Are You Not Entertained?: Just Thought You Should Know 8/5/16

Dear GOP,

You're getting exactly what you deserve.  8 years of petty criticisms of the President, made up threats about immigrants being evil incarnate, the god awful racism not so cleverly disguised as constitutional loyalty (looking at you Birthers), the crusade against education/intellectualism, and the need for your base to be afraid of everything (even their own shadows because they're black) has finally culminated in this absolute farce of a Presidential campaign.  For the first time in our history, we may end up with 3 major political parties in this country because I don't see how moderate Republicans can possibly reconcile their views with their Presidential nominee and his minions.

Trump supporters, I want you to take a good long look at your candidate.  I mean a real look.  Think about the reasons you support him.  It certainly isn't about policy, he hasn't presented one that wouldn't cost more money than it saves. It's not because of his business acumen.  It doesn't exist.  Ask Atlantic City, NJ.  It's not because he's not a criminal like "Crooked Hillary".  She's been cleared of every charge leveled at her by every single Republican-led tribunal/witch hunt the GOP can think of.  Trump, on the other hand, is still in the midst of multiple lawsuits involving possible fraud.  Oh, and he might be a child rapist.  Not kidding.  Is it his superior values?  The values that he thinks permits him to routinely insult anyone who disagrees with him?  Oh I know, "he tells it like it is!"  Except when he's talking about having met Vladimir Putin and then says that he didn't.  Or that he saw a video of Obama personally paying the Iranians and then he says he was mistaken.  Maybe he was straight shooting when he said he would build that wall around us and then admitted he wouldn't?  The #NeverTrump Republicans, who I respect, though I disagree with their vision, at least had the spine to stand up for their principles.  The rest of the party leadership simply fell in line behind this pompous, entitled, ignorant windbag and it may have not only cost them this election but their party's future.  Among voters younger than 30, Trump is polling 4th, behind Hillary Clinton, Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), and Jill Stein (Green Party).  Think about that.  The nominee for the 2nd biggest party in the country is polling behind 2 people most of the country has. never. heard. of.  The 18-year-olds who are voting for the first time this election are looking at your nominee as the representation of your party and would rather vote for 2 people who are almost guaranteed to lose. Most people stick with the first party they vote for and the upcoming landslide is probably going to render your party irrelevant for the next 50 years.  As much as I despise Trump and what the GOP has become, that isn't a good thing.

Look, the truth is that the core values of the GOP aren't that crazy.  It's founded in the idea that people can take care of themselves if the government should just get out of the way and let us work. Neighbor helping neighbor instead of depending on handouts from Washington.  And there are valid criticisms of our current system.  Money in politics is a problem.  Even Bernie Sanders agreed with Republicans on that.  NAFTA was a disaster for the American worker and there are many non-college educated people who need work.  But too many times those frustrations tend to be expressed as outright racism when the reality is the answers to your frustrations are a lot more complicated than "blame the non-whites"  Our issues can't be boiled down to a few angry tweets and an agenda that's stuck in the nostalgia of yesterday's America.  On a personal note, I'm part of the first generation of African Americans who full rights as a citizen are legally recognized by our government, these are the good old days for me!  The world has changed. You can thank your conservative news outlets for not telling you just how much and what you can do to keep up instead of feeding you a steady diet of things to hate and fear. If you've been eating up Fox News, The Blaze, and Breitbart for the better part of the last decade, all it's gotten you is a pseudo-intellectual who claims to be your voice but has never been anything but an elitist 1% his entire life.  He's never not  been rich so how can he possibly be your voice if he doesn't even speak your language? Trump is the literal embodiment of the ugliness that has infected the principles of the Republican Party.  I would wear out my knuckles on my keyboard if I listed the times he's proven that he's not just a bad candidate but a genuinely bad person.  It's ironic that it took him slandering a Gold Star Muslim family, a religion he's vowed to ban from our country, to get people to finally see it's him that doesn't represent American values.  His nomination is direct evidence that the Republican Party is broken.  So broken that they're willing to trot out a racist demagogue in the vague hopes that they can re-take the White House by appealing to the very worst American fears.  We've reached the point where the house they've built is no longer safe for any American to reside in.  The roof is leaking, the foundation is shot.  The lessons of 2012, which called for inclusion and moderation, have been outright rejected and the results have been predictably disastrous.  If the party leadership continues to ignore the evolution of our country, its only natural that America will eventually ignore them.  Completely.

