| |
WHY THE PRESIDENCY OF DONALD J. TRUMP
IS GOOD FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS
By Uriah J. Fields
On the day after the election President Obama said,
"Yesterday I said to the American people regardless
of whether your candidate won or lost, the sun would
come up in the morning."
It is important to begin this discourse with some factual information about the presidential election, particularly, with regard to why Donald J. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States. Money was a factor but how and where that money was spent were more important than the amount of money spent.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics review of the Federal Election Commission data:
Democrat Party raised $986,000.916 and spent $922.912.968. Cash on hand is $84.100.583. Clinton campaign cost $556 million as of Oct. 19th.
The Republican Party raised $756.930.162 and spent $665.739.034. Cash on hand $108.886.924. Trump campaign cost $249 million as of Oct. 19th.
The question is: Who received the money that was spent? Clinton campaign spent $308 million more than Trump campaign. Obviously, Democrats did not spend their money in the most helpful manner to achieve success. Had the Democrats spent their money in a way so that it would be in contact with people personally, especially with African American neighborhoods where people who needed help in being sure that they were registered to vote and aware of the place where they were to vote and to transport them to the polls when necessary, Clinton would be the next president. Money spent on featuring entertainers and TV ads would have been better spent in neighborhoods of African Americans and Latino neighborhoods.
Almost half of the eligible voters didn't vote in this election. As a mater of fact, fewer people voted in 2016 than in 2012 and 2008. In 2012 Barack Obama received 65.9 million votes but in 2016 Clinton received only 59.1 million votes, 6.8 million fewer votes than Obama did 4 years earlier.
Some 46.9% (23,556.622) of registered voters didn't vote. Clinton received 25.6%, Trump received 25.5% and Johnson received 1.7% of people who voted.
{{Revised: the latest count as of December 17, 2016. Clinton received 65,844.594 votes million (48.1%) popular votes, 232 electoral votes. Trump received 62,979.616 votes (46.5%) popular votes, 306 electoral votes. (270 electoral votes needed to win). Clinton received 2,864.978 (1.6%) more popular votes than Trump. Trump received 74 more electoral votes than Clinton.}}
Clinton's campaign leadership failure caused her to lose the election. The leaders had an ideal product to present to voters, at an ideal time and with the right opponent. It's too bad Obama"s 2012 campaign leaders did not take charge of Clinton's campaign. The closing of 800 polling places and ID requirements in multiple states were also factors. These ID requirements should have been challenged all the way to the Supreme Court, when necessary. They were laws passed by State legislatures with majority Republican lawmakers. On election day I worked at the polls 7 hours and there were people who came to vote but could not because they were told that their names were not in the system, even though they said they had registered. Why in the hell couldn't they be allowed to register to vote on the spot? They can pay taxes on the spot, even when purchasing a candy bar, etc.
On November 8, 2016, 70-year old Donald J. Trump, a builder and reality television show star, was elected to take the oath on January 20, 2017 to become the 45th President of the United States. He received 306 electoral votes and 62,979.616 votes (46.5%) of the popular votes to defeat his opponent former Secretary Hillary Clinton who received 232 electoral votes and 65,844.594 votes (48.1% of the popular votes. Clinton received more over 2,000.000 more popular votes than Trump. The candidate receiving the highest number of electoral votes, not popular votes, becomes president.
Trump's victory caught nearly everyone by surprise. As the results of this election there are in the Senate 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats and 2 Independents and in the House of Representatives 239 Republicans and 192 Democrats. With the Republicans having the majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives President Trump will be able to enact much, if not all, of his proposals. However, if the Democrat minority employ similar techniques as the Republicans did when Obama was president and there was a Democrats majority in both houses during the first two years of his presidency, they can duplicate the Republicans' obstruction. But of most important is what the people do in opposing Trump on issues that are contrary to the highest values extolled by Americans. It is this combination of actions that I believe will cause Trump to be good for African Americans and progressives of all colors and stripes.
With some 88% of African Americans, including this writer, having voted for Clinton to be president and only 8% having voted for Trump; to be president, the question one may ask is: "How can Trump be good for African Americans, even better for them than Clinton would be had she been elected to be president?"
