Now that the mid-terms are over – an analysis of the election takeaways sheds a spotlight on the apparent tactic of the Left going into 2020 and likely beyond, much to my chagrin, and I believe, to their peril – race-baiting. Three races in particular show a stark disparity, however, in how party affiliation relates to race in politics, the two Democrat races of Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams for Governors of Florida and Georgia respectively, and the Republican Senate race of John James. The 2 former ‘firsts’ mattered to the purveyors of identity politics, the latter completely ignored. Why? Of course it’s a rhetorical question. Suffice it to say that being black and ‘first’ only matters when you’re a Democrat.
Being a resident of Florida, I was particularly disgusted by how Andrew Gillum had seemingly decided to weaponize the use of the term and accusations of racism in his campaign off the bat, with the obvious impetus his hatred for President Trump. But on primary election night, when then candidate DeSantis used the term ‘monkey this thing up’, in relation to not electing a Socialist for Governor, it was clear that the age-old Democrat playbook of calling your opponents racist would be the primary narrative applied, fortified by an eager, complicit media. Never mind that Gillum himself had used the term ‘monkey on the commission’s back’; Obama had used it as ‘monkey around with elections’; Schumer as ‘monkey wrench’; and Feinstein said ‘No one has ever been able to monkey around with our electoral system’, among other Democrats. DeSantis’ innocent but unfortunate statement set the course, which would continue through the course of the campaign. It is still being used by Loser Stacey Abrams in her non-concession concession. At least Gillum was at least gracious in his, but I digress.
Gillum and Obama are black, so were they being racist in using the term ‘monkey’ in that way? Schumer and Feinstein are white, were they racist? No, not in any of those cases was the term used in a racist way, nor in the multitude of other ways Democrats have used a variation of the term. And of course neither was Ron DeSantis’ use of it. It’s simply a figure of speech common in modern parlance. But because it both serves a political agenda to accuse your opponents of racism and because white people are terrified of being called racist and will acquiesce to almost any demand to avoid it, it’s worked. Until Trump came along.
Abrams, the black candidate for Governor of Georgia, made claims and had surrogates make claims that the election was ‘tainted by racist voter suppression’ and that if you didn’t vote for her you were a racist. But would that include black conservatives who didn’t vote for her? And isn’t it the very definition of racism to assume that one should receive your vote exclusively because of your or their skin color? Wouldn’t it thus also be racist to assume that the amount of melanin in someone’s flesh ought to dictate how they vote? Isn’t that basically saying someone who is black is too dumb to vote based on issues and must strictly vote on ethnicity? Of course it is, and it’s part of what George W. Bush called ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’. Yet it’s so ingrained that it will take a tremendous amount of work to refute it, work Republicans have been seemingly unwilling to do, to their detriment, and that of the country.
It’s something I think about a lot and write about (obviously), and which I believe is the most important issue in our politics. Not because America is racist, but because Democrats know white people are terrified to be called racist and therefore use the term as a weapon. Are there white racists? Yes. But there are black racists too. Look up the New Black Panther Party member who said ‘you’re gonna have to kill some crackers! You’re gonna have to kill some of their babies!’ Have you heard that one? Likely not unless you watch Fox News or are curious on YouTube, because the mainstream media would never show that. Add Jada Pinkett’s recent admission that white women with blond hair ‘trigger’ her, or Michelle Obama’s statement about Barack Obama when she first met him. “I have my suspicions when a bunch of white folks fawn over a black man’. Bigotry and prejudice exists in all races, but needless to say, if the racial makeup of these two comments were reversed, Jada Pinkett would never work in Hollywood again, and Michelle Obama would be forced to issue an apology. And even then, it wouldn’t be forgiven. (Roseanne anyone?)
This country has a nasty history with race, and no, we’re not perfect, we never will be. What’s more, you’re actually free to be a racist if you want too. But the marketplace takes care of that very quickly – you’re shut out of it. So using it as a weapon, illegitimately, is particularly grievous, which is what the Left does against Trump voters, many of whom voted – twice – for Obama, the country’s first (half) black president. Now I’m not one of those people, I knew who Obama was and would never vote for such an anti-American Alinskyite who voted (3 times) against protecting aborted fetuses born alive in the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, as he did as State Senator in Illinois. But it’s not because of his race. I would have happily campaigned for and voted for Allen West (had he run again), Star Parker and John James, among others, and would have been overjoyed if they had won. So with regard to any black Democrats, especially these modern Socialist Progressives like Gillum and Abrams, it’s not their pigment we object to, it’s their policies.
It’s interesting though, with regard to John James – why didn’t anyone in the mainstream media say that his failure to get elected based on racism? He would’ve been the first black Senator of Michigan had he won, and he’s a combat pilot veteran. He was running against a white woman, where was the outrage about his loss? Surely she won because of her ‘white privilege’, another term the Left likes to use, right? Are the white Democrats who voted against him racist? See how this goes? The race-baiting is only one way because it only benefits one party.
It’s despicable and must be destroyed, and the only way to do that is to have such a great percentage of black Americans vote for a different party that it wakes Democrats up. It’s a pretty new effort, sadly, and it hasn’t happened yet, but Trump is trying, and the Blexit movement will hopefully help for 2020. It’s not about pandering either, it’s about getting to people to think about why they automatically vote for only one party with no positive results, particularly when their community’s values (pretty conservative) on the whole are actually represented by a different party. It takes away the gross claims of racism that are so abhorrent and do long-term damage, as now Governor-elect DeSantis knows, and likely Kemp in Georgia who felled Stacey Abrams.
We must get to a time where baseless claims of racism are not effective, and are no longer accepted by the populace as a cudgel to defeat and destroy opponents, political or otherwise. Race-baiting should become as unacceptable as racism! The only way to do that is to strip its purveyors of its power, which could most effectively be done by stripping the political party who so relentlessly throws the race card, and that would be Democrats. I truly believe it is the only way to achieve even the possibility of harmonious forward movement in America, especially since Republicans have been so lazy and cowardly to rebut it. Defeating Democrats by successfully competing for and winning the black vote would change America forever, and it should be considered Mission Critical for the Republican Party to work toward that end.