If Biden and Democrats think black people will repeat 2020, think again

NOTICE: Black cannot save a party that does not want to use the power that Black gave them in the first place.

President Joe biden and the Democrats are in power, with control of the White House and both houses of Congress through black voters. Meanwhile, Democrats are debating among themselves whether to use their power and pass legislation to fight GOP voter suppression and gerrymandering, or flush everything down the toilet and tell black voters to organize. themselves – and the Democratic Party – get out of this mess.

If Biden and his party think black people are marching in the streets, protesting outside the offices of recalcitrant and racist white lawmakers, and getting arrested, they are wrong. And if they think they can disrespect black voters without consequence, they are wrong again.

Blacks cannot save a party that does not want to use the power that Black gave them in the first place. We are not in the 1960s, and we will not see that again.

A national crisis is at hand, and the issues facing not only the Democratic Party, but the future of American democracy itself, are clear. On the one hand, Democrats are stumbling, and rightly so, because they know they will lose elections because of these restrictive GOP voting laws enacted in state legislatures across the country. Like Nse Ufot, CEO of Stacey Abrams-founded New Georgia Project said, “If there isn’t a way for us to repeat what happened in November 2020, we’re f — ed.”

With more than 18 states having passed voter suppression laws since January, Republicans – promoting the fraudulent idea that Trump lost the election – understand that unless they prevent people from voting, theft outright votes and terrorist violence, they cannot win with their unpopular policies and fascist ways. It doesn’t matter if Democrats have a majority of popular support if people can’t vote or if the vote is rigged.

The other side of the GOP voter suppression coin is partisan gerrymandering, which gives Republicans the power to redesign constituencies as they see fit and to their advantage. Republicans only need five seats to take control of Congress. Gerrymandering the electoral map in just four states – Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Texas – is enough to get Republicans back to the House.

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It comes as nearly half of Republicans believe “a time will come when American patriots will have to do justice for themselves,” according to a recent poll, and 55% of Republicans say “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so quickly. . we may have to use force to save him. And it’s not as if the Republicans have no record of a violent insurgency.

Democrats are responding to this existential crisis by yearning for the good old days when white moderates and white nationalists could shake hands in a bipartisan spirit and make decisions about the future of black people. The solutions to tackle GOP voter suppression and election rigging are right in front of us – the For the People Act and John Lewis’s Advancement of Voting Rights Act.

Some moderate white Democrats – at the height of Dr. Martin Luther KingS disappointment that moderate white is “black’s great stumbling block in the march to freedom” – suggests they will not vote to remove Jim Crow’s obstruction in the Senate, which demands a threshold of 60 voice to pass a law. And we can argue that this is a matter of principle on the part of the moderates, rather than an example of bribery and cash payments to protect an “honored” Senate procedure used to maintain segregation and rule. lynching.

“At some point we will come to a binary choice between protecting our democracy and protecting an obscure Senate process,” said Eric Holder on the obstruction. “At the end of the day, you won’t have 10 Republicans [to support the For the People Act]. This is something Democrats will have to embrace.

Additionally, the White House has reportedly told civil rights leaders and voting rights groups that it is possible to “over-organize voter suppression” – suggesting that Biden and Democrats are unwilling to do so. the heavy lifting, getting their people online and voting. rights legislation. Instead, Biden believes black people can protest and organize to get out of this mess and save Democrats.

representing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined a growing number of critics who believe Democrats need to do more. “Communities cannot ‘over-organize’ voter suppression when those they organize to elect will not protect the vote. & Even if they over-organize, the ground is ripe to reverse the results. Now is the time to fight like hell for democracy. We may not have another chance, ”tweeted AOC.

Meanwhile, black people – even members of Congress – are organizing civil disobedience actions and being arrested for voting rights. And they should. To be black in America is to be in a state of protest for 400 years; protest to save our lives and be treated like human beings. But do we have to save Democrats and the entire nation from the Republican Party’s White Citizens Council agenda, when white Democrats won’t even lift a finger to help?

President Biden must channel Lyndon B. Johnson, a good old boy from the South who nevertheless passed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Everything that happened between LBJ and the senators he took to the stake in the 1960s, it worked. Biden must learn from this.

Today, blacks are invited to demonstrate to reclaim the rights we won over 50 years ago. Democrats disrespect black people when they expect us to save America and hurt ourselves for Team USA like martyrs of work, but they are in power and refuse to exercise the power we have in them. given.

To pursue David A. Love on Twitter at @davidalove.

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