Nov. 9, 2014
Democratic Leaders Can't Blame Us
By Dr. E. Faye Williams
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When all of the analyses of the 2014 midterm elections are completed and blame for this political disaster is laid at the feet of those responsible for it, the blame cannot be brought to the feet of Black voters who’re sick and tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. Black people are still loyal to the President and his allies to the tune of 87 percent.
While we’re sorry about the outcome, we’re also on-guard because we know that when the nation begins to suffer under the reactionary tyranny of the Republicans, we’ll be the first to feel the pain. Most of us voted out of appreciation of the President and others because we could predict the catastrophe that would occur with the emergence of a Republican Senate Majority.
I watched while the media water-bearers of the Republicans cackled about the President being at fault for the election results. I challenge their premise. It was not the President who rejected the accomplishments of his administration. He didn’t refuse to participate in the campaigns of fellow Democrats. Rather than the President rejecting members of his party, Democrats like Alison Grimes denied the leader of their party and his accomplishments more than just a few times.
Most of these half-hearted Democrats didn't want President Obama to show-up for their races - and most of them lost! Did they really think Black people would rush, en masse, to aide their political survival when they were so unwilling to stand by the side of their leader?
Reality dictates that they and we acknowledge the fact that, in the last 6 years, the most consistent voice of logic and reason coming out of DC has been that of President Obama. Those of us who really support him know how hard he’s worked for the benefit of everyone with an emphasis on those most frequently left out in the cold. His "Bread and Butter" accomplishments of a renewed economy, a revived automobile industry, lower gasoline prices, affordable healthcare, 55 months of job growth, and the lowest unemployment rate in recent history are not issues to run away from. The "Quality of Life" issues of significantly increased Pell Grant opportunities that increase the college attendance of minority and poor students, a Council on Women and Girls, the "My Brothers' Keeper project, improvements in the manufacturing sector, and two new women on the U.S. Supreme Court are all accomplishments of the President from which only cowardly politicians would distance themselves. He’s done the things that Democrats do.
Lanny Davis in a recent article talked about our being the party of Harry Truman and the Fair Deal which protected working families, the party of John Kennedy who told us to ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country, the party of Lyndon Johnson who gave us Medicare, the Great Society and led us into a new era of civil rights; the party of Jimmy Carter who taught the world that America stood for human rights at home and abroad, the party of Bill Clinton who proved there’s nothing liberal about running up debt for our children and grandchildren and who turned billions of dollars of deficits into a surplus of nearly $1 trillion.
Most of all, he said that we are the party of Barack Obama, who FINALLY fulfilled the promise of Harry Truman by gaining affordable healthcare for all, guaranteeing that no one in America would ever have to fear losing health insurance because of a pre-existing medical condition.
It's time for us to take-off the gloves. Our interests and circumstances are too significant for us to mindlessly accept the disregard of Republicans or the benign neglect of cowardly Democrats.
(Dr. E. Faye Williams is National President of the National Congress of Black Women. www.nationalcongressbw.org)