...Til Next Week!

You can read more about the "Growth and Opportunity Project" that was supposed to transform the Republican Party into a more inclusive party here.

Black Mirror: Just Though You Should Know 7/22/16

 

Based on a true story...

 

Sorry for the late post.  I almost didn't write anything this week because I don't like sounding like a broken record. However, the spectacle we saw at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland only reinforces what most of us who are not swooning over Donald Trump's unconfirmed net worth (release your taxes, Donald) have been saying since he started his campaign. His leadership style is more in line with a dictator than a president.  He is a narcissist, whose first second and last concern is his own profitability and notoriety. Why else would you as a husband allow your wife to be embarrassed the way she was on the podium?  Though if we're being honest, his acceptance speech had even more falsehoods than hers did.  So there's that.

The real reason that I put fingers to keys this week, though, is this guy...

Sheriff David Clarke...oh wait...!

Whoops!  Sorry folks, wrong photo!

This guy...

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. (Photo: wkow.com)

Watching his last two public appearances, an interview on CNN in which he tried to intimidate Don Lemon and his speech at the Republican National Convention (link) left me wondering, what happened to this man to make him hate himself so much that he uses his position as an elected Democrat (yes he's a registered Democrat) to reinforce willful blindness to the suffering of his own people?  Rather than write him off as a sell-out Uncle Tom, which I'm reluctant to do since I've long advocated the idea that it's black people that define blackness and not the other way around, I thought I'd highlight some of the things that might motivate someone to turn his back on his people.  

Notoriety:

There's an old saying that a dog biting a man isn't news but a man biting a dog is.  African Americans are surprisingly very socially conservative.  Even as a 1st generation West Indian American, I see that most of them believe in the family values, limited government, and personal liberty Republicans constantly drone on about as if they invented them.  Who wouldn't want the freedom to not be stopped, frisked, and questioned because of what you're wearing or the neighborhood you're walking in?  The divide between us and the GOP is that they seem to think only their base is entitled to these rights.  Naturally, that doesn't sit well with us.  So when one of us jumps ship, he/she goes from being just another "plantation" dweller (isn't that such a nonracist way of opening dialogue?) to being "smart", "a truth teller", and "one of the good ones."  Suddenly, you're special.  Acceptance from a group that's long told you your entire existence is "less than human" and whose approval you've been culturally conditioned to seek is powerful.  It's not just African Americans either.  Former Louisiana Governor and failed Republican Presidential Candidate Bobby Jindal and current South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley have benefited politically and financially from "assimilation" even if it meant throwing their own culture under the bus.  Obviously, not every non-white Republican subscribes to this mindset.  Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and Former Secretary of State Colin Powell walk in conservatism and self-awareness without compromising their heritage though now it seems the more extreme your views are, the more spotlight you receive.    

Spotlight:

Speaking of the spotlight,  would anyone outside of Wisconsin have heard of Sheriff Clarke if he was towing the Democratic party line?  How about Jesse Lee Peterson?  Omorosa Manigult if you never watched "The Apprentice?"  Stacy Dash if offbeat comedies and late-night B-movies aren't your thing?  How about Trump spokeswoman and failed congressional candidate Katrina Pierson? Being a willing surrogate for racist propaganda can earn you a lot of money. Each of the aforementioned "conservatives" has a warm seat waiting for them on any Fox News show, anytime they want it.   There's a lot of financial security in being able to rationalize racist viewpoints and obviously, the degree to which some people's consciences are eased is directly proportional the number of zeros in their paychecks.  Perhaps some of them fear a return to poverty more than they love themselves.  

