What Was Julian Bond Thinking?
Julian Bond recently wrote a letter to Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean expressing his concern about the sanctions it's imposed on Michigan and Florida for holding their primaries out of time. The communication has been widely assailed for its embarrassing spelling errors, but there's a bigger problem here.
First, that letter:
While we recognize and appreciate that the Democratic party has done much over the past decades to overcome the sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries and other obsticles placed [sic] in the way of full voter participation in the electoral process, we are deeply concerned that not finding a solution to this delima [sic] that recognizes the will and intent of the Florida and Michagan [sic] voters could cast troubling aspertions [sic] on the democratic process of selecting candidates in a fully and equally inclusive manner. As such, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to come to some solution to this problem which will not leave the milions of voters that [sic] went to the polls to cast a free and unfettered vote during the primary without representation
Sincerely, Julian Bond, Chairman
Bond's letter is so wrong on so many levels, where do I begin? Let's start with the obvious stuff first. Lots of people have been asking, as one blogger framed the question, "Why Can't Julian Spell?"
I believe Bond to be highly literate. I think the problem is he has an assistant or a secretary who is far less so, and he didn't bother to proof the correspondence before affixing his signature. That was careless and very surprising -- particularly since one must assume he has some inkling that this staff person is, uh ... challenged when it comes to language skills.
He should be embarrassed to send junk like this out the door. I know I'm embarrassed for him.
Speaking of language skills, that still doesn't account for other issues with the letter. Frankly, someone needs to introduce Bond to the simple, declarative sentence so he can get straight to the point. His convoluted syntax makes my head hurt. And "...voters that..."? Last I checked, voters were people, not inanimate objects or animals. That should be "voters who...."
While embarrassing, however, sloppy spelling, grammar and syntax pale in comparison to other, more important issues.
I can't competently speak to Bond's intent in writing Dean. I know a lot of old-line Black officials are backing Clinton over Obama (a decision more than a few of them now are regretting/second-guessing). That notwithstanding, there is also a good deal of concern in the Democratic camp that the party's penalizing of Florida and Michigan voters may cause party defections come the general election, or cause thousands of disgruntled Democrats to vote with their butts -- to grumpily simply sit on their hands at home instead of going to the polls -- in the fall. It could be this is the concern that prompted Bond to write the letter.
But getting into his letter a little further, I have to seriously question Bond's fatuous praise of the party. Just exactly what the hell has the Democratic party done to combat "racially discriminatory ... obsticles (sic) placed in the way of full voter participation in the electoral process"? More specifically, what has it done for Black folks lately? Has Bond suddenly been stricken with amnesia? Galloping Alzheimer's? Doesn't he recall the party's shameful failure to act -- in the cases of Florida and Ohio, particularly -- in the last two presidential elections -- when it turned its back on plea after plea on the floor of the Senate by members of the Congressional Black Caucus after the 2000 election? When it uttered only the flimsiest of protests as the GOP flat-out stole the last two presidential elections with subversion of the courts and dirty tricks, lies, obfuscation and intimidation that targeted the most loyal base of the Democratic party, Black voters?
WTF?
The fact is the Democratic party has done about as sorry a job at protecting voters' rights as Bond did at spelling "Michagan."
With a desperate and flailing GOP doubtless poised to three-peat its dirty tricks campaign this time around, now is the time for Bond --and all of us -- to remind the Democratic party of its sorry record in preparing for and countering the scuzzy, sleaze-ball and outright illegal antics of the GOP and caution it against failing the American electorate again. This is not a time for false praise -- not even in passing. With so much critically at stake, we should be holding the Democratic party's feet to the fire and demanding better.
IMO, Black folks need to be jackin' those fools up down at Dem party headquarters and issuing threats -- not planting our lips on Dean's pasty, bat-shit crazy a**.
A poorly spelled communication is the least of all this. What the hell were you thinking, Julian? I mean jus' day-um!
