How To Get Black People To Objectively And Critically Analyze The Democratic Party (Pro-Tip: Not Like This)

A friend of mine suggested to a Facebook group I'm in that we watch the video.  The video begins with Quannell X.  Quannell X is an "activist" that I was done with years ago, after watching him and Guardian Angels head Curtis Sliwa go head to head, and eventually making, of all things, Sean Hannity look like the voice of reason.  That's an almost unpardonable sin.  But, despite my own misgivings about Quannell, I powered through the video.  

The video is an attempt to get Black people to take a critical look at the Democratic Party, and to stop with the undying loyalty that Black people have towards the Democrats.  As an attempt to get Black people to look beyond the Democratic Party or consider the Republicans, this video fails.  And here's why.  I posted the following comments in the group.  And since I believe that sharing is caring, here are my comments for everybody.

The Quannell X segment was just half of the video. The other half featured the creator of the video attempting to make the case about Black people and loyalty to the Democratic Party. 

Unfortunately, his attempt fell short. For example, as I said earlier, he invoked "Democrat Plantation." Personally, that's a term that I can't stand, and yes, I coined the term "Pet Negro Apologist." But Black conservatives throw out the "Democrat Plantation" term to prove that THEY'VE escaped the "plantation" and left everyone else behind. And the people who invoke that term usually (and almost to a fault) ignore the racism that oozes and seeps from every pore of the current GOP.

Next, the Civil Rights leader says that while Trump is only "rumored" to be connected with the Klan, Hillary Clinton has legitimate ties. And as I mentioned before, the proof is the standard "ROBERT KKK BYRD" card. It doesn't work when it comes from Sean Hannity, and it doesn't work when Black people play that card. And whenever I talk to people and they play that card, I simply ask them why current white supremacists, like David Duke, Breitbart (the civil rights leader completely dismissed Breitbart's white supremacist ties, even though Bannon himself said that they're basically an alt-right clearing house) and others are flocking behind Trump and saying that he speaks THEIR language.

The Civil Rights leader then goes on to list the Republican accomplishments for Black people. He starts with the 13th and 14th Amendments, and ends with Civil Rights legislation. He, like everyone else, completely ignored the Southern Strategy and the ideological switch that took place between both parties.

Which brings us to where we are now. 

Does the Democratic Party take the Black vote for granted? Yes. Oui. Si. Are *SOME* of us loyal? Absolutely, to a fault. That loyalty is what wound up killing Clinton's 2008 run, because she took it for granted that Bill Clinton's Black Community "goodwill" would be automatically conferred upon her. When Bill showed his behind after the South Carolina primary, Hillary got her wake up call. But she was in the midst of a horrible campaign ran by (until now) the worst campaign manager in modern history, Mark Penn. No one forgets how she was in a Black church talkin' about how she "don't feel no ways tah'rd."

No one forgets how her Black surrogates at the time were her unofficial attack dogs, from Bob Johnson floating balloons about then-Senator Obama's drug use to John Lewis saying that Obama should wait his turn, to Jesse Jackson forever cutting himself off from the Obama Administration when he said, on Fox News, on a hot mic, that he wanted to "cut Obama's nuts off."

Where was I? Oh yeah. Today.

Is Hillary Clinton the perfect candidate? Not to me. Elizabeth Warren and Senator Sanders were my 1A and 1B choices. But when it comes to things that I support, like the restoration of the Voting Rights Act, the reversal of Citizens United (interesting that the HEAD of Citizens United is now an active part of the Trump campaign), support for unions, support for a living wage, an expansion of Obamacare into something like single-payer, a President Hillary Clinton is more likely to accomplish that. 

Doesn't mean that she will... after all, President Obama campaigned on universal health care, but wound up with the CONSERVATIVE compromise of the ACA. And President Obama has fallen short on several progressive issues. 

But dang it, I go rambling again. This is almost like my blog post. ANYWAY... 

(ed. note:  It is now a blog post... heh...)

YES, as informed Black voters, we have to hold the Democratic Party that we (those of us that vote Democratic) accountable. The accountability works up and down the ticket, at EVERY ELECTION. 

