The word ‘Race’ has many different meanings and connotations. Foot races are held in schools, colleges and at the World Olympics as part of ‘track and field’ competitions. Those who get an adrenaline rush from racing fast cars are often found at NASCAR tracks. Horse racing is accomplished with jockeys riding their frothing steeds at The Kentucky Derby on the track at Churchill Downs. The word ‘race’ is even used frequently in the Christian Holy Bible. In 1st Corinthians 9:24, it is stated thus, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.”
However, the most devious and despicable use of the word ‘race’ is when it is used in the stratospheric rhetoric of politicians for accusing others of racial bias. This gambit is often called ‘playing the race card.’ A campaigning politician, in an effort to win the Black vote will accuse his or her opponent of some specific or general slur that might be interpreted as discriminatory. The object here is to make sure that Black voters hear and believe without reference that the opposing politician should not receive their votes. Usually the facts have been realigned, inverted and conjugated to sound plausible to gain the support of voters.
Mr. Obama has expected Blacks to vote as a block, which they do with about 95% of all Black voters pulling the lever for Mr. Obama and probably for Black candidates for other offices. Consider the logic of Blacks that vote for candidates because of their race. What if white voters had voted for Mr. Obama’s opponents because of his race/color/ethnicity? The correct answer is that whites that voted against Mr. Obama would be labeled racists.
The reason that we should all vote for candidates of our choice should be their stated policies aligned with their past records. Here are some reasons for Blacks to vote for candidates who have opposed Mr. Obama’s policies. When Mr. Obama came into office in 2009, the Black unemployment rate was 12.7% while the rate for whites was 7.1%. Now, the unemployment rate for Blacks has fallen to 11% but is more than double the unemployment rate for whites of 5.1%.
Consider the poverty rate among US citizens. According to recent Census Bureau data, poverty among Blacks has risen over the past 6 years from 25.8% to 27.2%. White poverty over the same period has fallen from 11.5% to 9.6%. The gap of median income has also been unfavorable for Blacks having fallen by about $4,000 annually since 2009 to about $34,600 currently while median incomes for white households is now more than $58,000.
Because of the dismal record of Obama administration policies, the ‘race card’ is being played in several state races. In Georgia, Democrats are displaying signs depicting children holding signs that say ‘Don’t Shoot’, an obvious reference to the Ferguson, MO. shooting. In North Carolina, flyers have been sent to Black residents featuring a lynching scene. In Maryland where Anthony Brown wanted to be Maryland’s first Black governor, flyers feature a civil rights march with signs that say ‘Colored Waiting Room.’
In August of last year when Hillary Clinton was testing the atmosphere for her possible Presidential candidacy, she immediately dealt the voter ID race card. Noting that US election laws are racist, she maintained that the Supreme Court was part of the racial (voting) conspiracy.
The ‘Great Society’ introduced by President LBJ 50 years ago that would ‘rebuild the entire urban United States’ and ‘end poverty and racial injustice’ has been a hopeless failure. LBJ’s expensive experiment in economic and cultural control has allowed Detroit to file bankruptcy and the racial divide in the US to maintain a yawning gap.
Liberal politics is ranting without results, campaigning without competence and promises without prosperity. Government, after all, is a synthetic force of misdirection and control when it assumes powers beyond Constitutional intentions.
– Dick Baynton