EOH: Blacks in the past have groused at and bashed the Democrats. But they still overwhelmingly vote for them.
ME: I agree, which has set us up for Democrats to shit on us quite openly and often (particularly during this administration) - just like the Republicans have for decades.
EOH: The off the chart vote blacks gave President Obama is repeatedly cited even by black Republican hopefuls as an aberration in that blacks turned the election into a holy crusade to get one of their own in the White House. That's wrong on two counts. Obama was more than just the fulfillment of a civil rights dream. He had a solid program for change that frontally challenged and promise of reversing the social and economic damage, race baiting, and neglect that characterized three decades of Republican rule in the White House and the sledgehammer attacks on or malign neglect of civil rights leaders and concerns when Republicans were out of the White House. (emphasis mine)
ME: I beg to differ there, Earl - on both counts. First, whether Black folk want to own that
Now, if the "fullfillment" of which you speak, merely involved havin' skinfolk in the Big House, then yes - the Changeling is that. But here's my pesky two cents, which basically boils down to - He's not fulfilled a damned thing! Quiet as it's kept, the civil rights movement was never about merely havin' skinfolk in the White House, bruh. Please, let's not join the ranks of the revisionists on either the intent of Dr. King, or the civil rights movement, m'kay Earl?; because some of us do know the whole story:
"If other civil rights leaders, for various reasons, refuse or can't take a stand, or have to go along with the administration, that's their business!" I'm definitely with Dr. King on that one.
Secondly (and it's a long secondly), regarding your "solid program for change that frontally challenged and promise of reversing, blah, blah, blah," I must ask - What the hell are you talking about, Earl? What exactly has he frontally challenged or reversed - particularly for Black folk?
It certainly couldn't be his hastily cobbled together, written-mostly-by-the-for-profit healthcare industry, no-Public-Option havin' (forget single-payer!), fine-mandated-if-you-don't-have-it, health insurance bill. But if that's what you mean, could you tell me how that "solid program" will work for folk who already don't have health insurance - because they can't afford it? And if they already can't afford, even the subsidized insurance - how, pray tell, can they afford the mandated fines? I'm with Bill Moyers on that whole thing:
- Nor could you be talking about his bait-and-switch with the Lilly LedbetterAct, the first bill he signed once selected - which allegedly provided pay equity for women - seeing as both he and Pelosi lied (yeah, I said it - LIED)...
...because that bill had nothing, at all, to do with pay equity - for women of any color. C'mon, Man, political analyst that you are, haven't you even read the bill!
Despite the inequity in pay and wealth just between white women and Black women (forget between men and women!) - his signing Ledbetter into law hasn't done jack about pay equity except maintained the status quo because - Ledbetter wasn't ever about that!
The Paycheck Fairness Act (S.3772) on the other hand - which Reid waited to bring up for a cloture vote (more pre-mid-term elections sleight of hand) - WAS about that! But, so smooth at conflating it with Ledbetter and getting brownie points for something they didn't (and may not ever do!), the Changeling and his crew bamboozled the hell out of plenty of people - especially women. Poor Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), whose been working on this thing diligently for some time - she just keeps pluggin' away, trying to get the rest of them to do the right thing. {smdh} This out-of-work-for-so-long-I'm-not-even-counted-among-the-unemployed, Black woman says:
- Nor could it be his signing of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which simply says, "Y'all still ain't equal - but at least your less unequal" (Now there's some real "solid," social and economic damage reversal fantasy right there!).
- Nor his unflinching support of businessman-never-been-a-teacher, Secty. of Education, Arne Duncan in his push to privatize public schools (where we disproportionately find our kids, and those of our Brown brothers and sisters) for money - which many (if not most, parents) do not have (not e'erybody can get into Sidwell Friends, as he so unabashedly reminds).
Instead of getting to the root of why Johnny can't read - no matter where he's economically situated - they say, Johnny can learn better through incentivized programs like Michelle Rhee's, "Capital Gains Program" - blessed, I'm sure by Duncan, since he did the same thing in Chicago with the "Green for Grade$ Project" (even the names of the programs show you how greedy for money they are!) - which only keeps them non-critically thinking, self-hating cripples with a little change in their pockets, since they're still learning all the "Lies My Teacher Told Me,"
Sorry Earl, when education is reduced to a "Race to the Top", or a demeaning lottery, or paying kids for good grades, attendance, appearance, and two other categories I don't remember right now - there's nothing "solid" going on but the Benjamins.
EOH: President George W. Bush escalated the assault on education, health, jobs programs. His refusal to do what other presidents routinely did and that's speak at or send a congratulatory message to the NAACP annual convention until the last year of his second White House term was the ultimate snub and insult, and final proof to black voters that the GOP was a party of closet race baiters, bigots, and race panderers. (emphasis mine)
ME: Just a small quibble here, Earl. I agree Shrub escalated the afore-mentioned assault, but - "final proof?" Really? Tell me, how can a five-and-a-half year refusal be characterized as the straw that broke the camel's back for Black folk knowing "the GOP was a party of race baiters, bigots, and race panderers?" I've been Black my whole life and I hate to break it to you but, Shrub's Snub notwithstanding, for my whole life, there's been PLENTY proof of the GOP's racism - nothing closeted about it (and plenty from Democrats too!). Just thought I'd throw that last in there for the clean, articulate, well-spoken, light-skinned, no-Negro-dialect-havin' of us who think the GOP has a lock on racism and bigotry.
Maybe it's just me, but you make it sound like Black folk weren't really sure it existed until that moment (and please, don't tell me you think Black folk believed a word he said when he finally did show up!).
EOH: Despite the shots they take at the Democrats for taking them and their vote for granted, black Democrats and civil rights leaders are still highly respected. Most blacks still look to them to fight the tough battles for health care, greater funding for education and jobs, voting rights protections, affirmative action, and against racial discrimination. (emphasis mine)
ME: Still highly respected for what they did before forking over their cultural consciousness for "the price of the ticket" - maybe; cuz I sure don't see them "fighting the tough battles" for any of the issues you mentioned.
EOH: Even when black Democratic politicians stumble and engage in borderline corrupt and self-serving feather their own nest antics, they are still regarded as better bets than Republican candidates to be more responsive to black needs. (emphasis mine)
ME: Oh-h-h, I see - they're "antics." Earl, Earl, Earl - I'll just not touch the stumbling , nor the engaging in - it'd take too long. But let me just say, that whole, "better bets to be more responsive" thing is pretty instructive. Seems you're saying Black folk are just comfy settling for the lesser of two evils, just hoping a little something will shake out for them when it's all said and done. If you are - I happen to agree with you. It wasn't always that way though.
EOH: ...deepened black suspicions that the GOP is chock full of bigots.
ME: You really should stop acting like this is something new to us.
EOH: But most black voters do fit that template. And since they do black Republicans talk of ousting Democrats in November is a fantasy.
ME: Again, let's not join the ranks of the revisionists here, Earl. Even if every Black person, in every district, in every state actually voted for them - talk of ousting Democrats in November is hardly a "fantasy" - for all the many reasons you listed in the two paragraphs in the piece, above your statement here. It ain't just about the Changeling, it's about their totally unfounded fear about losing their inherent privilege and supremacy under his presidency, which IS a "fantasy." Because really, he's right there with them - if they could just get past the color of his skin...
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