Cultural Conditioning: 

There are a few unwritten rules about being black in the United States if you want to thrive (by unwritten I mean no longer codified in law).  The first is that if you want to succeed you have to work twice as hard as everyone else.  Your blackness is already seen as 2 strikes against you so excellence is the only way to even have a chance at success.  If you're average, you're already dead in the water.  The second is that unless you're good at a sport or other form of entertainment, good diction aka "talking white" will get you much further than "talking black."  For you non-Americans/Canadians that means speaking any form of ghetto slang English will usually bar you from getting a job that pays a real living wage.  Third is that you must know history.  "History" being European history or world history from a European perspective.  You must know basics like America was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 despite the fact that he found a native population that had been thriving and repelling European attempts at colonization since at least 1000 AD.  You must know that America gained its independence from Britain through the cunning tactics of George Washington without help from anyone else.  Especially not a Native American/black guy named Crispus Attucks who was the first American to die in the Revolutionary War.  You must also know that the only role African Americans played in the building of our country was carrying the terrible burden of slavery that they couldn't free themselves from so white men fought the Civil War to free them.  There were never any attempts by the slaves to free themselves and after the war was over, blacks were free to do as they wished with full rights as equal citizens granted immediately.  In all seriousness, with these socially accepted "rules" in place it's not hard to imagine a black person being inherently ashamed of who they are and seeing assimilation into "white" culture as a step up. It's ingrained into our "education" from day one.

Men like Sheriff Clarke are always a hard pill to swallow for those of us that want to see us thrive, connect, and put this racial crap behind us.  Instead of using his position as a vehicle of change, he uses his blackness and his badge as a shield for racists.  There are other police chiefs that are being fired for standing up for their communities but he selfishly chooses to join the chorus of criticism of a people that have historically never been given a fair shake.  He, and people like him are respectability politics taken to an extreme.  They are a cruel twist on the old saying "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."  Like Kevin Durant, however, instead of being hailed as a hero for joining a winning team, you've only proven that you're not built for the fight and would rather take the easy path to victory.  I hope the perks of being a Republican shill are enough of a comfort to you at night, Sheriff Clarke, and that you never take your uniform off because we both know the first thing everyone sees when you take it off.  Oh?  You don't know what everyone else sees?  Ask Senator Tim Scott.  He'll fill you in.

 

...Til Next Week.

Brexit, Black Republicans, and Faith: Just Thought You Should Know 6/24/16

I love and appreciate you Pastor, but I think you're wrong.

What do you do when your spiritual leader's politics are not congruent with your own?  This week as we mark the anniversary of the Emanuel AME Church massacre, I find myself at a special crossroads. My pastor, Rev. A.R. Bernard Sr., pastor of Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, NY, revealed this week that he is part of an "evangelical advisory committee" for the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.  Pastor Bernard and 19 other evangelical leaders, including the ultraconservative former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, met with Trump on Wednesday in New York, at his request, to discuss various matters of faith and policy before a larger meeting with over 1,000 church leaders.  While not giving his explicit endorsement (it was not required by the Trump campaign to sit on the board surprisingly) Pastor Bernard says he came away from the meeting "impressed" with Trump's sincerity and seemingly dismissed some of Trump's verbal flip flops as him being merely "inarticulate."  He appeared on several news talk shows including Roland Martin on NewsOne , Fox & Friends, and his weekly guest spot on Sirius XM  to explain his position but, and I say this respectfully, I personally find that position troubling.

Trump presents one of more uncomfortable tables for the Christian conservative movement to come to in recent politics. It’s not only his personal story that poses problems, filled as it is with unscrupulous business practices, two tumultuous divorces, and prior liberal leanings on topics like abortion. It’s his current policy portfolio, too. The two immovable pillars of Trump’s presidential campaign are opposition to undocumented immigrants and a fierce rejection of refugees from the Middle East. Those happen to be two of the occasional break points between the religious right and the Republican Party.  -- Trump's New Evangelical Advisors Neither Love Him Nor Hate Him.  They Just Want Him To Listen, Sam Stein, Huffington Post 6/22/2016

Pastor's argument on SiriusXM (unfortunately I can't post the link but it's 6/24/16 edition of "The Armstrong Williams Show" On Demand if you subscribe to XM) is that the neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have done anything for the African-American community so maybe something different is required.  Disappointingly, I heard the usual talking point trotted out to explain why Pastor Bernard, as a card carrying Republican, would be open to a candidate who has spent most of his public life living in opposition to the very values he lives by as a man of faith.

