Alexandria
Osario-Cortez (AOC) had warned her fellow
Democrats not to be too hasty on kicking
President Biden to the curb because she had
not seen an alternative scenario that wouldn’t
“set us up for enormous peril.” She let
us in on the internal goings on to push Ole
Joe out, the pressure mainly coming from the
high donors of the Dems. Her Instagram video
validated what I’ve been saying all along. The
Democratic Party has no strategy and is
desperate. Desperate to hold on to their
fiefdoms.
Most
outsiders don’t know that one year into the
Biden Administration, a critical mass of Party
elites didn’t think he should run again. They
saw the handwriting on the wall that early yet
sat on their hands for two more years,3
letting the Republicans run circles around
them and building unstoppable momentum. In
2016, the Dems could not defeat a known
psychopathic liar, sex offender, racist,
bully, people divider, unethical businessman
and abuser of power. And they almost let trump
get back in the White House in 2020.
No
vision and no strategy is what has
characterized the Democratic Party for the
last thirty years, and Black folks have been
the collateral damage. (Obama was an anomaly.)
That’s why Black voters, especially Black
women, started questioning their loyalty to
the Party since Obama’s reign. A poll by the
Pew Research Center indicated that 95% of
Black female voters supported Biden in 2020.
Fast forward to 2024 where polls show our
support took a steep dip to 70% in the race
between Biden and trump.
This
is why radicals and the social justice
movements must stop tailing the Dems. We need
to start seriously talking about an
independent Black political party or at least
a progressive labor party. I regress, that’s a
topic for another column. I want to focus on
Kamala Harris.
The
Desperate Dems are thinking that with Harris,
they can check off two major constituencies -
Black voters and women voters. The Democratic
Party may have misjudged the political climate
for a Harris victory. The Third Reconstruction
has unleashed a brutal whitelash. The party is
also ignoring the ugly history of
discrimination against Black people and women.
Race and gender will be on trial in 2024.
Harris embodies both of these identities and
should expect both overt and stealth
opposition to her candidacy, including from
within her own party. She’s already being
labeled the DEI hire; birther talk is
emerging; and the Republicans have filed
articles of impeachment against her.
Harris
is inheriting baggage from the Biden
Administration that have not been adequately
addressed - issues like mass incarceration,
police accountability, immigration and of
course, Palestine. She also brings her own
political luggage from her prosecuting days
when she was locking up Black and Brown people
in California.
I’m
not saying Kamala Harris can’t win the
presidency. What I am saying is that Harris as
a potential presidential nominee can only
expect success if the Democrats launch a
serious, vibrant grassroots campaign that
informs and galvanizes all the constituents
that trump has marginalized and criminalized.
It has not done such an undertaking in years,
hence their repeated losses.
Since
the Dems humiliated Biden out of the race, the
high rollers returned to buy their shares in
the Party, raising over $100 million since
Harris took center stage. How will it spend
this money in the next three months? It has
refused to invest resources in ongoing
campaigns that keep voters empowered and
energized. The GOP is masterful at doing
exactly this. They keep racking up victories
on the local and state levels, never looking
back.
The
Republicans know their candidate is flawed,
that trump is a racist, sexist, homophobic,
Islamophobic wanna-be dictator. But that’s not
the point. They are pushing a game plan that
is superior to the character of the candidate.
It’s a game plan that could elect Mickey Mouse
if it would open the doors to power and money.
This presidential race is on
track for many firsts. None of them are
particularly flattering, starting with a
convicted felon running for U.S. President. We
got three months to get fired up. From where
I’m sitting, Black folks are doing a
call-and-response with the Dems. There has
been no response to the call: What Have You
Done for Me Lately? From where I’m sitting,
political strategists are waiting for the
winning playbook. No playbook has surfaced.
James
Baldwin once said, “I can’t believe what you
say, because I see what you do.” Democrats,
it’s time to stop talking and start doing -
big time.
