Accountability-less delegated representation undermines black democratic politics.

Evidence

Obama is not alone in falling short of a real response. Most black liberals (elected and otherwise) have stood silently by as this economic devastation swallowed black America. Afraid to give ammunition to a boisterous ideological right and never wanting to appear disloyal to their own, they have refused to criticize the president. Instead, we have been asked to shift the blame to a recalcitrant Congress or to trust that they are working on our behalf behind closed doors. I want to expose the limits of this view of black politics—the wrongheaded idea that some leader in some back room can represent the interests of black people without any mechanism of accountability. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 23

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s focus on the ‘trap not strategy’ thesis — this is the causal premise: backroom representation without accountability is the mechanism of the trap.