If Republicans want to woo Black voters, they have GOT to do better than the surrogates that they send out now. They have GOT to stop it with the "Black plantation" remarks, and assume that a light bulb will go off and they'll automatically switch parties. And while the Democrats aren't perfect regarding race, they are MILES ahead of the GOP. The GOP had a chance to nip the bigotry of their party in the bud with Michael Steele as head of the RNC. But when push came to shove, Steele kissed the ring of Boss Limbaugh and was nothing more than a figurehead. He was ousted and replaced with useless tub of goo Reince Priebus.

THIS is who the GOP/Donald Trump is sending out.  For God's sake, NO. 

Locally, the Republican platform stands for everything that I'm against, including things like "right to work" and the belief that tax cuts for big businesses will trickle down to the electorate. I'm against the privatization of essential government services. I'm a Christian, but I'm against my faith being used as a cudgel against anyone who doesn't pray and worship the way I pray and worship. And more often than not, the so-called Party of Family Values is nothing more than the Party of Rank Hypocrisy and Deflection.

Yes, we need to hold our elected officials accountable. And yes, changes need to be made. But as I said earlier, the changes that are needed are best implemented at the local level, and not attempted every four years. 

I've been doing a little research on Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, and they're not much better. Despite Stein being an MD, she has cozied up to anti-vaxxers and has said some goofy things about wi-fi being dangerous. Anyone who is in favor of civil rights legislation, voting rights legislation, government agencies that protect the public, etc should be against the Libertarian party. Their solution is to leave everything alone and let the market figure it out. So, if the EpiPen obscene price hike offends you, and companies polluting water, and fracking offends you, and if openly-racist businesses and establishments offend you (separate-but-equal, anyone?), then the Libertarian Party isn't for you.

Completely dismissing the Tea Potty behavior, the casual and blatant racism from the party, and history is not an objective analysis as to why Black people should join the Republicans. If they want to start wooing Black people, they can actually FOLLOW the things listed in their GOP Autopsy.

Until then, I welcome the upcoming Republican Extinction Level Event and hopes that the party as it stands now gets wiped off the face of the earth. The survivors will have no choice but to reevaluate themselves or die from the fallout.

Additional Note:  My friend who runs the Primarily Politics Facebook Page covered Republican Outreach in a three-part video series.  Do yourself a favor and check them out.  He covers a lot of things that I mentioned here.

Part 1:  Say No To The Democrat Plantation

Part 2:  Stop Attacking The President

Part 3:  Don't Ever Send Black Republicans To Recruit Black People

We Need A Republican Extinction Level Event.

Look, I am all for the utter destruction of the Republican Party as it stands now.  Republican Presidential nominee Donald J. Trump represents a GOP Extinction Level Event, similar to the cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs.

"I see markings on the side... T... R...U..."

In the wake of Frankenstein’s Monster wreaking havoc all over the GOP village, some high-profile Republicans have taken to endorsing Hillary Clinton for President.  Each Republican has had his or her tipping point, from the criticism of Khizr Khan to thinly-veiled assassination threats …er, 2^nd Amendment Remedies to “save” the country from a mass gun confiscation under a Clinton Administration.  Maybe the new President Clinton can store the confiscated guns in the same room where President Obama stored guns during his administration:

But why let facts get in the way of a good screed?

One of the biggest defections that made a social media splash was the open letter from the Harvard Republican Club. They cited concerns about Trump from a policy and temperament perspective.  They cited his divisive campaign rhetoric and said that he is “poisoning (the) country and our children.”  They even went on to say that he is an existential “threat to the survival of the Republic.”

Between this and other high-profile defections, including a letter from dozens of Republicans asking for Reince Priebus to defund Trump, and 50 former GOP security officials penning an open letter (insert hyperlink), it would appear that the GOP is a done deal.  But not so fast.

