In recent weeks leading up to the Jon Ossoff, Karen Handel race in Georgia, there has been a concerted effort to convince Democratic voters that African Americans let the party down. This myth has been welcomed with open arms by the Republican party. They are not offering an alternative to people of color they are just happy to see reliable Democratic party voters hopefully left on the sideline http://www.factcheck.org/2008/04/blacks-and-the-democratic-party/.
You remember, then candidate, Trump’s plan for the black vote, “what the hell have you got to lose?”
That was not a campaign promise, it was a code to white America. It, essentially was saying, I am not really going to do anything [wink, wink]. Can you imagine President Franklin Roosevelt following the bombing raid on Pearl Harbor in lieu of saying, “we have nothing to fear…” instead saying, what the hell have we got to lose? Lots of talk prior to elections is bandied about decrying voter suppression, cross-check and poll tampering but once a loss is recorded a finger of blame gets pointed at loyal party voters of color. I have voted in every local, state and national election since I turned 21 years old, dating back to former President Jimmy Carter. I was a young, black, brash political neophyte, but I was loyal. A black man in Washington, DC voting for a white southerner, a Georgia peanut farmer, at that.
Now after 41 years of my black generation voting for liberals, spiking with the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President, I am being told that the problem is, my party does not understand the hardships of white America https://www.buzzfeed.com/tariniparti/democrats-focus-on-their-trouble-with-white-working-class-vo?utm_term=.nyydBpown#.nwnrgkBM7. I often rail against cell phone companies offering free phones and giving discounted plans to new customers and in the meantime long time consumers just get an increased bill.
I am feeling a little like a flip phone.
I paid faithfully for 41 years. Democratic party, am I being abandoned for a new customer who isn’t sure he or she even wants your service? I have resisted the urge to write this sort of critique for almost a year but the lip service paid to voter suppression when it is convenient to commiserate for the black vote is getting old and tired. Karen Handel figuratively bleached the voter rolls for the 6th district of Georgia to win a House seat last night, and suddenly voter suppression was no longer a problem https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/15/greg_palast_how_racist_voter_suppression. This morning the conversation by pundits returned to what must Democrats do to get back the white conservative vote. The Democratic party is not in danger of losing my vote because I am not going to let a sleepless night become a nightmare and vote for a repressive Republican party. A party that sees war as a viable answer, a richer one percent trickling on the rest of us and an Ayn Rand survivalist as its House Speaker.
The future is not with me, I am an old man. It is with my sons, my grandchildren and young people I mentor, who ask “was your struggle worth being left behind… again?”
DNC Chairman Tom Perez, don’t sprint away from the loyalty it took many years to build for a downwardly mobile force that may drop your call… Can you hear me now?
Vote in 18’ and Change