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Page 6 EDUCATIONCAREERS Special Edition O PINION August 24, 2016 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Standing on the Shoulders of Shirley Chisholm A historic path in the race for president m arC h. m orial The nation has marked the historic occasion of the first woman in American history to win the presidential nomina- tion for a major political party. While Hillary Clinton has come further than any woman presidential candidate, she is not the first. Victoria Woodhull ran as the candidate for the Equal Rights Party in 1872. Margaret Chase Smith challenged Barry Goldwa- ter for the Republican nomina- tion in 1964. More recently, Pat Schroeder in 1988 and Carol Mo- seley Braun in 2004 vied for the Democratic nomination. But the most historically sig- by nificant forerunner to Hillary Clinton was Shirley Chisholm, the Brooklyn-born trailblazer who was also the nation’s first African-American Con- gresswoman. The daughter of work- ing-class immigrants from the Caribbean, Chisholm became interested in pol- itics while serving as the director of a child day care center and an educational consultant for the New York City Division of Day Care. She served three years as a New York State Assemblywoman before running for Congress in 1968 with the slo- gan “Unbought and unbossed”. “My greatest political asset,” Chisholm said, “which profes- sional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn’t al- ways discuss for reasons of polit- ical expediency.” Chisholm hired only women for her staff, half of whom were African Americans. “Of my two handicaps, being female put many more obstacles in my path than being black,” she said. She announced her candidacy for president at a Baptist church in Brooklyn. In an article about her candidacy, the Associated Press wrote, “Ironically, her ma- jor headache seems to come from black politicians.” “They think that I am trying to take power away from them,” she said. “The black man must step forward. But that doesn’t mean the black woman must step back. “While they’re rapping and snapping, I’m mapping,” she said. She competed in 14 states, winning 28 delegates to the con- vention. As a symbolic gesture, candidate Hubert Humphrey re- leased his 83 Black delegates to cast their votes for Chisholm. With the votes of several other delegates at that contentious con- vention, Chisolm finished fourth in a field of 13, with 152 dele- gates. It is hard to imagine, in this era of sharp division in politics, the remarkable moment during that campaign when she visited her segregationist rival, Alabama Gov. George Wallace, in his hos- pital room after he was shot and wounded. “What are your people going to say?” he asked her. “I know what they are going to say,” she said. “But I wouldn’t want what happened to you to happen to anyone.” She recalled that her words moved him to tears. Chisholm retired from Con- gress in 1982 and remained an outspoken activist for civil rights until her death in 2005. It would be difficult to overes- timate the impact and influence of Chisholm’s congressional service and presidential candi- dacy. While Congress remains disproportionately white and male, one-in-five members of the current House and Senate are a racial or ethnic minority, mak- ing the 114th Congress the most diverse in history. The nation’s first African-American president is winding up his second term, and a woman – a former senator and secretary of state – has just won the Democratic nomination for president. In her acclaimed speech on the Equal Rights Amendment in 1970, Chisholm said, “The Con- stitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black founding fathers, there were no founding mothers -- a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone. Today, here, we should start to do so.” Marc H. Morial is president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League. Russian Connection a Window on How Trump Deals A narrow and dangerous view of world affairs Friday), was on the take with the former pro-Russian Ukraine pres- ident should come as no surprise. Even before the Times report, we knew that Manafort was a well- paid economic adviser to Presi- dent Viktor Yanukovych on by m el g urtov election strategy and foreign The revelation investments. What we now from a New York know is that he was among Times investiga- a substantial number of in- tion that Donald dividuals who may have re- Trump’s chief ceived millions of dollars in campaign advis- illegal, under-the-table payments er, Paul Manafort (who resigned The Law Offices of Patrick John Sweeney, P.C. Patrick John Sweeney Attorney at Law 1549 SE Ladd, Portland, Oregon Portland: Hillsoboro: Facsimile: Email: (503) 244-2080 (503) 244-2081 (503) 244-2084 Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com Advertise with diversity in The Portland Observer Call 503-288-0033 or email ads@portlandobserver.com or gifts from a Ukraine adminis- tration that was up to its neck in corrupt practices. Whether or not Manafort actually received the $12.7 million designated for him by Yanukovych’s party, the fact is he profited from a close associa- tion with a pro-Russian govern- ment—an association that surely helps account for the pro-Russian views of Trump himself. But the real story here is the in- sight it provides into how a Trump administration would conduct foreign policy. In a nutshell, it’s “the art of the deal.” Regardless of who might be on the other side of the table—Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Angela Merkel, or En- rique Peña Nieto, the president of Mexico—Trump’s guideline would be that business interests are central to the national inter- est. Anyone unfriendly to the U.S. dollar would be an enemy, subject to sanctions. After all, the art of the deal is to win, and for Trump “winning is everything. I can only say: my whole life has been about winning.” Neither U.S. strategic priorities nor “idealist” concerns such as hu- man rights and civil society would be allowed to interfere with cut- ting a deal. As another of Trump’s foreign policy advisers, Carter Page, said, “ironically, Washing- ton and other Western capitals have impeded potential progress [with Moscow] through their of- ten hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequali- ty, corruption and regime change.” Thus, if Mexico balked at pay- ing for the Trump Wall, Trump would have no qualms about punishing Mexico economically. If China pushed back at the U.S. navy in the South China Sea, Trump might erect barriers to Chinese imports. As for Russia, where Trump, Page, Manafort, and other advisers already have business ties, investments are perceived as the key to moder- ating U.S.-Russia relations and thus “solving” disputes over Crimea and Ukraine. In Trump’s world, everyone has a price. He has often told the story of how his view of China is mainly shaped by the sale of a Trump Tower apartment to a Chi- nese banker. Despite that profit- able venture, Trump’s larger pic- ture of China is that the Chinese are fleecing the U.S., they are “our enemies,” and only by threatening to disrupt trade with them can the U.S. earn Beijing’s respect. If the U.S. wants to reverse China’s pol- icy on exchange rates, the trade deficit, and even the South China Sea, all Washington has to do is hurt their economy. Trump has no doubt—he is immune to doubt— that China will cave under such pressure. Donald Trump and his inner circle have no interest in seeing the world through the eyes of oth- ers. The world is reduced to mar- kets and diplomacy to The Deal. The other forces that motivate nations—nationalism, insecuri- ty, underdevelopment, historical grievances—don’t seem to be worth understanding or acknowl- edging. That’s a major reason Trump and Manafort are most comfortable dealing with—and admiring—dictators. Dictators run a tight ship; their word is law; no one else need be consulted or persuaded. Cutting a deal with them is so much easier than con- tending with democratic leaders, messy legislative processes and outside influences such as unions and NGOs. Fortunately, such a danger- ously narrow view of world af- fairs is not going to win in No- vember. But it won’t go away, if for no other reason than that as U.S. influence in the world de- clines, as U.S. ability to end ter- rorism, climate disruptions, and other large-scale threats become ever more problematic, and as social and economic inequali- ty persists at home, politicians preaching simplistic solutions and promising to put “America first” will reemerge. Trump may go on vacation after the election, as he has promised; but Trump- ism will survive. Mel Gurtov, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is professor emeritus of political science at Portland State University and blogs at In the Human Interest.
