Post by Moses on Dec 16, 2004 19:39:26 GMT -5
As I mentioned in the last post I made, I've been a lifelong Democrat. My mother was in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. However, my mama also didn't raise no fools. I'm African-American first and no matter how much other folks tell me that they care about my people's rights, the proof is in the pudding. The rabid insulting those who wish to continue to fight for our rights; the willingness to obfuscate or ignore this issue or allow it to sink from public view; the readiness with which folks would rather call others crazy (i.e. tin hat brigade) than admit that African-American voters in Ohio deserve the party they have been steadfastly loyal to for 40 years to fight for them NO MATTER WHAT; the convenient knee-jerk promise for "reform" for "next time" while allowing what happened in Ohio THIS TIME to pass without a fight REGARDLESS OF WHETHER KERRY WON OR LOST (I honestly don't give a d**n) should tell any rational person what the truth really is. It definitely should tell any Black person deluded enough to believe that the Democratic party and its majority membership really gives a d**n about us what the truth really is.
The real shame about this entire situation is that the truth about the Democratic Party and what it is really prepared to do for Black folk (precious little) has hurt and disappointed and will continue to hurt and disappoint so many African-Americans who genuinely wanted to believe they had a real ally in their unique American struggle in the Democratic Party. But, if I am honest, I admit that it is largely our own fault. After all, in hindsight we were told 40 years ago by one of our own that Democrats and Republicans were precisely the same animal, when it came to a willingness to fight for African-Americans' interests. The one thing that has become clear post-2004 is the truth of that statement. And that truth will, I predict, cost the Democratic party the most loyal base it has had since the late 1960's.
Which is to the party's detriment since, in the end, the Democrats cannot win an election without us -- and have not been able to since John Kennedy -- without getting back in bed with the Good Old Boys that abandoned the Democrats over....US. Given some of the talk on DailyKos and other similar places about what "should be done" to "win back" "those folks", that may indeed be the preference of those in the party's leadership. If so, I wish folks would just own it because at least it's honest and I can do nothing but respect honesty, however painful.
BTW, if you think Black folks aren't privately talking about this amongst ourselves and what this means for us and our future in this country, you are not hanging out with the right people. But we are, on both sides of the Democratic-Republican divide. And one thing is clear already -- 2004 in Ohio will not be forgotten any more than 2000 in Florida has been. It may well be, given what is being said, that the Democrats are in for the same rude awakening that the Republithugs got in the late 1960's, unless they get scared and run Obama at the top of the ticket. It certainly will be interesting to see what whose rights the Democrats are willing to sacrifice in 2008 with a vague promise for a "better future", when Black folks either stay home or vote something other than Democrat in numbers not seen since Eisenhower.
It's a shame. This reality about what the Democratic party really cares about is the same reality that Malcolm X talked about 40 years ago. Paraphrasing that great and maligned man who nonetheless loved his people more than himself, when it comes to believing in the Democratic party as the protector of our rights, African-Americans have been misled. We've been had. We've been took.
Which is why the DLC better not bother ringing my telephone in 3.5 years begging (yet again) for my vote and especially not begging me to get out the vote for Democrats again. Enough of this "you don't see them until election time, you can't find them until election time" bullnuts. Two chances to put up or shut up when the rubber met the road vis a vis blatant African American disenfranchisement is more than enough chances for any political party, IMO. 2000 and 2004 were those chances. There will not be any more, not from this voter.
The Democratic party will be a very interesting place once once formerly loyal Black Democrats like myself abandon it. But IMO that abandonment is in OUR best interests. Since we are going to lose anyway, and since it is clear that the DLC is willing to sell anyone down the river to win, I hope that more and more of us will be willing to say "we lost but we lost with integrity" and vote our conscience instead of 90% of us following a party loyalty left to us by our parents from a time when Democrats actually pretended to give a nuts about our voting rights.