"He's not your typical Republican."

He also made the argument that evangelicals must make character compromises sometimes for candidates who do not have the sterling family record of a Barack Obama, who is still as scandal free as the day he was the elected.  To be fair, he doesn't explicitly defend Trump's most outrageous ideas, like banning Muslims from entering the United States, but he walked a fine enough line with his words to avoid outright condemning Trump for anything.  He didn't hesitate, however, to criticize Hillary Clinton for her husband's infamous "3 strikes" legislation that sent black incarceration rates soaring and on Roland Martin's show, bring up Bill Clinton's infidelity as a moral measuring stick to contrast Trump.  Both are notorious womanizers but neither of those points, in my opinion, can be tied to Mrs. Clinton since she wasn't even a politician in 1994 when 3 strikes became law and penalizing her candidacy for the sexual sins of her husband is wrong.  There are plenty of other, more legitimate criticisms, like the debacle in Beghazi during her tenure as Secretary of State, the e-mail scandal that won't go away, lying about coming under sniper fire in Yugoslavia, voting to go to war in Iraq as a Senator in 2002, and using racism in her campaign against Barack Obama in 2008. 

Look a Sniper! (Photo: Washingtonpost.com)

Neutrality is something Pastor doesn't believe in.  He likened it to being dead in the opening monologue to his radio show this week, but I'm not sure if Pastor realized not only the level of backlash he would receive, but how even granting an audience with Trump, a man who tried to openly sway the black vote earlier in this campaign by meeting with 100 black pastors and failing miserably to get their endorsement, would influence his congregation.  To reiterate, Pastor has not given Mr. Trump his endorsement but there are people who would vote for a cactus if their pastor stood next to one.  Conversely, mistrust of the church is at an all time high and while I'm sure he sits on that advisory board to preach a prophetic word to a potential president, Pastor's party affiliation (R), Trump's track record, his fellow pastors doing things like buying jets at their congregation's expense, and covering up immoral scandals, have even the most devout believers questioning the motives of their leaders.  Does that mean he shouldn't have met with Trump?  If you asked me yesterday I'd have told you he should have slammed the door in his face.  Today?  I can understand why you would want to be at the table in the unlikely event he does become President.  Being an advocate for issues specific to people of color is essential in the halls of power where we are too often forgotten about or subject to laws that are based on stereotypes, not reality.  It probably just disgusts me that it might be Trump's table in November.

Trump retweeted falsehoods like this repeatedly during the primary

Trump is loathed by most people of color and except for the few he finds useful to further his own agenda, the feeling seems mutual.  All of his African American outreach efforts up to now have come across as pandering rather than actual engagement.  Changing that was Pastor's stated goal for attending.  However, Trump's pattern of behavior suggests that not only will he ignore what these Men of God have to say but he'll use this meeting as a wink and a nod to evangelicals across the country without having to actually change anything about himself, his policies, or his politics.  For the latest examples just look to his statements about the Orlando night club shooting, where he made sure to take credit for "being right" before he offered any condolences to the victim's families.  Yesterday, he held an hour long press conference, praising the success of Brexit while touring his golf course, as a win for Britain because it mirrored his own plan for the United States.  Brexit, or British Exit, if you weren't aware, is a referendum in which the UK voted to leave the European Union.  Their decision to leave the organization after 43 years, unfortunately, was driven largely by opposition to the EU's immigration policy of accepting Syrian refugees and the short term economic pain will be excruciating for the working class Brits who voted for it.  We saw a small taste of that economic pain yesterday when the British Pound crashed post vote, instantly wiping out years of national wealth.  Long term, Britain has an even tougher road ahead as the current Prime Minister, David Cameron, immediately announced his resignation effective this October.  His successor could possibly being the bigoted former mayor of London Boris Johnson who was a leader in the campaign to leave and is literally the British version of Trump.  Also, they're now directly competing with the EU for foreign trade agreements and their young adults will now require visas to work anywhere else in Europe which will ultimately cost them even more jobs, likely sending their economy into a deep recession.  There is evidence to suggest that most voters didn't truly understand what they were even voting for as the Washington Post reported that the most Googled phrase in England yesterday was "What is the EU?"  Maybe it is  a preview of what will happen if Trump is elected. Anti-intellectualism at its finest, folks.  Are we going to allow racism to rob us of our future too?

