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The worst possible outcome of Tuesday's election would have been that George Bush won with the help of a divided Black electorate. Instead, African Americans reaffirmed the vitality of the Black Political Consensus -- our eyes firmly fixed on the prize: peace, jobs and justice. Despite faith-based blandishments to the sell-out branch of the Black clergy, massive deployment of the GOP's gay wedge issue and, most hurtfully, the Kerry team's initial determination to render African Americans invisible and mute in the campaign, Blacks stood like a rock in defense of their own interests. Undeterred by disinformation that insanely (or maybe just inanely) predicted a doubling of Black support for Bush, African Americans placed their numbers and sheer will in the path of the Bush II juggernaut. It rolled over us, by fair means and foul, but our Consensus -- the impermeable historical glue that makes African Americans unique in the Diaspora -- remained intact. And, truth be known, we had more white people on our side in this election than at any time in modern American history -- just not enough. The Bush men brag that their figurehead won more votes than any president, ever. Yet more people also voted against Bush than any previous president. We who have never -- and will never -- win US-wide power on our own, were on Election Day at the vortex of the struggle against an enemy that makes the planet shiver. [more]