Caucuses have evolved from informal and few to pervasive and formally recognized syndicates within the legislative branch advocating very specific and narrow agendas. Permanent congressional caucuses have become the antithesis of democracy operating outside the confines of a narrowly sculpted constitutional mandate of legislative structure.
Caucuses have been the bane of Congress and the nation as a whole since colonial times. They have always had a distasteful presence connected to them. Caucuses have always had an undemocratic back room politics atmosphere about them. John Adams summed up the early caucuses with this statement:
“The Caucas Clubb meets at certain Times in the Garret of Tom Daws…There they smoke tobacco till you cannot see from one End of the Garrett to the other. There they drink Phlip [a potent mixture of beer, rum, and sugar] …and Selectmen, Assessors, Collectors, Wardens, Fire Wards, and Representatives are regularly chosen before they are chosen in the Town.”
There is nothing specific in the Constitution addressing congressional committees or the sub-committees that they inherently sprout, other than the power for Congress to establish its processes for enacting laws is mandated. The Constitution authorizes the House and Senate to establish rules establishing the processes under which laws are introduced, considered, debated and voted on. As the U.S. expanded so did the need for the investigating and research arms of congress and thus grew the need for committees to facilitate this process.
The United States Congress was originally crafted as a formal and structured parliamentary process. All processes of the Congress should be recognized by federal law. Caucuses have evolved into perpetual fixtures in Congress and have gained official recognition as part of the legislation process with ensuing offices and budgets. This is outside the archetypal structure of Congress. Caucuses were and still remain back room divisive politics regardless of their exposure and mainstream acceptance. It is conceivable that from time to time there could arise a need for an ad hoc caucus with a sunset clause, but never a permanently legitimized raced based caucus.
In the 1950’s, there were four Congressional caucuses. Today there are about 200, most of which are dedicated solely to particular countries, regions, races, ethnicities, specific issues and special interests. A more vast and divisive group within the confines of the legislative branch could not be assembled.
Two of the most recognizable and prominent race based caucuses in the Congress are the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. They are comprised of African- American members of Congress and Hispanic members of Congress respectively. Their sole purpose is to further the agenda of their respective races rather than the agenda of the American people as a whole and the nation. If there is an ethnicity, race or foreign country, there is a caucus for it in Congress. To demonstrate the breadth of the caucuses that have infested the Congress, there is a caucus on Swaziland; there is a caucus on Indonesia; there is a caucus on Uganda just to name a few. How well served is this nation by a Congress that not only created 200 of these caucuses but recognizes them as a legitimate branch of the legislature?
The effect that race based caucuses have on the nation has been the expansion and promotion of racism. Race based caucuses in the Congress work the same way trickle down economics works except it is racism, rather than money, that is trickling down. It would be fair to state that the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus operate within the confines of a racism description.
It is not the elected job of any congressman or caucus to waste taxpayer money and time in office to promote one race or ethnic group over another. A congressman’s job is to represent all of their American constituency, not a select ethnic few.
An affirmation of the Congressional Black Caucus’s racist attitude:
As a white liberal running in a majority African American district, Tennessee Democrat Stephen I. Cohen made a novel pledge on the campaign trail last year: If elected, he would seek to become the first white member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Now that he’s a freshman in Congress, Cohen has changed his plans. He said he has dropped his bid after several current and former caucus members made it clear to him that whites need not apply.
“I think they’re real happy I’m not going to join,” said Cohen, who succeeded Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., in the Memphis district. “It’s their caucus and they do things their way. You don’t force your way in. You need to be invited.”
Even though Cohen’s constituency is predominantly black, and even though the bylaws of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) do not prohibit non-blacks from joining, the Caucus remains exclusively black, as it has done since its founding in 1969.
A white Tennessee lawmaker lamenting his exclusion from the state’s Black Legislative Caucus claimed Tuesday the group was less accommodating than even the Ku Klux Klan.
“My understanding is that the KKK doesn’t even ban members by race,” said Rep. Stacey Campfield, adding that the KKK “has less racist bylaws” than the black lawmakers’ group.
To segregate yourself from the general census of the Congress into a caucus based on race is racism. To operate in the Congress with the sole purpose of advancing an agenda of a race withing the U.S. is not the purpose of a representative.
The hypocrisy of a Congress to legitimize a divisive race based caucus while purporting to be the champions of equality, striving to eliminate racism and continuing to pass laws that address racism in the U.S. is ludicrous. If the end goal is to eliminate racism it will never be achieved as long as race based caucuses are legitimized within the Congress.
Not only do these caucuses beget racism in the broader sense, they support the Black Entertainment Television; the Black Miss America Contest; the Black Lawyer’ Association; Black Magazines, Black History Month, etc. Each one of these are self induced segregation and racist.
What type of outrage would a Congressional White Caucus create? What about a White Entertainment Television station? What if the Miss America Contest did not allow black contestants, and was exclusively white? What if there were a White Lawyer’s Association? A White History Month? The hypocrisy of Black History Month is that it only extols the virtues and positive attributes of Blacks and their contribution and events. This is a prejudiced view of history. Yet when U.S. history in general is discussed or taught, it teaches prominent events irregardless of virtues or atrocities if political correctness does not interfere with the truth. The hypocrisy is that there could never be a White anything irregardless of the history of this nation. It would be racist.
Is it any wonder that Black and Hispanic Americans born in the U.S. have a disproportionately high poverty and crime rate yet multitudes of non-English speaking legal immigrants from all over the world come to America and thrive? Many U.S. Blacks and Hispanics accept the anti-capitalistic, anti-self supportive, racist ideas of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and black leaders such as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Malik Zulu Shabazz and the counterproductive rhetoric of the New Black Panthers and the NAACP. If you are continually being assailed with anti-assimilation propaganda on a daily basis and allow a group of politicians to think for you then you will think like a socialist and subsequently be poor and dependent like a socialist. If you can break from this cycle and think as a capitalist does and take advantage of the limitless opportunities of this country rather than believe you are a special slice of the population, then you will thrive like a capitalist. If you support racist leaders and think as they do then you will never be unbound from the chains of racism.
There is assumptive racism built into the Democrat party. If the Democrats are to assume that they have a lock on the Black and Hispanic vote, that is nothing short of racism. They assume the Black and Hispanic voters need the Democrats in office so they can survive and they also assume that Black and Hispanic voters either have no interest or are incapable of assimilating and enjoying the fruits of capitalistic society. Howard Dean expressed this point very well in a speech at the Democratic National Convention:
“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room?,” Dean asked to laughter. “Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”
For a Black or Hispanic voter to pull the lever for the Democrat running for office irregardless of who it is, is a self fulfilling prophecy. It is a cycle that needs to be broken.
As long as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Malik Zulu Shabazz, the NAACP, the New Black Panthers, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, La Raza and LULAC are allowed to perpetuate racism and be the de facto representatives of their races, then racism will never be eradicated. Until Blacks and Hispanics realize that racism is an industry and profit center to the afore mentioned leaders and organizations or a means to be elected by politicians they will never escape this racist vortex.
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