The fact that the Donald is close enough to the Presidency that the man I look to for a spiritual perspective felt the need to grant him an audience is nauseating.  It's as if people expect Donald Trump to morph into a respectable presidential candidate when he's shown again and again and again and again exactly who he is.  It's the crux of his appeal.  I understand the desire for change.  I understand that there are millions of people angry with the direction this country is going right now.  I felt it when I pulled the lever for President Barack Obama in 2008.  More specifically, I understand that the Clinton's track record when it comes to black folks is spotty at best and the "lesser of two evils" thought process we usually use to decide is tougher than ever before.  I'm not sure what the solution is, but I know Trump's policies would be disastrous for the country economically, socially, and politically.  Starting a trade war by taxing imports, building a wall along the Mexican border, and trying to extort payments from our allies will not bring the secure manufacturing jobs of the past back to our shores.  Globalization, as the UK will find out, is something you can't turn back the clock on.  Attempting to do so, instead of preparing for the economy you actually live in, is literally cutting off your nose to spite your face.  Ironically, this is when I would listen to Pastor to see what his views were but after this week, I realize that maybe the bigotry and isolationism is exactly what the people want.  Maybe the dream of a multi-cultural society is just that.  A dream.  Maybe, I really just need to pray for God's will to be done, ensure me and my family are OK and stop placing my faith in anything or anyone other than Him. 

...Til next week.

Why Donald Trump is Good for America

The rise of the cult of Trump has caught many of us off guard.  How could a man who espouses such obviously racist viewpoints be so popular?  The reality is that America has always been this way. Just like every other country on the planet we are fearful, paranoid, protectionist, and xenophobic.  For as long as I can remember, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, or Peter Jennings were on TV to tell us about another boogie man just waiting for us to drop our guard so they could slip inside our homes to murder our children as they slept.  They were always godless, or at least didn't worship the same merciful, loving God we did. They did horrible, inhuman things to their own people, justifying our fear and loathing of them. President Reagan told us the Soviets hated us because of our freedom and would stop at nothing to drop an A bomb on Washington, subjecting us all to the iron fist of communism.  Communism, of course, being the scourge of capitalism though most Americans couldn't tell you why it was evil  or why capitalism is good .

You will lose...I must break you.

The Bush Dynasty told us Saddam Hussein murdered his own people with mustard gas and would have loved to do the same to us if given the chance.  We were told he was also conspiring with Osama Bin Laden after 9/11 so we had to launch a pre-emptive strike before he could get the chance to kill more Americans.  The news, the government, social media, and our friends tell us these things constantly so we know they're true!  Except they aren't.  Not totally.  Somewhere between our fear of anyone who doesn't speak English and the need to stroke our egos, the people stoking the flames of foolishness conveniently forgot to mention the Soviet Union's equal fear of us bombing them .  They also left out Saddam's status as America's staunchest ally in the Middle East prior to his invasion of Kuwait.  They also might have forgotten to mention the man he was supposedly  in league with, (actually, they hated each other) the man responsible for killing more Americans in the new century than any other, was partially funded by American efforts to train the Afghan mujahideen to fight the Soviets.  Now presidential candidate Donald Trump is telling us that Mexicans are evil murdering rapists that want to freeload on our freedoms, refugees from Syria will invade us and impose Sharia law the first chance they get, and the Washington elite are either complicit or spineless. Refusing to do anything about these threats because they don't love America like he does. Of course, only he and he alone, can "Make America Great Again."  He will.  Just not not in the way he intends. 

