The analogy Clinton was implying was obvious: I’m Lyndon Johnson, unlovely doer; he’s Martin Luther King, charismatic dreamer. Vote for me if you want results. Forty years ago, that arrangement – white president enacting African-American dreams – was necessary because discrimination denied blacks their own autonomous political options. Today, that arrangement – white liberals acting as tribune for blacks in return for their political loyalty – is a demeaning anachronism. That’s what the fury at Hillary was all about, although no one was willing to say so explicitly. The King-Johnson analogy is dead because the times are radically different. Today an African-American can be in a position to wield the emancipation pen – and everything else that goes along with the presidency: from making foreign policy to renting out the Lincoln Bedroom (if one is so inclined). Why should African-American dreams still have to go through white liberals?
Good question.
