America Is Haunted by a New Specter

Old specters are not easily scared. Take for example the specter of racism. Barack Obama twice winning the American presidential election unequivocally narrowed the racial divide in the United States. Well, at least the black community derived new strength from it. Of course, interracial distrust still exists. Not only because racial incidents keep happening — see for example the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri — but also because for older generation African-Americans, the suspicion of racism is a kind of Pavlovian reaction.

Together with a few other journalists I am visiting the First Baptist Church in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina — a black church with a long and tempestuous past. The pastor and several active members of his congregation give us the warmest welcome possible. They are certain that a lot of the criticism of President Obama originates from a racist motive. They are eager to talk about next Tuesday’s midterm election. They are anxious and believe dirty games are being played. The ability to cast your vote days before Election Day, early voting — something that many people within the black community take advantage of — has been reduced from 14 to 10 days. Moreover, the Republican majority in the North Carolina House of Representatives pushed through, for the next election, the requirement that voters show their ID. This is a disadvantage for poorer voters, an above average percentage of whom do not own an ID. And poorer voters are frequently black voters. So it is impossible that this measure was not fed by racism.

An elderly woman, who grew up during the times of Martin Luther King’s protest marches, takes it a considerable step further. A lot of the criticism of President Obama originated from racist motives, she knows for sure. And what about the fact that twice recently, an intruder managed to climb over the fence around the White House, one of whom even found a way to sneak in. That would never have happened with a white president; the Secret Service would have paid much better attention!

An unfounded accusation, but it would not surprise me if this thinking trend were widely shared among the black community, and one that currently is not being contradicted by the Democratic Party. In a state like North Carolina, where African-American voters make up almost 60 percent of the Democratic electorate, their turnout is crucial for the Democrats. If anger over Republican racism — even if it is extremely exaggerated — sends black voters to the voting booths, the Democrats are not going to talk sense into them. Just as the Republicans remain silent when one of their fanatics perceives yet again hundreds of Islamic State fighters at the Mexican border, ready to infiltrate the U.S. Subtlety and common sense are scarce resources during the battle for the people’s vote.

Ask the voter’s opinion and the majority will disapprove of the prevailing polarization in Washington. The popularity of Congress is even lower than Obama’s, although oddly enough, in many cases this is not true for people’s personal representatives or senators. In the House of Representatives, the reputation of current members is so high that few have nothing to nearly nothing to fear from rivals. In this year’s battle for 435 seats in the House, there will be a seriously tight electoral race in only 40 districts at most. Not really a sign of a vivid democracy, now is it?

However, despite all criticism of the political process, this polarization found its way into the voters’ genes. This week, The New York Times columnist David Brooks referred to studies which demonstrated that at present, racial affinity is less important than the preference for one party. Evaluation of scholarship applications showed that in four out of five cases both Democratic and Republican students favored their political fellow-thinker. The racial component was of lesser importance. In 1960, 5 percent of 1,000 Democratic and Republican interviewees preferred that their child not marry someone from the other party. Five decades later, this percentage has risen to 49 percent for Republicans and 33 percent for Democrats.

In short, in case the old specter of racism languishes, now a new one is getting ready — partyism, as Brooks called it. The specter of party propensity.