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With Little Black Support, Bush is Expected to Continue Rightward DriftBy George E. Curry and Hazel Trice EdneyNNPA Washington Bureau WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Having won re-election with little Black political support, President George W. Bush is expected to appoint three or four Right-wing judges to the Supreme Court, a move virtually guaranteed to eventually end the use of affirmative action programs in public institutions, and preside over a second term that will be characterized by cuts in domestic programs to offset the $1.9 trillion tax cuts over the next decade and a $422 billion deficit from his first term, political experts and activists predict. “He won’t have any reason to do anything for Black people,” explains Ron Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland. “There was a massive Black vote against him. However, second terms are interesting because they (incumbents) don’t face any competition. He doesn’t really have to play games in order to get re-elected, so it’s conceivable that he might, although I don’t expect that we would, go as far as trying to make any common cause with any centrist parts of the Black community.” Former Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton doesn’t think there is a remote likelihood of Bush moving beyond his tight circle of conservative advisers. “Let’s all head to the airport and get out of the country,” Sharpton says, facetiously. “I think we are in for some serious times. He will appoint judges to the Supreme Court that I think will try to erode some of the gains we made under the Civil Rights Movement and he clearly will have economic policies that will reward the rich. If there ever was a time that we had to gear up activism and put pressure on Congress like we’ve never done before, now is the time.” In an all-night electoral vote cliffhanger, Bush edged Democratic challenger John Kerry in Ohio, gaining enough votes to clinch his re-election. Despite a Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies poll purportedly showing Bush enjoying 18 percent support Among African-Americans and Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie’s goal of getting 25 percent of the Black vote, exit polls showed that Bush received approximately 10 percent of the Black vote, up only 1 percent four years ago. If Bush’s first term is any indication, with Republicans controlling every branch of government – executive, legislative and judicial – Bush will leave more of a conservative legacy than Ronald Regan’s eight years in the White House during the 1980s. Nowhere will that be more evident than on the U.S. Supreme Court. Bush is expected to fill three or four vacancies on the United States Supreme Court. Of the nine justices, only Clarence Thomas, 56, is younger than 65 years old. Speculation about possible retirements from the court has focused on Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 80, who has been treated for thyroid cancer, and Justices John Paul Stevens, 84, and Sandra Day O’Connor, 74. Seven of the nine justices were appointed by Republican presidents and most civil rights victories, such as last year’s University of Michigan law school affirmative action case, have been decided by 5 to 4 votes, with Justice O’Connor usually being the swing vote. Bush has pledged to appoint judges in the mold of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, two of the most conservative members of a conservative court. Because federal judges are given life-long appointments, the court can rebuff progressive initiatives for another half-century. “Expect more Right-wing hostility toward civil rights and social justice,” warns Jesse Jackson, who ran for president twice in the 1980s. “Expect more attempts to buy our leadership. We must resist at every level attempts to stack the courts with Right-wing judges, when they seek to use FCC rulings to monopolize the media, when they seek to make court decisions against our interests. We must be more vigilant, more determined and more resistant than ever. This will be a difficult period, but we still have resourceful people. We have a lot to fight back with.” Progressives will need that and more. Although Bush complained about the Senate rejecting some of his conservative nominees for judges – including some considered too extreme by fellow conservatives on the bench – Bush got his nominees confirmed at a higher rate than Bill Clinton. And there is no doubt that by the time he leaves office, the Supreme Court and every federal circuit in the nation will be dominated by Republican-appointed judges likely to be less sensitive to protecting civil and human rights. Bush demonstrated during his first term that he doesn’t mind talking like a “compassionate conservative” while firmly opposing even mild affirmative action programs, such as the one practiced by the University of Michigan Law School. Before it was upheld by a conservative Supreme Court, Bush sent his solicitor general into court to oppose Michigan’s undergraduate and law school programs. The Court, on a 5-4 vote, upheld the law school’s admissions process and rejected the undergraduate