"Pride is Fucking with Your Head" or "How Learned to Love Demopublicans"

This whole soap opera with Wharton entering the city mayor’s race has got me thinking of a few things. First, I was talking with a friend today about and he brought up the fact that Herenton will go negative against Wharton. Well, I don't think anyone will care if AC had dirty laundry aired. Unless there was some completely vile pictures of him strangling puppies while screwing a goat, any negative stuff Herenton throws will just be written off as Herenton being desperate. Average voter’s opinion of AC is pretty rock solid, even if his son is a deviant. The great thing about AC entering the race would be Herenton spilling the beans on the backdoor manipulation of rich elites in this city’s politics. God that would be so cool. Herenton's going to lash out like a rabid dog and try to bring everyone down with him. Then 10 minutes after the election results come in, he's going to be on a plane to a third world country with no extradition treaty.

The second thing I’ve been thinking about is Carol Chumney’s candidacy. Even without Wharton in the race, she’s a long shot, but if he gets in, she and Morris are done, because it is Clash of the Titans. All of Morris’ support goes to Wharton and as will most of Chumney’s. Plus, she wouldn’t be able to raise $10 more. Perhaps in Carol’s basement there is a small room with shelves full of porcelain vases. It was made for very special occasions like this, when a person realizes everything they’ve worked for, all the ass kissing, all the speeches, and all the glad handing were for nothing. Next week when Wharton files his paperwork will be the day Carol uses the vase room. She’s going to go in that room and start smashing those vases. Maybe Carol will come to her senses and have the paperwork ready to re-enter her city council race. That way she can take all her frustration out Jim Strickland and his hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations by whooping his ass six ways to Sunday. But some how I don’t think that’s going to happen. It’s her pride that will not let her do that. Another friend of mine pointed how she’s like Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction. Ving Rhames is telling him to take a dive in the fight, but knows Bruce’s pride will make it hard for him to do. Rhames tells him “not to let pride fuck with your head.” Carol, listen to Ving Rhames. Don’t let your pride fuck with your head.

Third, if AC wins, who does the County Commission select as interim mayor? Deidre Malone? Someone outside the council, or HAROLD FORD JR. Maybe he gets selected Shelby County Mayor so he can lay a groundwork for running for Governor in 2010. Stranger things have happened.

The final thing that I’ve been thinking about are the consequences of Wharton being elected. If you had to have a movie title name, it would be “The Raise of the Demopublicans.” Below are three maps that show the percentage of black residents in each census tract.

2000:


1990:

1980:

(Funny how that "C" extended over 20 years. What do you think the county will look like in 2010?)

In a little over a generation, this county has gone through a tremendous demographic shift, but I don’t think there has been a similar shift in the economic and political powerbrokers. Last year, even though Democrats are majority in Shelby County, republicans won 11 out of 12 elections. (JW Gibson doesn’t count. He’s a republican at most and an opportunist at least.) Certainly, there were some less than stellar Democratic candidates, but still that is an embarrassing result. That’s not going to continue though. Those powerbrokers realize that and to maintain influence there needs to be a blurring of differences between Democrats and Republicans at county level elections. Why do I think this may be true. AC left in most of Jim Routs’ crew and sided with republicans in county wide elections when he could have just kept his mouth shut. Let’s face it. After Wharton wins, the only D’s and R’s there are going to be are Developers and Realtors. Wharton’s political presence will stunt all grassroots political organizing for years. You’ll either have to get with the program or be locked out of the political process. We’ll finally have that elusive Unity people have been clamoring for. Unity is highly overrated and in the end, aside for some superficial improvements, things will not change. Memphis will still be stricken with inequality and all our other problems. But at least we’ll have a very nice and polite mayor.