The politics of race: even Clinton will use race card if need serves

Black Enterprise, Feb, 1996 by Michael K. Frisby

California Gov. Pete Wilson was an early casualty of the GOP presidential race. But his favorite wedge issue, affirmative action, will probably continue to spice the political debate.

Taking aim at affirmative action is a way for the GOP to fuel division among working-class blacks and whites. "It's a toxic topic," says Harvard professor Chris Edley. Indeed, polls show that whites have turned sharply against affirmative action, with analysts predicting that Republicans will attack Democrats for clinging to a remedy that many white voters now reject.

Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic strategist, predicts that the GOP will attack affirmative action, immigration and welfare - all issues with the potential to enrage whites. "They will play the race card," she says. "They may play it more subtly, but racial issues allow them to get out their votes."

On occasion, even the president plays games with the issue. Supporters of affirmative action thought the president had come down soundly on their side in July when he defended affirmative-action programs. But as the political season heats up, Clinton also has pushed this hot button.

In Gov. Wilson's backyard, Clinton tried to rewrite history. On Labor Day, he told a crowd in Selma, Calif, that he had killed an affirmative-action program, when his administration actually fought to preserve it. "There are problems," he said, referring to federal affirmative-action programs. "I've already abolished one I thought was excessive, and I was glad to do it," the president boasted that day.

But wait a minute. Clinton's administration tried to keep the Federal Communications Commission, program that grants tax deferments to companies selling media outlets to minorities. It became an issue only when a partnership that included businessman Frank Washington bought Viacom Inc.'s cable holdings for $2.3 billion, a move that generated as much as a $640 million tax break for Viacom. The Republicans voted to kill the program, use the tax savings to finance a health tax deduction for self-insured workers and put both measures into a single bill that needed to be enacted by last April 15.

President Clinton signed the legislation, but only after his administration failed to reach a compromise with the Republicans about keeping the program alive. In fact, a White House policy statement clearly states that the administration "opposes" the "outright repeal" of the FCC program. But that, of course, was before courting California voters became a chief concern of the White House. Clinton aides later agreed that he sought only to reform the program, not kill it, but said it was too complicated to explain in his speech.

The president, says Brazile, must speak much clearer if he wants a large black turnout for the election. "He understands race better than most politicians, she says, "but he hasn't used his office as a bully pulpit."