program. In a statement issued after the rulings, Bush praised the Supreme Court for upholding the concept of diversity, even though his administration had argued against the program approved by the court. Instead of favoring affirmative action, Bush will continue to back what he calls race-neutral approaches to diversity. He told a group of journalists on August 6, “…in terms of admissions policy, race-neutral admissions policies ought to be tried. If they don’t work, to achieve an objective which is diversification, race ought to be a factor.” Bush has made it clear throughout his presidency that he believes race-neutral approaches have been effective. However, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and other groups have conducted studies showing that the so-called race-neutral approach used by public universities in Texas and California, for example, are not as effective as race- and gender-conscious remedies. At the University of Michigan, which now operates an affirmative action undergraduate admissions program less rigid than last year’s, Black student enrollment has declined in the wake the court decisions. This year’s freshmen class, the first admitted after the Supreme Court forced Michigan to change its undergraduate admissions policy, fell by 14 percent, from 410 in 2003 (7.4 percent of the enrollment) to 350 this year (5.8 percent). Because of last year’s ruling, some universities are eliminating or radically altering programs designed to increase Black enrollment. Unless he makes a radical change, Bush will continue to circumvent legitimate African-American leaders, relying on Blacks with conservative credentials but no recognized standing in the larger Black community. “Expect four more years of benign neglect,” says Donna Brazile, manager of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign. “Expect four more years of a hostile relationship, four more years of not having anybody inside the White House to talk to. The White House has made it abundantly clear that if you’re not with the president, you’re against him, whether it’s terrorists or Democrats in Washington. That’s a sad position. “We’re not looking for any changes with George Bush because George Bush has made it clear that he doesn’t want the Black vote, he doesn’t seek the Black vote and he doesn’t seek any support from Black leaders. It’s sad to think, but that’s where we are.” When first campaigning for the White House in 2000, Bush addressed delegates to the NAACP annual convention. However, he has refused to speak at a convention while in office, the only sitting president in modern history to refuse an invitation. He has spoken to the National Urban League twice, where he felt he might get a warmer reception. Each time he was received politely, but not enthusiastically. Unlike his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, Bush also refused to be interviewed by the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, a federation of more than 200 Black newspapers, and Black Entertainment Television. With authorized war and rebuilding appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan now exceeding $200 billion, coupled with a federal budget that went from a $256 billion surplus when Bush entered office to a projected $422 billion in fiscal 2004 and rising to $2.7 trillion in 10 years, budget officials say domestic spending will dwindle during Bush’s second term. On top of those figures, his tax cuts, that primarily benefit the wealthy, are expected to cost the U.S. treasury $1.9 trillion over 10 years. The Washington Post obtained a White House Office of Management and Budget memo earlier this year that warned all federal agencies in charge of domestic programs to expect budget cuts. “But the cuts are politically sensitive, targeting popular programs that Bush has been touting on the campaign trail,” the Post reported. “The Education Department; a nutritional program for women, infants and children; Head Start; and homeownership, job-training, medical research and science programs all face cuts in 2006.” In accepting his party’s nomination, Bush offered a series of programs that he wants enacted during his second term. However, the $3 billion price tag makes it unlikely that many of them will be enacted.Bush, the first president since Herbert Hoover to end a term with fewer people working than when he started, will be under pressure to create more jobs. The U.S. has 585,000 fewer jobs now than when Bush took office. “I think by the end of his term, because he has not generated job growth, the effect of this weak labor market will be that the economy will collapse back on itself,” says Bill Spriggs, an economist. “We will continue to see incomes stagnate and then start to fall. I think it’s realistic because he doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong.” Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe is already looking past Bush’s second term.”This party is stronger than it’s ever been. We’re in the best financial shape,” he says. “We now have, unlike four years ago, millions and millions of new supporters of this party. We’re debt-free for the first time ever and we’re beginning to build towards 2008.”