My friends,
Brewer was on the Mildred Gaddis program this morning, 2/21/13 & Richard Mack called in to challenge Brewer regarding Brewer's own role in the fight over the anti-affirmative action Michigan Constitutional amendment. Brewer flat out denied that he had demanded that the Democratic appointees on the Board of Canvassers vote in favor of placing the proposal on the ballot in 2004, in order to get it over with so that we could lose the fight before Granholm had to run for re-election in 2006.
I was a member of the Board of Canvassers throughout the fight over affirmative action. I am a committed team player, have little interest in the dynamics of the Michigan Democratic Party in-fighting & for that reason I have kept my mouth shut, publicly, about Brewer's conduct; however, especially as he was clearly trolling for the African American vote by going on Gaddis' program, I feel obliged to set the record straight.
I never asked to be on the Board, was proposed by Gaffney & selected by the Governor. In 2004 the noxious racist anti-affirmative action proposal came before the Board & I was, initially, the lone vote against it. (I should disclose that in @1979 I was one of the leaders in the successful effort to force the WSU Law School to restore its affirmative action plan.) Brewer was furious. He approached fellow Board member Dottie Jones and me, both in and out of the meeting, to demand that we vote to put it on the ballot. Brewer's theory was that it was going to pass anyway & we must vote in favor in time to get it on the 2004 ballot & get it over with, so that Granholm would not face it in the 2006 election.
Brewer asserted that he was acting on behalf of the Governor and demanded my resignation when I refused to follow his lead. He even threatened that he would personally remove me and Dottie if we didn't follow his orders (he of course had no such authority, but the threat would've likely cowed someone less bull-headed than me). There is even a YouTube video, without sound, posted by the racist supporters of Prop 2, of Brewer lambasting Dottie and me in the hallway outside the Board meeting. Amusingly enough, the Prop 2 supporters mistakenly believed Brewer was ordering us to vote against them when in fact he was screaming at me in particular for refusing to vote in favor of putting it on the ballot.
I contacted the Governor's office to offer my resignation & was told in no uncertain terms to ignore Brewer and that he was acting without authority & did not speak for the Governor. The Governor was forthright in her support of affirmative action and, in my opinion, she campaigned quite bravely against the hot-button proposal while running for re-election against a self-funded billionaire opponent.
Later, when Board member Paul Mitchell and I faced criminal contempt charges and I faced an effort to take my bar license because of our defense of affirmative action, Brewer consistent with his prior conduct, not only threw us to the wolves, but actively undercut our defense. His conduct was reprehensible (but that is another story). (Disclosure: Richard Mack was one of many who did come to our defense, with Mack assisting in the NAACP brief in our support).
So that no one misperceives my position, I agreed at the time with Brewer that the proposal, no matter how flawed or unlawful, would likely get on the ballot eventually and that if it did, it would likely pass, due to Michigan's long & sorry history of racial antagonism. However, I did not think we were merely making a tactical choice on a side issue. Affirmative action, particularly in higher education, was one of the fundamental victories and rights won though hard fought battles in the civil rights movement. It was not a minor chess piece to be thrown under the bus. If we fought long enough we just might win and if we were to lose, we should at least go down fighting. Despite Brewer's effort, when it came back before us in July 2006, only one Republican member of the 4 member bi-partisan Board actually voted to put it on the ballot.
Those who have followed the issue are aware that because of the efforts of those who ignored Brewer, the Federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has found that the Michigan Constitutional amendment got on the ballot through fraud & that it violated the post Civil War 14th Amendment (which least any forget, was passed precisely to control the efforts of Dixiecrats to use the popular vote to take away the rights won through blood in the Civil War). The US Supreme Court is likely to hear the case next year.
The decision of who to select for party chair is subject to many factors. The political process is not pretty. However, lines must be drawn at some point, and it is clear to me that Brewer was not just willing, but eager behind closed doors, to sacrifice a fundamental right of a major part of the Democratic Party constituency in furtherance of his technocratic view of the political process. I found his conduct reprehensible then, and I find his dishonesty today to be just disgusting in trolling for African American votes on Detroit radio by re-writing the history of his own role in torpedoing affirmative action.
I want to thank Richard for trying to set the record straight on the radio. If anyone wants further information, feel free to ask. Similarly, feel free to share this email with whoever you choose.
Doyle O'Connor
PS: On a similar note of unerringly being on the wrong side of social change, Brewer was likewise furious with me for engineering the Board vote against placement of the anti-gay marriage Constitutional amendment on the ballot.
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
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