Not only must Donald Trump be stopped, but the Republican Party as we know it must be relegated to the dustbin of history.  The common (and problematic) theme with these defections is the belief that Donald Trump is some sort of anomaly, or that he came out of nowhere.  Nothing could be further from the Truth.  Donald Trump DID NOT HAPPEN IN A VACUUM.  He is the living embodiment of every Tea Potty-er talking about taking their country back.  Trump legitimized the Birther Movement.  Former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney kissed Trump’s ring.  Everything the Republicans have been doing, ESPECIALLY since 2008, has led to the creation and rise of Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Nominee.  Every racist joke and meme, every comment about taking the country back (by force if necessary), every utterance by weapons-grade moron Sarah Palin, every comment about President Obama being "exotic", "other", or "uppity", every right-wing evangelical praying that Michelle Obama become a widow and the Obama children become fatherless, it was all part of a toxic, hate-filled stew.  That stew became sentient in the form of Donald Trump.

In 2012, the GOP created a report known informally as their GOP Autopsy.  They wanted to be introspective and look at what went wrong in the wake of their defeat in 2012.  The purpose of this autopsy was to consider ideas like the acceptance of minorities, immigration reform, and expanding their so-called “Big Tent.”  Then, Trump happened, and the Republican base basically said “F THE AUTOPSY, WHITE SUPREMACY FOR THE WIN.”  But again, this did not happen in a vacuum.  Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, John McCain, and other Republicans claim to be repulsed by Trump, but have not withdrawn their endorsements.  This is despite Trump insulting McCain as a POW, and Ryan went so far as to denounce Trump's comments as "racist."  

The GOP hasn’t learned their lessons from their autopsy.  This paragraph from the Harvard Republicans confirms it.

This fall, we will instead focus our efforts on reclaiming the Republican Party from those who have done it considerable harm, campaigning for candidates who will uphold the conservative principles that have defined the Republican Party for generations. We will work to ensure both chambers of Congress remain in Republican hands, continuing to protect against executive overreach regardless of who wins the election this November.

Donald Trump holds views that are antithetical to our values not only as Republicans, but as Americans.

We call on our party's elected leaders to renounce their support of Donald Trump, and urge our fellow College Republicans to join us in condemning and withholding their endorsement from this dangerous man. The conservative movement in America should not and will not go quietly into the night.

They are planning on preserving the same down-ballot party members that created the cesspool known as today’s Republican Party.  They are hoping that, at BEST, Trump will be soundly defeated for the Presidency, but the conservatives can preserve the House and the Senate (and subsequently, the Supreme Court), and then continue the obstruction, with the goal of making Secretary Clinton a one-term President.  This is why they must be defeated up and down the ballot.  Donald Trump is the standard-bearer, and everyone with an (R) attached to his or her name must suffer the electoral consequences.

Why?  Because if the entire Republican Party isn’t obliterated, what will happen is that someone else will fill the void.  And that person will be just as vile as Trump, but more politically polished and seasoned.  What we’ll get is someone who is a perverse hybrid of Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, and David Duke.  The only way to prevent that is to send the message that the era of the Republican Party of today is OVER.  Anything less than total obliteration gives them leave to try again.  And again.  And again.

They didn’t learn the easy way, now it’s time for the party to learn the hard way. Just as meteors wiped out the dinosaurs, we are in a position to wipe out the Republican Party as we know it.  It's up to us to push the button on Election Day that signals the Apocalypse, the Republican Extinction Level Event.

Inside The GOP Convention... A S.A.L.T. Exclusive

Through the magic of time travel, I was able to view the last day of the GOP Convention, and I am here to tell you how it all unfolded.  Buckle up, kids.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ted Nugent and Scott Baio just finished their rendition of the National Anthem.

Oh Say Can You Gun, by the gun's early gun... 

Chachi was in rare form, blaming President Obama for the fact that crescent rolls aren't called "Big C bread", and the audience applauded with glee.  Shouts of "USA, USA" rose from the audience, and the White Aryan Resistance and members of the Ku Klux Klan embraced each other in this new spirit of renewed brotherhood.  They exchanged cross-burning techniques and figured out the best angle in which to give the Hitler salute.

She's baking KKKookies and bringing milk.  WHITE milk, of course.

Everyone is stoked.  They know that today is the day that they will pick their new Supreme Leader, who will finally fulfill the promise of making that pesky Barack Obama a one-term President.

