Margaret
Kimberley
This columnist
did not see a Donald Trump victory coming.
The degree of disgust directed at an awful
candidate was more than I had predicted.
Neither the corporate media, nor Wall Street
nor the pundits nor the pollsters saw this
coming either. Their defeat and proof of
their uselessness is total. Those of us who
rejected the elite consensus and didn’t
support Hillary Clinton should be proud.
Black people
are now in fear and in shock when we ought
to be spoiling for a fight. All is not lost.
Even the victory of the openly bigoted Trump
poses an opportunity to right our political
ship. Not the electoral ship, the political
one. For decades black Americans have been
voting for people who have done them wrong.
Bill Clinton got rid of public assistance as
a right, and undid regulations that kept
Wall Street in check. He put black people in
jail and yet black people didn’t turn on him
until he and his wife tried to defeat Obama.
But Obama gave us more of the same. Bailouts
of Wall Street, interventions and death for
people all over the world, and a beat down
of black people who still loved him. Despite
the fear of Republican victory we end up
losing whenever a Democratic presidential
candidate wins.
“Obama
bailed out banks, insurance companies,
Big Pharma and even Ukraine.”
Victory is
ours if we dump the Democrat Party and their
black misleaders. The Democrats were so
entrenched in their corruption and
self-dealing that they didn’t see the Bernie
Sanders campaign for modest reform as the
savior it might have been. Instead they
marched in lock step with a woman who was
heartily disliked. Sanders went along as the
sheep dog who led his flock straight over
the cliff. The Democrats inadvertently
galvanized people who had stopped
participating in the system and who want
change from top to bottom.
One of our
biggest problems lies not in facts but in
perceptions. What did Democrats do for black
people? The Democrats ship living wage jobs
off shore in corrupt trade deals like NAFTA
and TTP. They don’t prosecute killer cops or
raise the minimum wage. Trump will be hard
pressed to deport more people than Obama
did. The list of treachery is very long.
When Donald
Trump asked black people, “What have you got
to lose?” his words were met with derision.
But in reality he posed a good question.
What do we have to show for years of
Democratic votes? Obama bailed out banks,
insurance companies, Big Pharma and even
Ukraine. But he didn’t rebuild Detroit or
New Orleans. The water in Flint, Michigan is
still poisoned and the prisons are still
full.
“There may
be opportunity in this crisis if we dare
to seize it.”
The outpouring
of love for Barack Obama was purely
symbolic. In state after state, black people
who gave him victory in 2008 and 2012 stayed
home. They loved seeing him and his wife
dressed up at state dinners but they were
never fully engaged in politics because that
is not what Democrats want. The love was
phony and void of any political intent.
Donald Trump will be president because of
that veneer of political activism.
As for white
people who voted for Trump, of course many
of them are racists. However they are not
without valid complaints. They don’t want
neoliberalism but black people don’t either.
They don’t want wars around the world and
neither do black people. We corrupt our own
heritage of radicalism in favor of shallow
symbolism. While we slept walk in foolish
nostalgia for Obama and cried at the thought
of him leaving office, white people kept
their hatred of Hillary to themselves or
lied to pollsters. They want America to be
great again, great for them. White nostalgic
yearnings are dangerous for black people,
and we must be vigilant. But there may be
opportunity in this crisis if we dare to
seize it.
Republicans
have been the white people’s party for
nearly 50 years. Trump just made it more
obvious. He didn’t tell us anything we
didn’t already know. We don’t have to be the
losers in this election. Let us remember
what we have achieved in our history. Half
of black Americans didn’t even have the
right to vote in the 1960s yet made earth
shattering progress in a short time. But we
must understand the source of that progress.
It came from struggle and daring to create
the crises that always bring about change.
“The dread
of redneck celebration should not be our
primary motivation right now.”
Yes white
people will strut for president Trump but
that doesn’t mean we must submit as if we
are in the Jim Crow days of old. We have
ourselves to rely on and we can reclaim our
history of fighting for self-determination.
The dread of redneck celebration should not
be our primary motivation right now. Before
we quake in fear at white America we must
send the scoundrels packing.
The black
politicians and the Democratic National
Committee and the civil rights organizations
that don’t help the masses must all be
kicked to the proverbial curb. The rejection
must be complete and blame must be laid
squarely at their feet.
Those of us
who voted for the green party ticket of Jill
Stein and Ajamu Baraka must stand firmly and
proudly for our choice. We must strategize
on building a progressive party to replace
the Democrats who never help us. We must
applaud Julian Assange and Wikileaks for
exposing their corruption. There should be
no back tracking on the fight to build left
wing political power.
“We must
strategize on building a progressive
party to replace the Democrats who never
help us.”
The black
people who didn’t return to the polls
shouldn’t be blamed either. Those
individuals must have personal introspection
that is meaningful and political. Their lack
of enthusiasm speaks to Democratic Party and
black misleadership incompetence. We should
refrain from personal blame and help one
another in this process as we fight for
justice and peace.
The end of the
duopoly is the first step in liberation.
Staying with a party that literally did
nothing was a slow and agonizing death.
Sometimes shock therapy is needed to improve
one’s condition. If we don’t take the
necessary steps to free ourselves this
election outcome will be a disaster.
Instead, why not bring the disaster to the
people who made it happen? The destruction
of the Democratic Party and creation of a
truly progressive political movement is the
only hope for black America.
No comments:
Post a Comment