I fully expect to be troll rated since that seems to be the new deal here at KOS with those who aren't toeing, for want of a better term, the party line. So be it. But speaking truth to power is still the right thing to do, whether it is to the Old Guard of the party or, in this case, the Nouveaux Guard as reflected at sites such as DailyKos. So, if I offend you, you might wish to examine why within yourself, rather than just be offended because it's easy to dismiss what I've said, that way. But in the end, that's up to you. We all have free will, after all.
www.dailykos.com/story/2004/12/15/9734/4841
See beginning of post also on "Disaffected Chimpsters"
The real shame about this entire situation is that the truth about the Democratic Party and what it is really prepared to do for Black folk (precious little) has hurt and disappointed and will continue to hurt and disappoint so many African-Americans who genuinely wanted to believe they had a real ally in their unique American struggle in the Democratic Party. But, if I am honest, I admit that it is largely our own fault. After all, in hindsight we were told 40 years ago by one of our own that Democrats and Republicans were precisely the same animal, when it came to a willingness to fight for African-Americans' interests. The one thing that has become clear post-2004 is the truth of that statement. And that truth will, I predict, cost the Democratic party the most loyal base it has had since the late 1960's.
Which is to the party's detriment since, in the end, the Democrats cannot win an election without us -- and have not been able to since John Kennedy -- without getting back in bed with the Good Old Boys that abandoned the Democrats over....US. Given some of the talk on DailyKos and other similar places about what "should be done" to "win back" "those folks", that may indeed be the preference of those in the party's leadership. If so, I wish folks would just own it because at least it's honest and I can do nothing but respect honesty, however painful.
BTW, if you think Black folks aren't privately talking about this amongst ourselves and what this means for us and our future in this country, you are not hanging out with the right people. But we are, on both sides of the Democratic-Republican divide. And one thing is clear already -- 2004 in Ohio will not be forgotten any more than 2000 in Florida has been. It may well be, given what is being said, that the Democrats are in for the same rude awakening that the Republithugs got in the late 1960's, unless they get scared and run Obama at the top of the ticket. It certainly will be interesting to see what whose rights the Democrats are willing to sacrifice in 2008 with a vague promise for a "better future", when Black folks either stay home or vote something other than Democrat in numbers not seen since Eisenhower.
It's a shame. This reality about what the Democratic party really cares about is the same reality that Malcolm X talked about 40 years ago. Paraphrasing that great and maligned man who nonetheless loved his people more than himself, when it comes to believing in the Democratic party as the protector of our rights, African-Americans have been misled. We've been had. We've been took.
Which is why the DLC better not bother ringing my telephone in 3.5 years begging (yet again) for my vote and especially not begging me to get out the vote for Democrats again. Enough of this "you don't see them until election time, you can't find them until election time" bullnuts. Two chances to put up or shut up when the rubber met the road vis a vis blatant African American disenfranchisement is more than enough chances for any political party, IMO. 2000 and 2004 were those chances. There will not be any more, not from this voter.
The Democratic party will be a very interesting place once once formerly loyal Black Democrats like myself abandon it. But IMO that abandonment is in OUR best interests. Since we are going to lose anyway, and since it is clear that the DLC is willing to sell anyone down the river to win, I hope that more and more of us will be willing to say "we lost but we lost with integrity" and vote our conscience instead of 90% of us following a party loyalty left to us by our parents from a time when Democrats actually pretended to give a nuts about our voting rights.
I fully expect to be troll rated since that seems to be the new deal here at KOS with those who aren't toeing, for want of a better term, the party line. So be it. But speaking truth to power is still the right thing to do, whether it is to the Old Guard of the party or, in this case, the Nouveaux Guard as reflected at sites such as DailyKos. So, if I offend you, you might wish to examine why within yourself, rather than just be offended because it's easy to dismiss what I've said, that way. But in the end, that's up to you. We all have free will, after all.
www.dailykos.com/story/2004/12/15/9734/4841
See beginning of post also on "Disaffected Chimpsters"