in this country to raise awareness of climate change as a major issue of this century. There are now increasing numbers of Evangelicals who are Republicans but who would break with the GOP over climate change that we could peel off. And given his improved emphasis on climate change, we could bring Nader’s ex-voters back into the fold and keep them there – Gore did not talk as much about Climate Change in 2000.
Although Ralph Nader will not be a factor in the 2008 race, there will be another 3rd party that will be – the Unity 08 Party. They believe that the Democrats and the Republicans no longer represent the interests of Americans and that a new 3rd party that runs from the center is needed. They argue that us and the Republicans are trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of bickering and partisanship and that we have lost touch with what people want. That could be a factor that could tip a close election to the Republicans much like Ralph Nader did.
The best way to coopt this message would be at the local level. Now, more than ever, we need to recruit and elect people for the 2008 elections that prove the Unity 08 people wrong – that we can and do listen to the needs of the people. We need people who will commit to holding regular listening sessions with constituents and incorporate what they say into legislation – in other words, people who are one of us. That way, when they hear on TV about how the Unity 08 people think we are out of touch with us, they will say, “That’s BS – of course the Democrats listen to us – look at my legislator.” We also need people who will share ideas about lobbying reform and campaign finance reform – Feingold himself admits that McCain-Feingold was not a cure-all for the system. The big advantage we hold over them is simple – we run candidates at the local level while they don’t.