An analysis of the relationship between the Democratic Party and the Black vote, and whether it is a mutually beneficial one.
Themes that often repeated in my writings or ramblings are intentional. Succinctly put and with full transparency the themes are born from my desire to engage the intellect of voters and pry open the prison of partisan politics and alliance. An alliance that has not yielded African-Americans in particular much measurable and concrete concessions toward native issues that is on par with the level of support African-Americans have given Democrat party aligned candidates and issues.
In no way should this be confused with encourage African-Americans to so-called “jump ship”, because that would be no different than “plantation hopping”. The call from the ramblings of an Issuecrat, and even the coining of the term “Issuecrat” is to prime our thinking and engagement to common sense and issue-oriented. The diet that we’ve been fed has been one of empty calories, with limited nutritional value, yet it tastes good..until that diet yields a slothful and unproductive presence.
This should be understood in context to the emotionally-charged, feel good rhetoric that makes us feel good but doesn’t offer the needed value to change the dynamics which our community calls for. The idea of merely voting must be enhanced to voting with intentionality. We currently have a U.S. Senate race here, and of the three candidates. Republican U.S. Senate Josh Hawley, Democrat Lucas Kunce and Jared Young, Independent. None have had serious engagement , presence and outreach into North St. Louis, South City or West Side with the exception of independent candidate Young whose over the last several months show a consistent presence and willingness to engage, although we’ve been conditioned to view the ballot with a narrow lens that brings to view only two parties .
It’s somewhat palatable the idea of Hawley not expending time or resources because statistically his campaign may see attaining support improbable from African-Americans. But Democratic nominee Kunce’s lack of presence and engagement is not puzzling because it has become par for Democrats to take for granted its most loyal voting bloc (African-Americans) to aggressively court others. “We’ll just throw a few Black figure heads, sprinkle with a few clergy and of course embed in the psyche of African-American voters..”What other choice you got!”
When it comes to our community, conditions and choice of candidates we should not continue to be shackled to the notions of “lesser of two evils or no other choice or alternative”. People who value you, will speak to you and your issues. We cannot allow out votes and support to bastardized (word challenge) any form, race, issue. Whomever person or issue you support whether the upcoming or future election cycles, just make it make sense to you. But I can assure you if they ain’t talking to you now, what makes one believe they’d seriously engage us later. Let’s stop letting our issues and votes be a political side chick to anyone’s party platform.
Know your worth and get real commitments for our issues and community. Vote but with an independent, free-mind and with intentionality.
#BlackVote #DemParty #PoliticalPlatform