The reason a Trump presidency is better for African Americans than a Clinton presidency is because it provides an opportunity for African Americans and progressive-minded people to take direct action that will include, not merely declarations, but engaging in mass protests such as those began happening the day after the election in a number of cities across America. People peacefully protesting in the streets can be more powerful than power in Congress, although it can make people in Congress and the President do the right thing for all people. Protesters are to be nonviolent, however, if violently attacked protesters may choose to defend themselves. That seems to be the responsible thing to do. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and it remains as such for a lifetime.
This action can be taken against Trump who has an adversarial relationship with ordinary people but Clinton, like Obama, are friends of African Americans. Some members of the Ku Klu Klan has acknowledged their support for Trump. I received threatening communications from the Ku Klu Klan years ago when I was a candidate for the Board of Education in Montgomery, Alabama. I was ordered to leave the City. Of course, I didn't leave.
To reiterate, people know that Obama endeavored to do the right thing but was prevented by the Republicans from doing the good he wanted to do by sons and grandsons and some granddaughters of Dixiecrat parents or grandparents who disfranchised African Americans in the South and some Republicans elsewhere who are not in favor of African Americans having justice and equality.
During the presidency of Obama or the presidency of Clinton had she been elected to be president no protest against them was appropriate. African Americans are very aware that Obama, being one of them, has done what he was able to do with a recalcitrant Congress that opposed nearly everything he proposed. In 2009 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated at the beginning of Obama's presidency that he would oppose everything Obama proposed and make sure that he would not be elected for a second term. He kept his word but Obama was elected to a second term. Clinton would face similar defiance from Republicans had she been elected president, African Americans have not protested Obama nor would they protest Clinton if she was president because they are friends who can be counted on to do the right thing. But Trump is considered to be an adversary of African Americans and progressives. African Americans can make demands and protest Trump's actions and in-actions that are unfair to them. These are people who refer to Trump as "the" president, not "our" president or individually not as "my" president.
Yes, Trump is an adversary of African Americans. All one has to do is recall the things he said to mostly approving white audiences during his campaign. Although he is not considered to be a racist, he joins hands with racists and Southern politicians who are anti-African American. Trump was sued because he refused to rent an apartment to an African American. It is incumbent upon African Americans to confront his presidency. The struggle is a part of the African American experience past and present. This more than suggest that African Americans and others who believe in justice for all should take action appropriate for the struggle, the same as people did during the Montgomery Bus Boycott which I helped to lead and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Frederick Douglass said, "If there is no struggle there is no progress." He also said "Power concedes nothing without demand, It never did and it never will."
Everything African Americans have achieved during the 400 years they have occupied North America has resulted from their engagement in struggle against slave masters, racists and segregationist. It has been their engagement in struggle that enabled them to lose their chains and free themselves from slavery, however, they are still in the bondage of segregation, discrimination, disfranchisement, incarceration and more poverty than any other racial group in America.
In the struggle against tyrannical suppression from the Trump presidency African Americans need to form, and lead a coalition, composed of Latinos, who are indebted to African Americans who fought and some died, as did some progressive white people, that they may have the right to vote, LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender) and other people who oppose tyranny in the White House and Congress. Protest and organizing are the two major actions.
The Black Lives Matter Movement can be a major player in this struggle. This may mean taking to the streets and protesting, in demanding justice for all and the elimination of systemic racism that is within and without the Government. This also means addressing the matter of the over incarceration of black males at a ratio that is five times that of white males and providing employment opportunities for African Americans.
During the presidency of Trump African Americans have the opportunity to advance the black agenda in a way and at a speed that has not existed since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. But it will require them that they fight. Are you ready?
This struggle requires that African Americans and other progressive-minded people who believe in justice for all join the fight. Freedom and justice are worth fighting for. "The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both," as Frederick Douglass reminds us. When Apostle Paul was near the end of his life, of all the things he could have said while reflecting on his life, his benediction was: "I have fought the good fight." This struggle demands that African Americans fight in order to fulfill their destiny. The struggle requires that they fight the good fight, as did Apostle Paul. For African Americans, in particular, and all progressives, during the Trump presidency is the opportune and right time to fight.
May the children of future generations, reflecting on the Trump presidency, be able to say, "During the Trump presidency African Americas made progress that was greater than at any time since the 1960s."
Copyright 2016 by Uriah J. Fields
|
