Bush is Expected to Continue Rightward Drift - Sharpton says "serious times ahe

Having won re-election with little Black political support, President George W. Bush is expected to appoint three or four Right-wing judges to the Supreme Court, a move virtually guaranteed to eventually end the use of affirmative action programs in public institutions, and preside over a second term that will be characterized by cuts in domestic programs to offset the $1.9 trillion tax cuts over the next decade and a $422 billion deficit from his first term, political experts and activists predict. "He won't have any reason to do anything for Black people," explains Ron Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland. "There was a massive Black vote against him. However, second terms are interesting because they (incumbents) don't face any competition. He doesn't really have to play games in order to get re-elected, so it's conceivable that he might, although I don't expect that we would, go as far as trying to make any common cause with any centrist parts of the Black community."  Former Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton doesn't think there is a remote likelihood of Bush moving beyond his tight circle of conservative advisers.  "Let's all head to the airport and get out of the country," Sharpton says, facetiously. "I think we are in for some serious times. He will appoint judges to the Supreme Court that I think will try to erode some of the gains we made under the Civil Rights Movement and he clearly will have economic policies that will reward the rich. If there ever was a time that we had to gear up activism and put pressure on Congress like we've never done before, now is the time." [more]