If They Steal It, I Will Walk

Black Democrats need to have their own nuclear option going into the convention in Denver. Here’s mine: If they steal it, I will walk.

That is, if the Democratic party steals the nomination from Obama by increasing the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination or seating the Florida or Michigan delegations, I will not only not vote Democratic, I will vote for McCain.

I say this as a third-generation Democrat, the granddaughter of a black woman who named her twin sons after Franklin D. Roosevelt and Huey P. Long. Yes, I come from those kind of Democrats, blacks who have been loyal to the party since Roosevelt. Loyal despite moves not to seat the integrated Democrat delegation from Mississippi from the ‘60’s to appease racist white Southern Democrats (Fannie Lou Hamer, anyone?). Loyal through a bunch of loser nominees like Dukakis.

It’s time for the loyalty that blacks have demonstrated time and again to the Democratic Party to be returned in kind. I’m not asking for special favors for Obama; I’m just asking that the rules not be changed from what the candidates started with in order to alter the outcome specifically in favor of Senator Clinton.

Word on the street and in the press is that Senator Clinton is telling superdelegates that she should be the party’s nominee because she’s attracting rural and blue collar white voters who won’t vote for Obama, but that blacks and latinos will vote Democrat no matter who the nominee is.

Oh, I see.

But not this year, sister.

I’m not afraid to punish this party by taking it out on the country. Black people have survived administrations I would politely call “not African-American friendly” (Reagan, Bush I, Bush II). We can survive another Republican administration. Hell, we survived slavery. We are the people who can “make a way out of no way” and can “make a dollar out of fifteen cents.” Four years of McCain? Yeah, I can do that if it means getting the Democratic party to respect the will of African American voters.

So, I have my nuclear option in place. If you’re a black Democrat, you better have yours.