Voting still matters when it comes to political clout: Cynthia Tucker

on September 02, 2014 at 10:00 AM, updated September 02, 2014 at 12:05 PM

By Cynthia Tucker


cynthia tucker headshot art.jpgView full sizeCynthia Tucker 

If there is any good news in the untimely death of Michael Brown, it's that the black residents of Ferguson, Missouri, have been reminded of the power of the franchise. As protests have ebbed and activists have sought solutions to police brutality, they've started to register Ferguson's underrepresented black citizens to vote.

That won't solve every problem, nor will it produce instant results, but it's certainly one obvious avenue toward social change. It took tragedy and weeks of unrest -- the unarmed Brown, a black teenager, was killed by a white police officer on Aug. 9 -- to awaken a sense of urgency.



The city was about 80 percent white in 1980, but its white population was down to less than 33 percent by 2010, according to the U.S. Census. You wouldn't know that from looking at its local leaders.




He has been criticized for failing to adopt a "black agenda" that would employ black Americans and close the gap between white and black earning power.


It's understandable that there's a degree of frustration and disappointment that Obama's election hasn't done more to mitigate historic forces.



That gap hasn't changed in 50 years, and educational attainment doesn't alter it appreciably.


There's not much Obama, or any president, can do to change that. Still, elections matter because politicians can encourage progress in any number of ways, large and small. The Affordable Care Act -- or Obamacare -- is just one example of that.

While its provisions apply to all Americans, it affects blacks disproportionately because they are less likely to be able to afford policies without it. If the vote didn't matter, Republicans would not have worked so hard over the last decade to block the franchise.

They've pushed through voter ID laws, cut back early voting and purged voter rolls -- all in an effort to block a few voters of color, a cohort that tends to vote for Democrats. That's testimony to the enduring power of the vote, a power that Ferguson's black citizens should put to good use.
