Despite a lack of national cohesion or a central organizing committee, some involved in the Black Lives Matter movement are attempting to launch a political action committee (PAC) to push their agenda in Washington and in state legislatures.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement sprang up this summer in the wake of several incidents of alleged police brutality against blacks–many of which have since been disproven–chief among which was the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Ferguson erupted in months of rioting and property destruction by various groups, many of which eventually joined forces with or adopted the BLM monicker.
But BLM is made up of a series of disparate groups across the country and lacks a cohesive set of ideas, goals, and principles.
In this way BLM is similar to the older Tea Party Movement. if Black Lives Matter and the Tea Party movement have any similarity at all it is in the lack of any overarching organization that could control them. Both are a general movement made up of disparate groups that are not necessarily in contact with each other. Additionally, neither movement is controlled by any overarching, central umbrella group.
Just as there is no such thing as “the” Tea Party, there is also no such thing as “the” Black Lives Matter, in that there isn’t anything even close to a controlling authority for either group.
Despite the disorganization, according to The Washington Post, members claiming to represent BLM on a national level are trying to launch a PAC.
The PAC intends to raise funds to donate to candidates that share its policy priorities, but per PAC rules will operate independently from any candidate’s campaign or committee.
The Post reports that long-time Democrat operative Kenny Murdock, a radio show host and former aide to past Missouri Democrat secretary of state Robin Carnahan, filed the papers with the Federal Elections Commission to register the PAC.
But when news emerged that Murdock was launching the PAC, some BLM groups expressed their surprise and noted that they had no knowledge or involvement in the effort.
Far left website Think Progress, for instance, hastened to point out in an October 15 article that this new PAC is not affiliated with the movement in any “official” way.
“I have a lot of respect for people who want to do different things,” one member of the movement told the liberal website. “But I have questions: Who are they connected to, what are they gonna do with that?”
Since the Ferguson riots, many BLM groups have been quite specific with their insistence that they don’t want to line up behind any particular political party nor any specific candidates.
In fact, at the end of August some BLM groups even rejected a Democrat Party resolution offered to support the movement saying, “We do not now, nor have we ever, endorsed or affiliated with the Democratic Party, or with any party.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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