Op-Ed by Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III
“…People know that something’s wrong; Everybody oughta know winter…The truth is there ain’t nobody fighting; Because, well nobody knows what to save, Brother, save your soul; Lord knows it’s winter in America. The Constitution, a noble piece of paper; With free society; Well, they struggled but they died in vain; And now democracy is ragtime on the corners; On the cord, hoping it’d rain…”
(Gil Scott-Heron, “Winter in America”)
The 2024 American presidential election is over. The people have spoken. The world is shocked! Trump won! Americans fell for it again, or did they…fall for it?
Many in the African American community are angry, shocked, and looking for the culprits. Who did this to VP Harris? Somebody must be held accountable! The audacity of those misogynistic Latino men, White women and those angry Black men who hate Black women. All of them must be held accountable. What damage does this do to the psyche of Black Women? VP Harris was ENTITLED to the Oval Office and has been denied.
According to Senator Lindsey Graham in 2015, Trump is “a race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot.” Senator Rick Perry warned us that Trump, “doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies…” while Senator Ted Cruz said, “he lies, practically every word that comes out of his mouth…”
With all of that, Hillary Clinton lost to him in 2016 and now VP Harris has lost to him as well. Trump has prevailed…AGAIN! Why? Don’t ask why Harris lost; ask yourself why did this “race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot,” win. AGAIN!
It’s too easy to chalk this up to or write this off as being a “masterclass in white privilege.” It’s too simplistic to attribute this cataclysmic failure to “hatred toward Black women.” Too many Democrats, their pundits, and some analysts are trying to write this historic blunder off as America will “never elect a Black woman as president”. Stop it! The bad lies are the lies you tell yourself. Even worse are the ones you tell yourself and believe.
That flawed “hatred toward Black women” trope is more convenient than making the necessary course corrections that the Democratic Party needs to make in order to help America live up to its promise. Instead, odds are that they will continue to “maintain course and speed”, running aground or striking the iceberg time and again. To truly be able to move forward, the Party and its African American constituency must first look inward and self-assess before placing blame.
On March 6, 1857, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney opined in Plessy v Ferguson, “…Negroes had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect…”
I believe that the racist, white supremist, eugenic based mindsets that led to the holdings in Plessey, even though that decision has since been overturned by the Brown decision and others, continues to influence mindsets in America today. Variations of this racist theme continue to be the reality in America.
This is not new. This is not a news flash. This is everyday life in America for Black people. So, to boil VP Harris’ loss down to “no one will vote for a Black woman” is too simplistic. It is an excuse, not analysis. It lets the Democratic party and her off the hook for their failures. Hillary Clinton, a woman, won the popular vote in 2016 with 64 million votes. Harris, a Black woman, received 68 million votes. Barack Obama, a Black man, was elected as president twice.
So, before we turn to the very simplistic knee jerk refrain that America will not elect a Black woman to be president, ask yourself, did the Democrats set themselves up for this outcome? Was VP Harris the best candidate? Did the Party and her campaign make mistakes that resulted in this failure regardless of phenotype?
Starting the analysis here, Democrats and their financial backers knew that President Biden’s faculties were declining before he embarrassed himself and the party during the debate. The phrase “non compos mentis” comes to mind.
It was a huge mistake to anoint VP Harris as the nominee. James Carville wrote in early July that Democrats needed to move away from Biden, “But it can’t be by anointing (VP Harris) or anyone else as the presumptive…nominee. We’ve got to do it out in the open — the exact opposite of what Donald Trump wants us to do.” Carville was correct.
Once on the stump, VP Harris ran a campaign based upon the politics of personality and identity, not a policy-based campaign. It took until mid-September before her webpage even had a policy tab and the policies that were listed were more campaign talking points than substantive solutions to the real problems facing the country.
VP Harris ran away from her base instead of embracing it. For example, polling showed that over 70 percent of Democrats supported a ceasefire in Gaza. Additionally, almost four in ten likely voters, as well as more than half of all Democrats, believe that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. VP Harris and the DNC would not even allow a Palestinian spokesperson on stage at the convention. Thus losing Michigan.
Former President Obama had a stroke of genius and decided, once again, to attack, castigate and lecture Black men during a speech in October. Maybe he forgot that approximately eight-in-ten Black voters – both women (84%) and men (81%) – are Democrats or lean Democratic. Mr. President, note to self, don’t attack your base that close to an election. Embrace them. Trump embraced his.
The Obama/Biden campaign promised to deliver federal codification of Roe. Over two terms, they failed to deliver. The Biden/Harris campaign promised the same thing and failed to deliver. With women’s reproductive rights as a lead issue of the Haris/Walz campaign, why would voters trust that she would deliver now?
VP Harris chose to embrace the endorsement of former ultra-conservative, war hawk, Republican VP Dick Cheney, over working closer with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VM). She traversed the campaign trail with former Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) who voted with Trump 93 percent of the time, instead of campaigning with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). These are just two examples of how the Democrats have moved to the political right and realigned themselves with political adversaries that were once considered extremists, instead of securing their base.
The traditional Republicans did not win. MAGA won. Project 2025 won. The kleptocrats won. America will now be governed by the pathocracy, the inmates have taken control of the asylum. Voters did not fall for it. They clearly voted for it and America is about to get what these folks voted for. JD Vance is being groomed to carry the banner forward after Trump is done. Are you ready for that? It might very well be a long cold winter in America.
As we continue to do this autopsy and/or requiem for a failed presidential campaign and a party, African Americans who have been so loyal and ideologically wedded to the Democratic party may want to reconsider this alliance. Former President Bill Clinton and his DLC acolytes have taken the party so far to the right that if he were alive today, Ronald Reagan would be considered a conservative Democrat.
Historically, those are not our politics and that’s why our continued support of it, without it supporting us makes no sense. W.E.B. DuBois told us in 1956, “I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no ‘two evils’ exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say.” As Fred Hampton said, this is why you continue to “… come up with answers that don’t answer, explanations that don’t explain, you’ll come up with conclusions that don’t conclude…”
So, if you really want to understand why VP Harris and the Democrats lost, don’t blame misogynist Latino males or “the White man”. Look inward and self-assess before placing blame on those around you. Because contrary to popular belief, Harris/Walz (just like Clinton/Kaine) was a lousy campaign.
“And I see the robins, yeah, perched in barren tree tops / Watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor
And like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams / That never had a chance to grow
Somebody want to go tell them it’s winter / It’s cold, it’s like winter in America…”
(Gil Scott-Heron, “Winter In America”)
Dr. Wilmer Leon, a Trice Edney News Wire columnist, is a national broadcast radio talk-show host; author of Politics Another Perspective; and host of the podcast, Connecting the Dots w/ Dr. Wilmer Leon. Contact: www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com. www.twitter.com/drwleon and Dr. Leon’s Prescription at Facebook.com © 2024 InfoWave Communications, LLC