By Rev. Joseph Darby
A.M.E. Today Contributing Columnist

I'm writing this column as a veteran of one of the most unlikely coalitions South Carolina has ever seen. Members of the AME Church and Southern Baptist Church, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, the black community and the white community, the business community and the NAACP all came together to oppose a Constitutional change to allow a lottery in our state. 

The people have spoken at the polls, and the way is now clear for a lottery, but that unlikely coalition was a victory in itself. 

People with divergent views on other issues found a way to share common ground. In so doing, we actually got to talk with and appreciate each other, and, I hope, to realize that long-held stereotypes fall by the wayside when people work together and learn to trust each other.

 I believe that's why those in both major parties who sought to make the lottery a partisan issue were never able to effectively do so. Those who came together acknowledged their differences, but found common ground on the lottery. 

That new- found level of trust laid the foundation for future dialogue and cooperation. 

I thought of that coalition as I sat to write this column during the presidential recount controversy.

 I've just listened to one of candidate George W. Bush's political operatives note that Richard Nixon in 1960 and Gerald Ford in 1976 did not contest close votes, and ask why candidate Al Gore is doing so in this instance?

 I'd refer him to a Florida newspaper photo of two men on opposite sides of the controversy. Those two men ( one with a Gore campaign sign and one with a Bush campaign sign ) are literally screaming at each other in a way that makes one glad that neither man was armed.

 Those two men were not simply citizens on opposite sides of a political issue. Those two men were clearly enemies. 

Though many of my Republican friends would deny it, I see that photo as the fruit of the political strategy that led to the Republican Party's resurgence in the 1980s.

 South Carolina played a leading role in that resurgence, which was clearly built on "wedge" issues.

 Many Republican candidates and Rush Limbaugh-style talk show hosts demonized those who didn't share their political views and made it acceptable to demean those who are not white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. 

Republicans made political hay on cries for "welfare reform," "law and order" and "school reform" that were all thinly veiled, fear-driven political appeals to white voters to keep "those people" in their place. 

The Democratic Party learned to play the game and make its own political hay. Democrats learned to be centrist enough to gingerly embrace the substance of the Republican rhetoric, while being careful not to blatantly insult or alienate their African-American constituency. 

They also reminded their liberal and African-American constituency that, if the Republicans took over, the consequences would be disastrous. The result can be seen in the current election controversy. 

The Republicans are claiming victory, in spite of clear evidence of voter irregularities, and are urging the Democrats to simply give up, disregard the irregularities and let them govern. 

The Republicans can make that argument because, at this writing, their candidate is ahead in the electoral college vote, if not in the popular vote. If the numbers were reversed, many Democrats would be saying, "Let's move on," and many Republicans would be crying foul. 

The Democrats have no choice but to stand their ground and wait for a recount, and the Republicans have no choice but to whine about moving on. 

Mr. Gore cannot do what Mr. Nixon did in 1960 and what Mr. Ford did in 1976. In those days, the party not in power was the "loyal opposition." Today, the party not in power is the enemy. 

Perhaps when the present controversy is settled and before the 2002 campaign heats up, veterans of the lottery opposition effort who are heavily involved in both major political parties can demand a new standard of political responsibility from the leadership of their respective parties. 

The Republicans can then repent of the sin of exploiting division for political gain and respectfully listen to people of color, rather than simply having them entertain at their national conventions. The Democrats can then be more responsive to all of their loyal constituents and give them more reasons to vote for Democrats and not just against Republicans.

 When we again learn to talk to and trust each other as citizens, just as those who stood against the lottery did, then we can put an end to the politics of division and, in the words of one African-American spiritual,"... study war no more." 

Rev. Darby is senior pastor at Morris Brown AME Church, Charleston. This column first ran in the South Carolina, State Newspaper.