What Has This Got to Do with the Liberation of Black People?: The Impact of Ronald W. Walters on African American Thought and Leadership

8. Usurper-in-Chief? White Nationalism, the Tea Party Movement, and President Barack Obama

189 8 Usurper-in-Chief? White Nationalism, the Tea Party Movement, and President Barack Obama ADOLPHUS G. BELK JR. . . . white America is increasingly alienated and distrustful of all our major economic and political power centers—the banks, big corporations , the government. And, for the first time in our lifetimes, outside the South, white racial consciousness has visibly begun to rise. —Patrick J. Buchanan, MSNBC contributor and Tea Party sympathizer1 So you have this 21st Century plantation . . . where the Democrat party has forever taken the Black vote for granted, and you have established certain Black leaders who are nothing more than the overseers of that plantation. And now the people on that plantation are upset because they’ve been disregarded, disrespected and their concerns are not cared about. So I’m here as the modern day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the Underground Railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility. —U.S. Representative Allen West (R-FL)2 Indeed, it would be illogical to assume that a powerful phenomenon such as White racism has only a social or cultural impact and does not have political manifestations. —Ronald W. Walters3 Introduction For many Americans their introduction to Barack Obama came with his appearance before the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Then a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, Obama delivered a rousing address that included many well-tested 190 Adolphus G. Belk Jr. “New Democrat” ideas such as personal responsibility and opportunity , concepts that signaled the party was attuned to the concerns of the white middle class.4 The speech also vaulted Obama into the national spotlight and had a number of observers thinking that he could be a serious presidential contender in the years to come. Few, however, thought that his opportunity would come so soon. On November 4, 2008, the junior senator from Illinois completed a stunning run to the White House. In the race for the Democratic nomination, he bested more seasoned candidates such as U.S. senators Joseph Biden (D-DE), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico. He then defeated the Republican nominee, Arizona senator John McCain, by winning 53 percent of the popular vote and taking the electoral vote by a margin of 365 to 173. The American people were hungry for change in the wake of the election. Many believed that Obama, a man of mixed racial ancestry, would usher in a new era in race relations.5 Just days after the balloting , Gallup found that 67 percent of Americans thought that relations between blacks and whites would eventually be worked out— the highest value that the polling organization had ever measured on the question.6 Seven out of ten of those surveyed said that race relations would at least get “a little better.” Lastly, over two-thirds of Americans thought that Obama’s victory either was the most important advance for blacks in the past one hundred years or was among the two or three most important such developments. A closer look at the 2008 exit polls reveals that these high expectations were somewhat unfounded. Although Obama won a majority of the popular vote, his support among whites was consistent with that of previous Democratic presidential candidates. From 1972 to 2004, Democrats garnered an average of 39.3 percent of the white vote, with Jimmy Carter setting the high mark of 47 percent in 1976.7 By comparison, Obama secured 43 percent of the white vote and performed best with young whites, earning 54 percent of the vote from those between eighteen and twenty-nine years of age. Part of Obama’s appeal was rooted in his rhetoric and style. Several scholars noted that Obama ran a “deracialized” campaign that eschewed race-specific language and targeted policies in favor of universalism and broad programs.8 In the process, he deemphasized black concerns such as economic inequality and antipoverty programs, while Usurper-in-Chief? 191 simultaneously projecting a nonthreatening image to whites. As a result, many Americans believed that Obama could change the tone of the nation’s politics and heal old racial wounds. In addition, given the multiracial nature of Obama’s electoral coalition, several commentators openly wondered about the future of a Republican Party that was seemingly too reliant on older whites—white males, in particular —and southerners.9 What many analysts failed...