Suddenly, all the lights go out.

The crowd gasps with anticipation.

A single spotlight shines on the stage, and it follows a lone tricycle to the center of the stage.

The crowd starts to go wild!  They can't possibly figure out what's going on, but they figure that it's something that will completely destroy the liberal media.

"Maybe it's like when that Clint Eastwood feller talked to that empty stool!  YEE HAW!!! I gits it!  Oblammo is the empty tricycle!"

The spotlight on the tricycle remains, and the house lights flicker.  A buzz and crackle of static emanates through the sound system.  The static clears, and this song begins playing.

While this song is playing, the giant ReaganTron6000 monitors flicker between a series of test patterns, static, and random error messages.  Then, this image appears on the screen:

Most of the crowd think that this is yet another mockery of President Obama, and the clap and yelp like rabid hyenas on bath salts.  The yelping dies down as some Republicans begin to recognize that face, and connect it to the tricycle and the music.  The excited and victorious atmosphere is now transformed to an atmosphere of terror.  At that moment, the "keynote speech" begins.

"Hello, Republicans.  You have been misleading the populace with the trickle-down prophecies of St. Ronald of Reagan, and you have been demonizing poor people, minorities, and anyone who isn't a white, Christian male for decades.  With the election of President Barack Hussein Obama in 2008, you turned dog-whistle rhetoric into full-blown, uncompromising bigotry.

"You formed a cabal to block every initiative that this President offers, promising to make him a one-term President on the day of his inauguration.  You gave voice to, and legitimized, a weapons-grade moron in the form of Sarah Palin.  In 2010, you took advantage of voter disaffection and ushered in a wave of do-nothing politicians in the form of the Tea Potty Party.  The rise of the Tea Party gave political birth to the likes of Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton, Mark Kirk, and other people who aren't qualified to write bylaws for a game of tag, let alone write laws for the United States.  You have stepped into the abyss willingly and gleefully.

"In 2012, you had a chance to redeem yourself, and to prove that you were not clinically insane.  But you rejected relative moderate John Huntsman as your party's candidate for the Presidency, and went with billionaire vulture capitalist Mitt Romney,  Romney, of course, was defeated handily.

"Your party's members have been disrespectful to the President, even yelling 'You lie' during a State of the Union address.  You have descended into the mouth of madness when you convinced yourself that the President is a Kenyan-born socialist Muslim communist anti-American, exotic 'other.'  The National Rifle Association has convinced you that this 'usurper' is coming for your guns, causing you to panic and buy every gun in stock.  The NRA, the gun manufacturers, and the hedge fund mangers that invest in them are laughing at you, all the way to the bank.

"You made your choice this year when you selected a leader of the Birther movement to be the standard-bearer for your party.  You allowed Donald Trump to ascend from reality TV show host to the presumptive Republican nominee.  And Mr. Trump, rather than tone down incendiary rhetoric to move towards the 'center' of political discourse, continued to wallow in racism, bigotry conspiracy theories, and vicious innuendo that would make TMZ blush with pride.  Your candidate has revoked press privileges for any media outlet that has not kissed his ring.  Reporters are finally beginning to hold Mr. Trump to task for his comments about President Obama having allowed a madman to murder 49 people and injure dozens more in this country's latest mass shooting.

"Now, you must make one more choice.  Choose Donald Trump as the nominee, and you seal your party's fate as that of racists, bigots, the hateful, and the ignorant.  Every down-ballot candidate in your party will be connected to the nominee.

"Choose another person to be the nominee, and you will create chaos from the rabid, violent mouthbreathers that Donald Trump has encouraged throughout the campaign.  Your party will be splintered into tiny racist shards, unable to reassemble and take the White House.

"But understand this, Republicans and your delegates.  No matter which option you choose, the end result for the Republican Party will be...

** Jigsaw removes his mask, and the true terrifying mastermind reveals himself **

...GAME OVER."

Democrats, Progressives, We Gon' Be Alright...

...to quote Kendrick Lamar. Here's why.

During the 2008 campaign...

...P.U.M.A. was so much of a thing that people thought that it would split the Democratic Party...

