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December 17, 2000, Sunday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section 4; Page 17; Column 1; Editorial Desk

LENGTH: 2273 words

HEADLINE: Can Bush Mend His Party's Rift With Black America?

BODY:
As president, George W. Bush will have to mend many rifts, but none, perhaps, as wide as the divide between the Republican Party and African-Americans. Nine out of 10 black voters cast ballots for Al Gore. Many living in Florida felt their votes didn't count. The United States Commission on Civil Rights plans to investigate complaints about voting irregularities there, and perhaps in other states, to determine whether rights were violated on Election Day.

Last July, in a campaign speech before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Mr. Bush said, "The party of Lincoln has not always carried the mantle of Lincoln" and pledged, "Strong civil rights enforcement will be a cornerstone of my administration." With those words in mind, we asked for suggestions about how President-elect Bush can bridge the gap between African-Americans and his party.

Jesse Jackson, president, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

President-elect Bush has promised to be president of all the people -- a welcome sentiment, especially to African-Americans, who in past Republican administrations have experienced a closed White House. Having lost the national popular vote -- and the black vote by nine to one -- he must recognize that the gap between African-Americans and his party is grounded not in malice but in historical neglect and oppression. I believe that the way to inclusion is not through symbolism, but by expanding opportunities through expanded civil rights.

Mr. Bush must address poverty. This issue goes beyond race, since most poor people are white, female and young, and addressing it can help all of America see that aiding one group doesn't necessarily hurt the other.

He must also address racial profiling, the inequities of capital punishment and the need for effective hate-crime laws. And he must support affirmative action. Colin Powell would not have been considered for secretary of state if affirmative action had not allowed us to experience his leadership skills. We shouldn't burn the bridge that brought him over.

Finally, this election has generated deep emotions, even alienation, as a result of what may be the denial of voting rights, not just in Florida, but throughout the nation. Mr. Bush should support the United States Commission on Civil Rights in its hearings across Florida; this is a credible, bipartisan commission that can find out what went wrong there, and the findings could have broad national applications. Mr. Bush must acknowledge that the Voting Rights Act needs to be renewed and expanded.

In sum, George Bush must help rekindle the flame of hope -- flickering weakly at this moment -- in democracy for all, so that his own dream of binding the wounds of the nation may be achieved.

Floyd H. Flake, pastor, Allen A.M.E. Church, Queens.

To heal the breach, Mr. Bush must address the basic concerns that average African-American voters have for their communities and children. What resonates? Basic issues like equal access to home ownership, public-school improvement, safety in the inner cities through a balance of prevention and punishment and a continuation of the unprecedented wealth created in the New Economy.

Almost more than anything else, President-elect Bush must dig deep into his own party and convince more conservative factions to open their minds to policies that had African Americans and Hispanics reaching across the aisle to vote for him in two Texas gubernatorial elections.

Ward Connerly, chairman, American Civil Rights Institute.

Having become president by the narrowest of margins, President-elect Bush will be tempted to govern cautiously, for fear of aggravating our divisions. He should be sensitive to these divisions but not let them stop him from providing bold leadership. It is essential that he tell us what he believes we ought to hear, not what he thinks we want to hear. We will respect him in the end for doing so.

As a people, we must reaffirm our dedication to certain fundamental principles: respect for the rule of law, treating others as we want to be treated and equal treatment under the law. If Mr. Bush can get the American people to rededicate themselves to these basic principles, then he will have laid a solid foundation upon which we can build a more unified America.

John Ridley, screenwriter.

After an election like this one, what Mr. Bush needs in the black community is what we in Hollywood call a comeback role: Like John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction," he needs to do something so monumental it forces us to forget about all the other earlier awful stuff. Might I suggest he try playing the part of the strong but silent type? Deeds, not words, will rehabilitate the man. Get Jesse Helms to quit blocking the appointment of a black federal judge in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Back the University of Michigan's support of affirmative action. Then he should be quiet and not jump up and down all happy with himself. Do the right thing. We'll notice on our own.

Robert L. Johnson, chairman, Black Entertainment Television.

Here are three things President-elect Bush should undertake in the first 100 days:

* He should encourage his new attorney general to investigate charges of voting irregularities in Florida and set up a blue-ribbon commission to investigate racial profiling by local and state police.

* He should invite black leaders to the White House to hear their concerns about his administration's commitment to issues affecting their communities.

* He should hold a 90-minute televised town hall meeting to take questions about race relations from journalists and viewers.

Michelle Alexander, director, Racial Justice Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

Mr. Bush must decide if he was telling the truth to the N.A.A.C.P. when he condemned racial profiling, calling it the new "Jim Crow," and said that "strong civil rights enforcement will be a cornerstone" of his administration, or whether he was being more candid when he told law enforcement groups that the Justice Department should not function "as a review of police operations."

Mr. Bush should suspend federal executions until decisions about who lives and who dies cannot be predicted based on the color of one's skin and access to a well-paid lawyer. Show us, Mr. Bush, that you are more interested in educating our youth than in executing and incarcerating them.

J. C. Watts Jr., chairman, House Republican Conference.

The simple truth is that the views of African-Americans and the Republican Party are much closer than most might think. African-Americans are not Democrats because they believe in the party's liberal-leaning values, and the party has forgotten its most loyal constituents in the black community.

