The recent election results demonstrated that the “black vote” is essential to the Democratic Party if they are going to win elections. It seems as though, all across the country, Democrats running for elections simply assumed that the black vote was there for them. They calculated that if they were able to bring out this trusted base, all would go well and they would be guaranteed a win.
It seems as though, when they discovered that black voters were not sufficiently inspired to vote in a year when their great leader, Barak Obama, was not running, they concluded that simple things could excite that base and get them to the polls.
So, we saw advertisements telling blacks that if they did not vote all kinds of bad things would happen: the KKK would be revived, white police would kill them as they did in Missouri and a host of other bad things would happen to them.
However this time, none of that worked. Blacks, for once, decided that they were no longer going to be pawns of the Democratic Party— voting for them every cycle, while waiting for visible and measurable rewards for their faithfulness.
Could it be that blacks finally came to their senses and noted that their reliable vote for the Democratic Party, every cycle, brought them no rewards? Could it be that black noticed that the president whom they supported 90 plus percent did visible and tangible things for the Hispanic community— executive orders on immigration and special support for the gay community, including gay marriage but nothing, absolutely nothing that one could point to for blacks who support the Democrats at record levels.
Could it be that the Democrats noticed that in places like Baltimore where blacks consistently vote for Democrats and Democrats only, there are no jobs; that crime is high; that blocks of houses are boarded up; that schools are failing as children drop out before graduating; and that welfare payments seem to be the baseline of the economic survival of the citizens in cities like Baltimore.
Yet, each cycle, they are told to “vote democrat!” Maybe they are beginning to ask: vote Democrat for what?
The black voters, for once, did not show up for the Democrats across the country. Here in Maryland, they did not show up for the democratic candidate for governor in sufficient numbers, even though he was black, to guarantee his win. And in other places like Georgia, North Carolina, and Louisiana, even after advertisements designed to scare blacks to the polls and even after the famed Clintons and Mrs. Obama showed up to lead “get out the black vote drives,” the voters simply did not show up.
Could it be that black voters are sending the Democrats a message that they will no longer be taken for granted? Could it be that blacks have finally come to the conclusion that the Democrats must do significant things to advance their wellbeing if they are to expect their vote in the future? We hope so!
Also, it is to be hoped that the Democrats would not come to the black community to offer the “minimum wage” as their reward. Any talk about “minimum wage” or “minimum” anything is insulting.
Black communities need good paying jobs, not minimum wage jobs. Blacks need
a path to future success not programs that guarantee their dependence on welfare, thereby securing their survival at the “bottom” of society where people could be happy that they were provided “minimum wage” opportunities.
We congratulate the black community for teaching the Democratic Party a lesson. Blacks were saying loudly and clearly: “Stop taking us for granted!”
Sixty years of promising progress, with no visible result and arguably visible regress, can no longer stand! Will Democrats, black and white, hear and heed this message? Again, we hope so!