“A cynical attempt … to disenfranchise Black voters,” said Ashley Sharpton, daughter of Al Sharpton.
“Voter suppression,” cried New York City Democratic leader Keith Wright.
These New York Democrats were defending Eric Adams, a black candidate leading the mayoral polls ahead of Tuesday’s primary election.
Adams himself pulled no punches in response to the attacks. His opponents’ actions resembled Jim Crow tactics such as “poll taxes.”
“They’re saying we can’t trust a person of color to be the mayor,” Adams said.
None of this talk was shocking. It’s the central argument from Democrats these days: The attacks on us are racist, and the other guys are trying to win by disenfranchising voters of color.
The exact offense that sparked Adams’s cries of racist disenfranchisement? Andrew Yang appeared onstage with rival Cynthia Garcia and suggested his supporters put her in the No. 2 slot on their ranked-choice ballots.
If that doesn’t sound racist to you, well, you’re not alone.
Maya Wiley, a black mayoral candidate, criticized Adams for “play[ing] the race card lightly.”
“This partnership is not racist,” Wiley said, “and we should not be using this term so loosely.”
Many Democrats lamented the charges of racism and disenfranchisement were cynical politicking.
Hmm. You don’t say.
Where would Democrats ever get the idea that cries of disenfranchisement and accusations of racism might be rank politics — attempts to silence opponents and motivate one’s base? Maybe when President Joe Biden made up the contents of a Georgia elections bill to call it worse than Jim Crow. Maybe when journalists spent the Obama years claiming that every word spoken in criticism of Barack Obama, from “Obamacare” to “golf” to “skinny,” was a racial slur.
It’s been obvious to every honest observer this is standard Democratic politics these days. Remember when Vice President Kamala Harris basically accused Biden of being a segregationist for opposing school busing before becoming his running mate? Why’d she attack him like that back then? Did she believe it?
“It was a debate,” she said, laughing. “It was a debate.”
“So, you don’t mean it?” Stephen Colbert asked.
“It was a debate. Literally, it was a debate,” she responded again. “There were journalists there covering the debate.”
That is, when Democrats call other people’s actions racist, it’s just politics. It’s just an attempt to lower the other person’s poll numbers and raise their own.
Similarly, cries of disenfranchisement are an effort to drive up voter turnout. It works, too. Few things motivate a voter more than being told someone is trying to take his vote away.
Politics isn’t a beanbag toss, so nobody expects Democrats to play nice. But given the importance of combating racism, you would think they might hesitate before false cries of racism or race-based voter suppression.
But Eric Adams has taken the Democratic playbook too far by using it against Democrats.
New York Times reporter Ben Smith put it well, saying that “New York Democrats have an incredible record of screwing up their party’s national strategy.”
Mr. Adams, you tipped your party’s hand and showed they only have one trump card.