You mean we actually have to keep our promises?  Since when?? (Photo: politico.com)

Trump, for all his boorishness is clearly a student of history.  His rhetoric, heavy on anti-immigrant feelings and not much else, evidenced by the lack of policy specifics and insulting deflection every time he's asked to present details on any of his grand promises, demonstrates a mastery of demagoguery.  These guys would be proud.    He's spent years honing the art of getting people to pay attention to him through his reality shows, ingratiating himself into American pop culture like a virus.  In that arena, he's tolerable, harmless, and even entertaining.  Not a man to be taken seriously in the halls of power where his views could affect millions of lives in more ways than just what channel they watch for an hour.  Obviously, this has changed.  The skills that served him well to get television ratings are now getting him votes.  Exposing an ugly truth many of us who aren't part of the mainstream have known our entire lives.  He is forcing America to look itself in the mirror and many aren't liking what they see.  The world is also watching while a man who inspires bigotry and violence, marches seemingly lauded by the media, to our country's highest office.  His popularity proves our most damning critics right, exposing the hypocrisy of a country that prides itself on American Exceptionalism and as a multi cultural melting pot.  Is this really the end result of the great experiment?  We elect a man that appeals to our worst qualities?  The Republicans were so focused on power and stonewalling President Obama that they ignored the real needs of their constituents, unleashing this madness.  Now our country is in a battle for its soul.  America really has to ask itself if Trump, a man who can't decide if he should accept the support of Klu Klux Klan, encourages division not only along racial lines  but within the lines of his own party, who has been a rich man his entire life but claims to know what's best for the middle class, who employed the very same illegals he now calls rapists and criminals to build Trump Tower, who has taken advantage of the same overseas trade deals he now criticizes to make himself richer, has himself exported manufacturing jobs to China , and let's not forget is a long time documented supporter and friend of the Clintons, is really the man Americans want in charge of our military, nuclear arsenal, and public image?  I find it difficult to believe that a man like him would find much international support for American initiatives abroad, when he can't even unite his party behind him.  I also find it difficult to believe that any of our existing American based international corporations would back a President that openly insults their customers. We shouldn't forget, a politician's first allegiance is to the voters, no matter how much corporate money lines his or her pockets, the voters have the ultimate power.  Good luck trying not to "lead from behind" when our international allies threaten to vote out their leaders for following American policy.  The coalition of the willing did exactly that, in aftermath of the 2003 Iraq invasion, leaving the United States shouldering most of the responsibility and the cost as the war grew increasingly unpopular abroad.  When we finally did manage to untangle ourselves from Iraq, these guys filled the void. (Warning: Graphic)  That's a mistake I'd rather we not repeat. 

Donald Trump has forced the American people to a moral crossroads.  Ironically, this fiasco could do what Obama's election was supposed to do. Unite the country.  Neither Democrats nor establishment Republicans nor most of their constituents are eager to see a Trump Presidency.  For the reasons I stated above, he is a clear and present danger to the long term security and stability of the United States.  I am not exaggerating when I say that I believe that his election will not only set back our country back decades culturally, but the rate at which Civil Rights gains are being unfairly challenged , circumvented with biased legislation, and struck down by the Supreme Court, will accelerate.  America needn't be reminded of how years of exclusion, mistreatment, and marginalization of one group of Americans, eventually exploded into the Civil Rights movement.  Imagine if what Trump is proposing does pass and Black Lives Matter grows to include not only African Americans seeking justice, but becomes a banner for all American people of color to rally behind.  I don't see too many Trump rallies ending with sucker punches then.  You'd be dealing with literal human blockades at every venue he tries to book.  I've always believed that the fastest way to unite disparate groups is to present a common enemy big enough to threaten all parties.  Well, I think we've found our lighting rod in the man who sells ties made in China but claims he's all about giving jobs to Americans at the expense of our ideals.  This absurd campaign will bring about either one of 2 things.  Either America proves itself once again to have progressed beyond this type of gutter- level political discourse or everyone knows once and for all how far 240 years of our experiment has risen the level human consciousness.  Either way, we'll all know what we have to do.  I don't know about you, but I'm starting to think the boogeymen we should really be afraid of, are the ones who use boogeymen to keep us in line.