Obama’s Offensive ‘Southern Strategy’

First published in the Washington Blade, Nov. 2, 2007

In 1968, his second campaign for the White House, Richard Nixon rode into office on what later became known as the "Southern Strategy." While running as a moderate in most states, Nixon used code words like "states' rights" and "busing" to appeal to the racist tendencies of southern whites. This was the nail in the coffin of black support for the GOP, which, since the days of Abraham Lincoln, had traditionally been the party of civil rights. Two years ago, former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman officially apologized for his party's attempt to "benefit politically from racial polarization."

How ironic that Barack Obama - the first, serious black presidential candidate in the history of the United States - would resurrect one of the most disreputable features of the Republican Party's campaign playbook.

Obama is the candidate of the same liberal elites who supported Howard Dean, ecstatic about the opportunity to challenge the old guard represented by Hillary Clinton. He's promising to end the cynicism embodied by Clinton, the sort that "triangulates," as he put it in a thinly veiled attack several weeks ago. He is also hungry, however, for black southern voters, many of whom are social conservatives on the subjects of homosexuality and the separation of church and state. So Obama decided to sign Donnie McClurkin, a Grammy-winning, African-American, "ex-gay" singer, onto his campaign as part of a gospel tour of the important primary state of South Carolina.

McClurkin denies being homophobic (explaining away his views with the usual "Christian" apologetics, loving the sinner but hating the sin), yet his message about gay people is egregious. He states that he was drawn into homosexuality by the rape and abuse he suffered as a child. Homosexuality, he says, is an affliction that its victims can overcome.

This sort of bigotry would be bad enough coming from a Pat Robertson or a Lou Sheldon - men far removed from the "gay lifestyle" - but it is especially harmful when spoken by someone who identifies as "ex-gay." Such individuals can at least claim to have a personal experience, and sympathy toward, homosexuality and their "past" thus gives them bogus credibility.

Would any major presidential candidate associate with a black pastor who spoke of Jews or black people in the denigrating way that McClurkin talks about gays? It's inconceivable. But gays are the one minority group that it's still acceptable to ridicule, and Obama - despite his preachy talk of "hope" - is perpetuating this phenomenon. The Obama campaign's continued advertising of its endorsement by McClurkin once again signifies that the Democrats are perfectly willing to use homophobia for their electoral advantage.

The Clintons perfected the art of speaking out of both sides of their mouths on gay rights - passing the Defense of Marriage Act along with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," all the while scooping up massive amounts of campaign contributions from gay bigwigs - and it appears that Obama is learning from his party's most skilled set of campaigners. So much for his recent promise to part ways with the cynics who "tout their experience working the system in Washington." Obama's starting to "work the system" just fine himself.

Atlantic Monthly blogger and Obama fan Andrew Sullivan has suggested that the benighted one should fire the staffer who invited McClurkin onto the campaign. This is wise counsel, but how can Obama fire the person who welcomed McClurkin onto the "gospel tour" while keeping McClurkin onboard? In a presidential campaign, the buck stops with the candidate and unless Obama is willing to dump McClurkin he cannot, in good faith, dump some hapless staffer.

Singling out a class of Americans as a basis for that fear - as Nixon did 1968 - is reprehensible and destroyed Bush's pledge to be a "uniter, not a divider." For many years, the Human Rights Campaign and the Democratic presidential candidates have promised to offer us something different.

But the events of the past week have shown that even the most platitudinous of liberals is not immune from utilizing the cynical election tactics concocted by the right.