THE DEMOCRATS, A PECULIAR INSTITUTION (via Kevin Whited):

Second black seat test uneasy coalition (JAMES CAMPBELL, 3/14/04, Houston Chronicle)

Ousted state Rep. Ron Wilson claims he fell on his sword for the greater good of creating a second African-American congressional seat for Houston. Noble ...

Wilson was the only black state lawmaker to vote for a Republican-backed congressional redistricting plan that is expected to change Texas' congressional delegation from 16-16 to about 22 Republicans and 10 Democrats. For that, Wilson accused "white liberals" of undermining his bid to be re-elected to the District 131 seat he held for 27 years.

"Because I didn't do what white, liberal, extremist Democratic leaders wanted me to do, they're trying to punish me. It's a racist attitude. They think they ought to control the minds and hearts of every black in the Democratic Party, and if you don't do what they say, they're going to try to drag you back to the plantation like a runaway slave," Wilson said in a Houston Chronicle story. [...]

"To simply win an additional seat -- if you're in the minority party at this immediate juncture -- does not empower the greater (black) community," said Texas Southern University political science professor Franklin Jones.

The larger question that stemmed from the contentious race between Bell and Green is whether it created an irreparable schism between blacks and moderate whites in the Democratic Party? And, if so, what must both sides do to repair their uneasy coalition?

At least in the GOP you get to work in the big house.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 16, 2004 10:36 AM