If we Republicans continue to communicate our common-sense principles throughout black America, we may eventually gain a whole new generation of young black voters who vote Republican. The principles Republicans stand for -- morality, integrity, and personal responsibility -- are universal.

David A. Bositis, senior analyst, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

In the short term, there is nothing George W. Bush can do to reconcile with African-Americans. They rejected the Bush candidacy in a resounding manner, and the events in Florida since Nov. 7 have convinced them that the election was won because black votes were not counted.

Were I to propose a first step to the president-elect, it would be to use the bully pulpit to get those states, including Florida, that permanently disenfranchise ex-felons to ease their laws. He should do this for two reasons. First, it would represent a reproach to his white Southern conservative brethren. Second, since African-Americans believe he diminished their vote, he can start to atone by actively working to restore the voting rights of those who have none -- many of whom are African-Americans.

Faye M. Anderson, former vice chairman, Republican National Committee's New Majority Council.

What must Mr. Bush do to bridge the racial divide? At the very least, he must resist the temptation to attribute his dismal showing among black voters to alleged Democratic "race-baiting."

Mr. Bush should not think that appointing black cabinet members, regardless of their beliefs, will help. A position that is anathema to blacks will be no less so if articulated by Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice.

So it is Bush himself who must do the heavy lifting. A meaningful first step would be to reach out to the established black leadership.

Since the Reagan administration, Republicans have bypassed black leaders in favor of their handpicked "independent thinkers," who are distrusted by black voters. Like it or not, the Congressional Black Caucus and heads of civil rights and labor groups are trusted by black voters. Republicans should try talking to them.

Julian Bond, chairman, N.A.A.C.P.

In his speech to the nation Wednesday night, George W. Bush spoke of the "details" in the differences between the two parties. In fact, there were huge differences during the campaign -- and in its aftermath, there is a chad-chasm.

To bridge this chasm, the new administration must immediately acknowledge the well-documented charges of minority voter suppression in Florida and elsewhere, investigate them, and pursue civil or criminal action where appropriate.

Mr. Bush should name a commission, with a membership that includes some of those who have worked for decades to ensure that every citizen's vote can be cast and counted, to recommend ways to end suppression of votes and intimidation and exclusion of voters

His highest-ranking Justice Department appointees must have demonstrated a commitment to fairness.

Thirty-five years after passage of the Voting Rights Act, securing the right to vote for all seems little to ask from a president who preaches compassion.

Shelby Steele, research fellow, Hoover Institution.
How can President-elect Bush heal the rift with blacks? That this question must be asked makes a point in itself. Shouldn't black leaders have bargained with Mr. Bush throughout his campaign so that today they would have standing with this new president? After all, Mr. Bush reached out to blacks more than any Republican in memory. Yet blacks rallied against him as if he were George Wallace in 1968.

Black leaders keep making Democratic party affiliation a test of the black identity itself. This may get out the vote, but it makes blacks the easiest group in American life for both parties to take for granted. As Mr. Gore made clear by separating himself from Jesse Jackson's claim of racial injustice in Florida voting, black Democrats are an afterthought even to Democrats.

The moral authority of Mr. Bush's presidency will turn on the way he applies a conservatism of individual responsibility to the problems of poverty and inequality. Welfare reform, which recognized personal responsibility, has become the most successful social program in four decades. Mr. Bush's test-and-teach education policies in Texas have made responsibility the key to learning. All Mr. Bush can do is tirelessly make the case that personal responsibility is the new frontier of social reform.

Donna L. Franklin, author of "What's Love Got To Do with It?: Understanding and Healing the Rift Between Black Men and Women."

Photo opportunities with African-Americans are simply not enough. So how to start? Under Mr. Bush's leadership, Texas has led this country in executions -- and a disproportionate number of those executed were African-Americans. The capital punishment system in states throughout the country is plagued with legal incompetence, unscrupulous trial tactics and faulty evidence. And in the federal criminal-justice system, racial and geographic differences have been found to play a role in sentencing. Mr. Bush should impose a moratorium on the death penalty pending a thorough review of the system.

Welfare needs rethinking, too. Since Congress passed the landmark welfare reform law in 1996, the number of people on public assistance is half of what it was in 1994. But we now know that the reduction in the welfare rolls was created in part by a strong economy. With the economy showing signs of slowing, potential recipients -- many of them single mothers and their children -- need a president who will make sure that all the states are in compliance with the federal welfare guidelines.

Coretta Scott King, founder, Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

Mr. Bush should hold regular meetings with the Congressional Black Caucus, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Black Leadership Forum and other important groups. This would go a long way to building needed bridges of trust and understanding.

And he should set a goal of making his administration the most racially inclusive in history. He should be able to verify at the end of his term that he has appointed more people from minority groups to policymaking positions and federal judgeships than any other president in history, as did Presidents Carter and Clinton in their tenures.

The president-elect should strive to rise above the narrow confines of party ideology and work for a genuine bipartisan consensus on issues like affirmative action, federal aid to education, raising the minimum wage, criminal justice reform and job training in depressed communities.

If he meets these challenges with sincerity and courage, he can truly become "a uniter, not a divider," to the benefit of all Americans.
http://www.nytimes.com

GRAPHIC: Photo: George W. Bush saluted during the national anthem at a high school in Rock Hill, S.C., on Feb. 10. (Mike Segar/Liaison Agency)

LOAD-DATE: December 17, 2000