“Black
folk generally do not trust the police, the media, or politicians.”
Every Tom,
Dick, and Harry have an analysis as to why the GOP won the midterm with a 37%
turnout of primarily white men and older white voters, which is the historical
norm for likely voters in a midterm election. Theories range from the GOP’s
ground game, Democratic voter apathy and lazy voters, GOP voter suppression tactics,
historical low voter turnout, and of course, Americans (meaning white folk) rejected the black guy in the White House and his
policies.
President
Obama does not deserve the blame unless he personally devised the ill-fated strategy to downplay his own
successes in the economy, energy, environment, foreign policy, healthcare, and manufacturing;
unless he advised Democrats to avoid him like he was infected with Ebola and
alienate black voters and other staunch supporters in the process; and unless he personally told voters to
listen to the negativity in the media and let cynicism and distrust of politicians
keep them from voting. Only then can he be blamed for the losses.
The Democrats’
defeat can be penned on the individual candidates themselves, chairman of the Democratic
National Committee (DNC), the Democratic Congressional Committee Conference
(DCCC), the Democratic Senatorial Committee Conference (DSCC), and the political
strategists they paid to come up
with their brilliant plan. Their
strategy resulted in the demise of the Democratic majority in the Senate, a
larger GOP majority in the House of Representatives; an increase in Republican
governors, a demoralizing defeat for the base, and it brought embarrassment to
our Democratic president. The Republicans’ deep money pockets did not defeat
the Democrats, their own stupidity did, and their strategy fueled black voters’
distrust of the Party.
It is a
distrust that has seethed beneath the surface for a long time, and the Democrats
made a fatal error in judgment when they devised a strategy to distance
themselves from the most highly successful Democratic president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Barack Obama is a biracial black man with
three Muslim names who successfully beat Republicans like a drum in two highly
contested presidential elections. His approval rating is still high amongst
Democrats and he has an impressive and historic list of accomplishments.
However, the DNC’s strategy was to focus on getting votes from the typical
midterm voting block of older white people, which historically do not vote for
Democrats.
For Democrats to win those white voters, that meant they had to betray their own president because older
white people are less accepting of America’s diversity and idea of a fairer and
more equal society. They view President Obama as a thorn in the butt of
progress that Conservatives made in keeping America unequal. Some older
white people can’t even stand to see black folk on television more less a black
man in the White House as President and not as the butler. “I don’t understand why the n**gers have to be on TV?” Those exact words
came from the mouth of one of my girlfriend’s 90-year-old Republican mother-in-law.
Black folk’s
disdain for the Democratic Party is worse than it has ever been. For many
blacks, a strategy to denounce the black president in order to get white votes
that were not going to vote for Democrats anyway was the straw that broke the
camel’s back.
Democratic Midterm Candidates:
If you’re white stick around, if you’re black get back.
Senatorial candidate
Alison Grimes of Kentucky became the face of the Democratic strategy. She was a
delegate for Barack Obama 2008 election but repeatedly refused to say whether she voted for him. It was an incredible display
of cowardice and disrespect. Before that
fiasco, which many of us believed at the time put a nail in her political coffin;
Grimes stood with Bill Clinton and boldly declared very loudly that she was a
“Clinton Democrat.” She ran ads declaring “I am not Barack Obama.”
Grimes’
strategy was to throw Barack Obama under a moving freight train carrying toxic
waste as proof to white Kentuckians that she wasn’t down with the black guy.
She didn’t give a damn if it alienated black voters because political pollsters
and strategists don’t view blacks as likely voters anyway in midterm elections,
so who cares what the Negroes say. Grimes created a firestorm of criticism on
Twitter not only against her but also against the Clintons and the Democratic Party
for going along with it.
How could Democrats
count on her vote for anything
President Obama proposed? She surely would not have allowed her photograph to be taken shaking his
hand or simply standing next to him. Not surprising to many of us that she lost
her election. In fact, Grimes got 584,622 votes and President Obama got 679,370
votes in 2012. She alienated about 95,000 likely voters. I looked up the
definitions of foolish and ill-advised in the dictionary and all I
got was ‘See Alison Grimes’.
Grimes seemed
perfectly content employing her strategy of dividing the base, and it was not
lost on black folk that Bill and Hillary Clinton basked in the limelight standing
next to her, waving to an adoring crowd of mostly white people in support of a
Democratic candidate whose campaign strategy was to pretend: ‘I don’t know who that black guy is in the
White House or where he came from.’
It was in
your face and downright nasty the way Grimes expressed her seemingly contempt
for all-things Barack Obama. The woman never had a positive thing to say about
him. But, we have to give credit where credit is due. Grimes followed what many
of us perceived as the DNC’s playbook for all Democratic candidates in so-called
red states. It went something like this: ‘placate
to the anti-Obama white voters in the Party by pissing on the black president in
public so all the white folk can see you do it and they’ll trust you more. Just
pretend that he doesn’t exist. Don’t defend him, just go along with whatever foul
sh*t they say about him.’
It sounds
cold and harsh indeed, but that’s exactly how it felt to black folk. The
Democrats’ midterm strategy of distancing themselves from President Obama only
served to fuel black voters’ distrust of the Party, and the DNC, DCCC, and DSCC
have a much bigger problem on their hands than turnout.