...then-Senator Clinton invoked Rev. Jeremiah Wright, stating that he would not be HER pastor (side note: People who never listened to the sermon don't know that during that "infamous" sermon, the oh-so-terrible Rev. Dr. Wright praised President Clinton as "an intelligent friend in the White House", as opposed to the "dumb Dixiecrat" that succeeded him).

...then-Senator Clinton stated that she wished the primaries were run like the Republican primaries...

...Bill Clinton showed his behind in dismissing then-Senator Obama's South Carolina victory...

...I was so concerned about then-Senator Clinton's upcoming speech, thinking that she was going to send the Democratic Party into chaos and give in to P.U.M.A. acolytes...

...then-Senator Clinton used the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and hinted that an assassination is still plausible (much to everyone's horror) as a reason to stay in the race and not concede...

...then-Senator Clinton was caught lying about being under sniper fire, to the point that comedian Sinbad fact-checked her...

...her campaign was run by Mark Penn, who proved to be completely outclassed by the Obama campaign in every area...

...then-Senator Clinton went to a Black church, talking about "I don't feel no ways tah'r'd..."

...lastly, Clinton gave, at that time, the most dynamic speech of her campaign, her concession speech which included a full-throated, unequivocal endorsement of then-Senator Obama. And gave an equally dynamic speech at the DNC Convention.

At times, the 2008 campaign was very nasty. It was a clash of sexism vs. racism. Then-Senator Clinton campaigned as if the Presidency was a foregone conclusion, and that campaigning was a mere formality. She took the Black vote for granted, and she paid dearly for it. She campaigned as if the "goodwill" generated by Bill Clinton's presidency would automatically be conferred upon her.

Then-Senator Clinton erased a lot of rancor and built bridges with her speeches congratulating and endorsing then-Senator Obama.

Now, the roles are switched, with Secretary Hillary Clinton as the presumptive nominee and Senator Bernie Sanders as the underdog candidate. This race has had its moments, with the rise of "Bernie Bros" playing the role that P.U.M.A. played last time around. And, the Democratic National Committee has a patently awful chairman in the person of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who makes RNC chief and useless tub of goo Reince Priebus look competent by comparison. Her obvious bias towards Sec. Clinton was the LEAST of Wasserman-Schultz's sins, as she oversaw tremendous congressional and gubernatorial losses for the Democrats in previous years.

But despite Wasserman-Schultz, and despite allegations of a "rigged" contest, we now have Madame Secretary Hillary R. Clinton as the presumptive nominee for the Presidency of the United States. And, love it or hate it, we gon' be alright.

Why?

Because after all of the venom and bile of the 2008 campaign, both sides came together, only leaving outliers to kvetch and moan about the results.

We gon' be alright because the Republicans have put up, without hyperbole, the WORST candidate in their party's history. This candidate is so bad that two living Presidents in HIS party won't endorse him, and Republican politicians are trying to jump ship to disconnect themselves from their party's standard-bearer. But it won't work. I'm looking at YOU, Senator Mark Kirk.

We gon' be alright because we were alright in 2008, when the candidate that didn't win lent her full support to the winner.

We gon' be alright if Bernie Sanders makes an equally dynamic speech, offering a full-throated endorsement of Secretary Clinton while still being a (better) advocate for progressive issues. I'm optimistic that despite it all, Sanders will "do the job" (to use a pro-wrestling fan term) and endorse the party's nominee unequivocally. The onus is now on him to help bridge the gap between his supporters and hers. If Sanders is the man of character that I believe him to be, then his concession speech will be graceful, eloquent, and positive. 

Lastly, we gon' be alright because President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and others will all be unleashed (Sen. Warren has already been giving Trump the "Samsonite Luggage Test" treatment). Robert Reich said it best when he endorsed Senator Sanders: Secretary Clinton is the best candidate for the system we have now. And like it or not, we're here now. We gon' be alright if we coalesce behind Secretary Clinton while the GOP dumpster fire rages out of control.

We can do this. We can vote down-ballot, to get rid of the Tea Potty once and for all, relegating them to the dustbin of history. 

WE GON' BE ALRIGHT.