To add insult
to injury, as I mentioned earlier, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee went on MSNBC and
had to be goaded into even mentioning our Democratic president’s name. She stuck to some lame talking point and refused to give President Obama any credit for the Country's economic successes by suggesting the Democrats in the Senate did it all by themselves. Democratic
voters were angry and dismayed that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairman of
the DNC, did not, would not even defend President Obama.
Wasserman Schultz's actions and that
of other Democratic candidates were all some black and white voters needed to
justify sitting out the election. I could not help but think about the black
man in Atlanta that I encountered in 2010. He probably said, “See…I told you
that you can’t trust these white politicians.” I had one friend to tell me that
he didn’t vote (, and he ALWAYS had
before,) because it was no way he would support anyone who treated
President Obama like that. Quote unquote. He was unapologetic about it.
How can you make sure 10 million Americans have healthcare, some for the very first time, and have no national outreach to inspire and encourage them to vote in order to save their healthcare coverage and subsidies to pay for it?
After all of the
hard work we did to get those reforms passed then to have Democrats not defend
the progress that we have made in the last six years was highly insulting and offensive. But I, like many
others, voted anyway because we wanted President Obama to get his agenda
through Congress in his last two years.
Black folk
generally do not trust the police, the media, or politicians. They use their
distrust of these institutions as an excuse (, or for some a reason,) why they
don’t watch the news and why they don’t vote. When talking to people in
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi after the election about why more black
folk in their states didn’t turn out to vote on Tuesday, I heard repeatedly, “They don’t trust these damn white
politicians. It’s like pulling teeth trying to get them to vote.”
Older black
folk are loyal to the Democratic Party and vote for Democratic candidates even
if they have to hold their noses to do so. However, some black voters feel
perfectly fine sitting out an election because of perceived distrust of the
politicians on the ballot. Most black folk simply will not vote for politicians
they do not trust.
I have told
this story in part before, but the Democratic ill-advised strategy must
have certainly justified this black man’s distrust of white politicians.
In 2010, while
canvassing in the Atlanta area for the midterm election, I came upon a black
man who voted for President Obama and held him in high esteem. However, he was
adamant that he would not vote for a white politician. He declared, very
frankly, “I ain’t voting for no white dude.”
To say that I was
stunned is an understatement. “But President Obama needs your help,” I said,
trying to convince him to change his thinking. “He can’t get his agenda through
if Republicans take over.”
“Oh, I’ll vote for the
brotha, he replied, “but I ain’t voting for no white dude, sistah.”
“But the “brotha” is not on the ballot, the white politicians who will help him are on the ballot.”
“Yeah, I hear you sistah,
but you can’t trust these white politicians especially down here in Georgia.
They say one thing and do another. They don’t care about blacks down here. They
just think all we want is welfare and food stamps. Hell, I work sometimes 50
hours a week. I don’t want nobody to give me nothing. He went on to say, “I got
principles. I can’t be voting for no politicians when I know they’re just lying
right in your face and saying stuff to get in office then once in there, they
don’t do a damn thing.”
We can debate
whether he should have disregarded his “principles” and voted anyway for the
greater good or that I should have argued more vigorously to get him to change
his mind, but I had not engaged a so-called lazy voter. He was very clear about
why he wasn’t going to vote, and unfortunately, his thinking is pervasive
amongst many blacks who are very straightforward in telling you they don’t
trust white politicians.
GOP voters vs.
Democratic voters
Democrats are
not like Republicans when it comes to voting. GOP voters would vote for the
animated character “Dumbo the Elephant” if they were convinced that he could
win because they want power more than anything else. They don’t care if the
candidate is a bigot, homophobe, misogynist, racist, qualified or unqualified,
dumb or stupid. They have one criterion for their candidates: Can they beat the
Democrats?
Democratic
voters are much more principled when it comes to voting, some might say to a fault, and will support politicians they trust, those that will stand by his or her word. However, they will
not vote just as a show of loyalty to the Party or just to say Democrats beat
Republicans. They see power in being a courageous fighter, honest, and
trustworthy.
The Obama Winning Strategy
President
Obama inspired voters of all stripes (black folk, young people, first time voters, Asians, Hispanics, single
white women) to see his vision of America as a more
equal society and more tolerant of diversities. He encouraged Democratic
voters and gave them a reason to vote. He motivated them to stand and take
matters into their own hands. He won their trust and they followed
him. He didn’t play ‘chicken little the
sky is falling’ with them. His message was uplifting, optimistic, and
positive. He told voters repeatedly that it would be hard. He warned them here
would be “setbacks” and “false starts” and asked for their patience. As a
result, he had two successful and historic elections. Unfortunately, the 2014 losing
Democratic candidates did not give Democratic voters enough of a reason to
vote.
President
Obama changed the game about how to drive the Democratic base to the polls. Unless leaders of the DNC, DCCC, DSCC and other Democratic organizations and
political strategists adopt The Obama Winning Strategy of inspire, encourage,
motivate, and win their trust, Democrats will continue to lose elections, which is
something the Country cannot afford because ALL Americans regardless of party affiliation, gender, race or
station in life benefit greatly from Democratic policies.
That's my yada yada and I’m sticking
to it!
